“A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.”

A Thanksgiving Sermon (1897)
Context: It taught the awful doctrine of witchcraft. It filled the darkness with demons—the air with devils, and the world with grief and shame. It charged men, women and children with being in league with Satan to injure their fellows. Old women were convicted for causing storms at sea—for preventing rain and for bringing frost. Girls were convicted for having changed themselves into wolves, snakes and toads. These witches were burned for causing diseases—for selling their souls and for souring beer. All these things were done with the aid of the Devil who sought to persecute the faithful, the lambs of God. Satan sought in many ways to scandalize the church. He sometimes assumed the appearance of a priest and committed crimes.

Source: Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part Two, Chapter XX

Toll the Hounds (2008)
Context: When undeniable crime had been committed, justification was the act of a coward. And it was cowardice that permitted such crimes in the first place. No tyrant could thrive where every subject said no. The tyrant thrives when the first fucking fool salutes.

Source: The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976), Chapter 5, Unstable America, p. 189

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
Source: The Trouble with Being Born

But as the Nazis learned in 1945, unemployed war criminals can usually find work with the new hegemonic power.
"The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand: Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege" (2011)

C'est un crime d'État que d'en pouvoir commettre.
Araspe, act II, scene i.
Nicomède (1651)