Nitpicks about the Purge franchise...

[PapaPalpatine]

Nitpick #1: The first installment in the franchise is little more than a generic home invasion thriller with the concept of the yearly Purge just there as set dressing. Especially boggling when you consider that, logically, attempting a home invasion on Purge Night would be a bad idea. The rule about "all crime is legal during the Purge" is a double-edged sword; you'd be breaking into someone's home on the one night of the year that the homeowner can deal with you as they see fit and not concern themselves with whether or not their actions meet the legal definition of self-defense. Best case scenario, the homeowner kills you the instant they catch you in their house; worst case scenario, the sky's the limit on what nastiness they can subject you to before they've had their fill and finish you off.

Nitpick #2 Theft of municipal property on Purge Night. For example: what if someone's crazy enough to break into the police station that night and drives away in a cruiser or, Almighty Cthulhu forbid, one of those urban assault vehicles so many SWAT teams seem to have these days? I can't speak for others, but I would definitely consider it an oh-sh!t-situation if a gang of lunatics was driving around town in a MRAP.

Nickpick #3 The crime of kidnapping. If Bob kidnaps Alice during Purge Night, does he legally get to keep her? If not, what's stopping Bob from just keeping her anyway? Sure, Bob would be in major hot water if the cops raided his house later on an unrelated matter and found Alice tied up in his basement; but short of that, would anyone even know they should be looking for her or would they just assume she'd been killed during the Purge like countless others?

[Antiboyscout]

If all crime is legal then so is vigilante justice.

The first couple of purges would be bad but vigilante militias would push back the criminals making the purge pointless.

[PapaPalpatine]

If all crime is legal then so is vigilante justice.

The first couple of purges would be bad but vigilante militias would push back the criminals making the purge pointless.

Yes indeed, I could see something like that happening as well.

[TGLS]

Here's some more nitpicks

4) If I plan to do something on purge day, and somehow I get caught beforehand, will I get charged with conspiracy?
5) If I buy life insurance policy on someone, then kill them on purge day, and the insurance company finds out, does the insurance company have recourse?
6) Can a state (say, Vermont), decide to ignore purge day, given criminal law is at the state level in the United States?
7) If I commit conspiracy on purge day (and only on purge day), and I prove this, do I get away with everything?

[Antiboyscout]

Is enforcing law during the Purge illegal?

If so, does that mean ignoring the Purge and having business as usual legal because of the purge; thus, making the Purge self defeating?

[TorroesPrime]

See this is why the purge movies just don't work as stories being presented in some sort of serious "warning" fashion. The idea doesn't work when you actually think about it, and when you start extrapolating it out into real-world situations it very quickly becomes even more nonsensical. The basic premise behind the idea of the purge is a flawed one and has been disproven more time and in more ways than I quickly count. Then extrapolating some sort of national societal based revolution based on that idea... it just... it just doesn't work. The only way I fathom it being used is as some really effed up means of population control and implementation of some sort of eugenics and even then... the implementation is so fraught with problems I can't see it working properly.

[Admiral X]

I think the only real idea with the purge, aside from providing an excuse for the plot to exist, is to make a ham-fisted pessimistic "statement" about human nature and how most people are really just monsters at heart.

[PapaPalpatine]

Nitpick #8: Even if we buy into the idea that true purpose behind the yearly Purge is population control/eugenics/ethnic cleansing, there are ways of doing that sort of thing that are significantly less messy and less likely to result in an armed revolution against the NFF. If it's meant for population control in particular, it would be an epic fail. Last I checked, rape is a crime; and it's just as likely there's going to be a whole lot of rape happening on Purge Night as there is murder and theft. Imagine the horror of counting back 9 months from your date of birth and realizing that you were likely concieved amidst the mayhem of the yearly Purge...

[TorroesPrime]

Nitpick #8: Even if we buy into the idea that true purpose behind the yearly Purge is population control/eugenics/ethnic cleansing, there are ways of doing that sort of thing that are significantly less messy and less likely to result in an armed revolution against the NFF. If it's meant for population control in particular, it would be an epic fail. Last I checked, rape is a crime; and it's just as likely there's going to be a whole lot of rape happening on Purge Night as there is murder and theft. Imagine the horror of counting back 9 months from your date of birth and realizing that you were likely concieved amidst the mayhem of the yearly Purge...

Pretty much that. There is just no viable implementation of the idea of the purge as being productive.

Well, one maybe idea that just popped into my head but it would go completely against the presented concepts and ideas of the movies themselves. A really fucked up reality tv show for the ultra-rich, kind of a reality tv show version of the most dangerous game. Like 1 night a year, all crime is legal and using all the cameras around the country the people who wanted to see it get to watch it... Actually, that kind of makes sense for the presentation of the opening to the first movie now that I think about it.

[Darth Wedgius]

I think any Purge in a large city is probably going to turn into the city burning down.

Some high-value targets (cops, politicians, IRS agents) can fortify their house and cover a lot of the area with a rifle, death traps, etc., but I don't think enough of them can cover all their houses to stop everybody with Molotov cocktails. And there will be targets less likely on a per-case basis (the store that got you for shoplifting, the house with the ugly lawn, that girl/guy who turned you down), but a lot more of them.

Even if the targets leave, have the door wide open, snacks provided, "Purge Night" t-shirts there for the taking, etc., I think someone is still going to set fire to some of the places out of revenge for something. Maybe for running out of t-shirts in your size.

Out of thousands of opportunities, I think at least good dozen are going to get through, and that may be all it takes.

And where are the fire-fighters on Purge night?

This Purge brought to you by your Annual Urban Renewal Advisory Council.
(editedd fer pohr spellin)