Talk:Repo Mantis (episode)/@comment-995426-20180723093550/@comment-995426-20180724051908

Some other considerations:

They live in an underground lair, right? Built from either sewers or storm drains or whatever. These are city property that are not public places, so Splinter and the turtles are effectively illegally squatting in them, and also likely siphoning water and electricity from the city utilities without paying for them. This is just another one of a list of likely reasons they can't reveal their lair, which also means they have no legal home address&mdash;they are legally homeless.

And if you find a homeless minor, or a minor living in a dangerous environment or being abused, social workers can become involved, which brings the legal guardian and living conditions into question.

And the turtles aren't going to school, either, and school enrollment of some kind in the state of New York is compulsory for everyone 16 or younger, so unless Splinter is legally homeschooling them, it means they're not being schooled at an age when it's illegal not to be.

When it comes to Repo Mantis and his business, there's still child labor laws, minimum wage laws, work safety laws, all of which he may be casually skirting by informally hiring legally-homeless junior-high-age minors for repo work for the promise of under-the-table payment he then withholds.

And back to the turtles: Even if it's right (morally or legally) for the turtles to claim the buggy they were promised, they still drive it without a license or learner's permit, and letting parts of the vehicle fall off and lie in the busy city streets to become traffic hazards, and I'm sure bending or breaking all sorts of other traffic laws during that chase scene.

If you're a mutant, it looks like you can still have a life and a job and a presence in society. But if you're an elite ninja with full weapons and stealth training, you have the luxury (and the associated challenges) of being invisible to society and its legal order. And yet that also means you can't count on society to back you up when someone screws you over when no one's looking.