Grouchy says...

As for Carole Haughton, a message needs to be sent to people who would or are abusing their animals that it will not be tolerated. Also she told her caretaker and her son to deny the SPCA inspectors access to the property. As for the rest, our judges need to be educated so that they recognize that when someone does not abide by restrictions that there is a better than even chance that they will not pay attention to more restrictions. We continually read about offenders committing more crimes while they are out on bail and it is time to put a stop to this practice. It's time that government put some teeth into our laws and made sure that judges have very few options in upholding the law. Maybe one or two need to be fired so the rest of them get the message.

Posted on October 1, 2010

Watchdog says...

"States are hard wired to control and quantify and tax. Individual freedom and individual initiative are all that separates us from North Korea like states." --accountability

Well said, Accountability. I would immediately add that asserting individual freedoms and defending them is and always will be an ongoing battle. If we adopt the posture and attitude of the second type of citizen you describe in your first paragraph, then we must expect the state to do what the state is "hardwired to do".

And congratulations on a fine column, Mr. Koopmans.

Posted on October 1, 2010

accountability says...

Well crafted piece Mr K. Now the question is what should we do? Sadly, muddling along is no longer an option. Perhaps those of us with a more civil liberatarian bent are not so "out in left field" about our concerns with the administration of justice as many of the "nothing to see here citizen, move along now" crowd woud like to believe.

It would seem we have it all wrong from what our forebearers had in mind. To whit; "better that ten guilty go free than one innocent be condemned". It seems we have turned that on its head and are now incarcerating the innocent to make sure we don't miss any guilty.

Mens Re, or criminal intent used to be the foundation of our law and the test for guilt, psychopathy notwithstanding. Now, mysteriously well funded, "public interest groups" seem to spring up like mushrooms after the rain everytime an orchestrated news story on the outrage of the day blankets the nation with mindless calls for "their ought to be a law". Here's a news flash: there already is a law. Moreover, there is a clear set of guidelines, crafted over centuries by individuals who understood that the history of man is a story of the struggle for freedom from the over ambitious reach of the state. States are hard wired to control and quantify and tax. Individual freedom and individual initiative are all that separates us from North Korea like states.

To paraphrase Albert Einstein, the kind of thinking that got us into this pickle is unlikely to get us out. Clearly more lawyers and more appeals are unlike to resolve the problem, since that is exactly what has created it.

Posted on October 1, 2010