Monday, May 26, 2008

the eroding of freedom (or the slow road to ruin) pt 3

when the state government brought in legislation enabling it to seize private property that had been acquired using funds raised through the commission of crimes such as selling drugs i thought it was a good idea... and still do. but the latest proposal of the government to move from seizing property obtained using the proceeds of crime to simply seizing the property of people convicted of committing a crime is simply obscene. the courts are in place to impose a sentence and/or fine and that is where the penalty should end.

of particular concern to me is the insidious way in which the government is trying to sneak the laws in. it started as a law targetting bikies and drug dealers and, of course, no one was concerned. now it's trying to extend the scope of the laws and has chosen to apply them initially to sex offenders as, again, they don't believe people are likely to object to the targetting of a group almost universally despised. one has to question who will be targetted next. already the government is trying to seize the property of a man who was accused, but never convicted, of sex offenses. the man is now dead and the property has been passed to his brother. to take a property worth over $1 million from a man who has not been convicted of a crime simply because there were unproved allegations made against his deceased brother is immoral, unethical and wrong.

those of us who work for our possessions should have the security of knowing the law backs our ownership of them.

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