Persecuted For Self-Defense

Do we even have the right to defend ourselves against criminals? Judging from how the police and the prosecutor put the criminals' interests and safety first, that right exists on paper only. Here's a video interview of a person who was hauled out of his house (in front of his family) and slapped with criminal charges for merely helping his neighbor to protect his property from trespasses. Those trespassers apparently were let off without charges.

And unfortunately, this isn't an isolated incident. This perversion of justice takes place way too often:

The resolution of this case, while welcome, in many ways merely continues the criminals-first attitude our justice system has adopted over the past four decades of experimental, social-engineering liberalism. For instance, police first decided to charge Mr. Singleton based solely on a complaint by the burglar, 20-year-old Luc Roy. They laid charges against him before they had even interviewed him and taken down his side of the story. In other words, they acted solely on the say-so of a confessed break-and-enter artists against a citizen with no previous criminal complaints against him. Indeed, last summer when police decided to charge Mr. Singleton, they called him down to the local RCMP detachment and gave him the impression they had recovered some of the goods stolen from his home. Only after he was at the station did they book him.

This is completely at odds with the origins of our criminal justice system and our form of consent policing. Both were originally designed to protect society and the citizen from criminals, not to confuse the two and put citizens on the defensive for guarding their homes, property and loved ones.

In a similar vein, there are the cases of Toronto green grocer David Chen, who was arrested for subduing a shoplifter at his store in downtown TO, and Ian Thomson, a Port Colborne, Ont. man who was charged with dangerous use of a firearm after he fired warning shots into the air to chase away three men who were attempting to firebomb his remote home last summer as part of an ongoing neighbourhood dispute. Mr. Chen, thankfully, was acquitted last October. But Mr. Thomson still faces a trial on charges of unsafe storage of the licensed pistol and revolver he used to defend himself.

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Following the outcry over David Chen's case, the Conservatives introduced bill C-60 that would strengthen law-abiding citizens' right to defend their property and their businesses. Introduced just days before the confidence vote, it had no chance back then. Hopefully things work out better now when the Conservatives finally have a majority.