Liberty criminalized in Michigan

Statist lawmakers in the state of Michigan have once again criminalized the fundamental constitutional right to liberty. That’s right. In Michigan it is unlawful to use your own property as you like on your own property when the statist government goons deem it so.

What would you think of a law that prohibited persons from leaving their own lawn furniture or any other personal property unattended outside on their own patio? How about a law that prohibits people from leaving their doors unlocked?  Or what would you say about a law that prohibits turning the lights inside your home off at night?

That’s ridiculous, you would say. It’s unconstitutional!

They can’t criminalize our liberty like that, can they?

Of course we can reason the statists. If you leave personal property unattended outside on your patio, thieves might be inclined steal it. If you leave your doors unlocked, you might be burglarized. If you If you turn off your lights inside at night, that might encourage criminals to enter your home and victimize you. The government has an obligation to prevent such crimes. So it can criminalize you for furnishing criminals with opportunities to victimize you.

That’s statist reasoning for you and the Constitution may be damned.

Nick Taylor, (no relation), committed a “crime” in Roseville Michigan by leaving his own car unlocked and idling unattended to warm up in his girlfriend’s driveway on a bitterly cold winter morning. "Every person warms up their car," he explains. "We live in Michigan!" Not that it should matter, but he didn't want his girlfriend's son, who has cerebral palsy, to get into a cold car on a freezing day.

Never-mind flimsy excuses croaked the Roseville cop who slapped Taylor with a $128 ticket for violating a city ordinance. "This is purely a public safety issue," claims Police Chief James Berlin. "You see it all the time, people hop in a running car and steal them. Something bad happens when that occurs."

Yes, we see it all the time; people walking outside on a public sidewalk with their own wallet in their back pants pocket enticing pickpocket’s to steal it. Yes, something bad happens when that occurs. So let’s pass a law to criminalize a pedestrian for carrying his own wallet in public. Let’s criminalize the victims of crimes for causing lazy police goons to have to do their jobs.

Let’s criminalize liberty in Michigan.