printIn “All Burglars Are Home Invaders,” now on WND.COM, I discuss the culprits Joshua Komisarjevsky and his accomplice Steven Hayes, who “On July 23, 2007, were apprehended at the scene of a crime—the Petit family home in Cheshire, Connecticut. Their crimes:
• Raping Mrs. Hawke-Petit and her 11-year-old daughter Michaela.
• Strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit.
• Setting the family home on fire, thereby killing Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley.
“… the Media and law enforcement are in the habit of describing a deadly home invasion as “a robbery gone wrong.” Consequently, homeowners have been culturally conditioned to consider the uninvited house guest as one would a modern-day Jean Valjean. Like Victor Hugo’s protagonist in Les Misérables, the “thief” is likely looking only to take a loaf of bread and leave—that is unless he openly announces his intentions to harm his reluctant hosts.
One extremely conservative writer even bristled when a news reporter broke protocol and applied the ‘home invasion’ appellation to the offense of breaking and entering:
… burglary is when a person illegally enters private property and steals things. A home invasion is when people illegally enter a home in order to terrorize, harm, or kill the residents… If we start calling all burglaries ‘home invasions,’ we lose the distinction between them.
The sooner we lose this distinction the better! All burglars are home invaders in-the-making.
Confronted with a criminal breaking and entering, there’s precious little the occupant can do to divine the intentions of the invader. It should be assumed that anyone violating another man’s inner sanctum will willingly violate the occupant. …If you believe in the sanctity of life you should fight for the sanctity of private property. It is a man’s right—even obligation—to defend his life and the lives of the loved ones living under his roof. Arguably, a right that is not vigorously defended is as good as a right forfeited. …”
The complete column is “All Burglars Are Home Invaders,” now on WND.COM.
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UPDATE (Sept. 23): PROPERTY ÜBER ALLES. I would probably disagree with Myron Pauli about the equal importance of the troika of liberties all libertarians should shout from the rooftops. Property trumps liberty, for liberty can be variously defined. Our government insists we are free so long as we can vote. We know this to be untrue. Property, moreover, is harder to redefine. Thus, if our rights to property were fully upheld—the same state that tells us to consider ourselves free (and be grateful) would be unable to control huge areas of our lives—bedroom, boardroom, you name them.
“Life, liberty property”: I don’t believe them to be equally weighted elements of liberty.
If he’s in my house without invitation he is invading it. I don’t inquire if he has a gun or a knife or a feather duster. I don’t know what he wants or what he is willing to do to get it. His final moments on earth will be spent being dog bitten and shot because of his bad judgment, not mine. I don’t plan to put my life and welfare or the life and welfare of a family member at the mercy of some thug. It’s on his head, not mine.
[But you might go to jail.]
In Florida, there is a CASTLE LAW as well as a A STAND YOUR GROUND and, in fact, recently an older gentleman witnessed his neighbor’s house being burglarized, so, he shot one of the burglars…too bad for the burglar.
Too many people think the world is DISNEY-esqe and that these atrocities happen only in movies. Thus, they hold themselves above the fray, unarmed and untrained, thinking make-nice smiles, talk, and manners will keep them unharmed.
The cure: Go visit a high security prison for sadistic, violent Lifers and I’ll wager you piss your pants within the first 5 minutes…OPEN YOUR EYES.
My grandpa’s solution…..GUILLOTINE.
Anything is possible but here in Tennessee if a homeowner or otherwise legitimate resident has acted with prudence they are usually allowed their rights by the authorities. In fact I can’t remember a resident being prosecuted under those conditions. This isn’t the east or west coast.
If you are reasonably in fear for your life or of serious bodily harm you are clear to protect your life however you can. Obviously if an old lady or handicapped person or some otherwise limited individual attacks an able bodied person he doesn’t have the clearance for deadly force.
A robbery gone bad is another part of the brainwashing of the sheeple, it’s code for if you’ll just submit, felons wont hurt you. After all, we know from our public school education its always better to be a victim than to harm a criminal who may have let you live.
Regarding the “Jean Valjean” theory of burglary, I like to refer to Deuteronomy 15:
http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Deuteronomy-Chapter-15/
If American follow a moral code and a regimen of freedom and individual rights, INCLUDING THAT OF PROPERTY, we will have great abundance (see 15:4-6).
There will still be needy people (sick, blind, mentally retarded, etc.) per verse 15:11.
Now, keep in mind that, thanks mainly to the free enterprise system, a pound of turkey bologna can be bought for $1 – which can probably feed a person his caloric needs for a day. Multiply by 365 and 30 million assuming 30 million incapable of feeding themselves and you can feed every needy person in America for under $ 11 Billion, roughly 10% of our current annual Afghanistan misadventure.
My point is that “robbing for bread” as well as the government-mandated Welfare State is not necessary. It is the result of a dysfunctional culture.
By the way, Exodus 22:2 also deals with the basis of the Castle Doctrine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine
Life, Liberty, and Property are all fundamental – take one leg of the stool away and the whole edifice crumbles.
The Supremes in 2005 made two infamous decisions: Kelo and Raich. In Kelo, they decided that property was something that could be heisted by the government at will
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London
But if Scalia had his way in both cases, you could KEEP YOUR HOME but you could not use your home to grow medicine in it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalez_v._Raich
In fact, when the government “allows” (e.g. financially coerces) us to have 401 K accounts, they then set up “rules” on how to dispose of our property. I’m not sure how to disentangle property from liberty – perhaps our “argument” is mainly SEMANTIC but whose 401 k, house, … etc. is it – mine or “the people’s”??? A title deed without the liberty to do what I wish with MY property is just paper!
A ‘robbery gone bad’ is when I get to my gun before the robber can do me in.
And my guns are NOT in a safe.
Remember this mantra: “He said he was going to kill me and I thought he was reaching for a gun.”
Regarding property deeds in most jurisdictions in the U.S.:
You don’t own it. You rent it.