I understand that defeating this latest virus may take some actions that many of us might find invasive. However, as Bill Muehlenberg writes ‘…there is a place for sensible and measured government intervention during times of national emergency. But if the cure becomes worse than the disease, then we must call it out.
I am not one of those many servile sheeple who are giving governments blank cheques here, arguing that whatever they do must be right. Sorry, my job as a responsible citizen is to ask hard questions and to hold my leaders to account. Sometimes they will get things right, but sometimes they won’t, and none of us should just allow the state to do whatever it wants.
If these examples were all just one-offs, or the exception to the rule, that might be one thing. But these sorts of stories are now becoming the norm, and plenty more examples could be mentioned here. This really is getting to be a real worry. So let me share some more horror stories, first from Australia and then from overseas, with the headline, date, opening paragraph(s), and source of each.
Six months in jail, $11,000 fine for leaving home without a ‘reasonable excuse’
March 31
Anyone in NSW who leaves their house without a “reasonable excuse” could spend up to six months in prison and face an $11,000 fine under an emergency ministerial directive gazetted overnight. The public health order, which enacts Sunday’s recommendations of the national cabinet, gives police sweeping power to enforce the latest round of restrictions designed to limit the spread of coronavirus in Australia.
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/six-months-in-jail-11-000-fine-for-leaving-home-without-a-reasonable-excuse-20200330-p54fg8.html
Victoria Police fine group of friends playing cricket for breaching social distancing rules
April 8
A group of mates have played probably their most expensive game of cricket after Victoria Police fined each of them for breaching the state’s social distancing rules. Video footage shows the officers writing up the group of five for “having a game of backyard cricket”.
www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/victoria-police-fine-group-of-friends-playing-cricket-for-breaching-social-distancing-rules/news-story/4d7431ad9b4ed652ca3c515defb77450
Police hotline swamped with COVID-19 calls as Victorians dob in neighbours
April 8
More than 600 calls a day are flooding into the state’s crime reporting hotline, as Victorians rush to dob in neighbours who flout COVID-19 social-distancing rules. Victoria Police has seen calls to the relatively new police assistance line spike by 50 per cent in recent weeks, with people increasingly phoning to report mass gatherings and isolation breaches.
www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/police-hotline-swamped-with-covid-19-calls-as-victorians-dob-in-neighbours-20200408-p54i5g.html’
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/04/09/the-expansive-corona-police-state/
whatyareckon 