Guilty until proven innocent

[philw]

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/new-laws-mean-big-knife-fines-20100304-plvh.html

Anyone aged over 16 found carrying a knife will be hit with a $1000 on-the-spot fine under a crackdown on knife-related violence announced by Premier John Brumby.

The amount will double if a person is found carrying a knife on licensed premises. The penalties will be the largest on-the-spot fines issued in Victoria.

Mr Brumby said $1000 was reasonable for a first offence. ''I believe this will be a major deterrent to those who would want to carry a knife when they come into our city, or those who would want to carry a knife into a licensed premises,'' he said.

The proposed law reverses the onus of proof to ''guilty until proven innocent'', he said. The measure is one of three knife-related legislative changes announced yesterday.

Liberty Victoria president Michael Pearce, SC, slammed the changes, saying they made it ''difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are slipping into a police state''.

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu accused the Premier of pilfering Coalition policies on knives and called for the inclusion of mandatory reporting by hospitals of stabbings.

Police will also get new powers to immediately search public areas where they know or hold reasonable suspicion that knives have been carried, subject to an assistant commissioner giving the go-ahead. The previous requirement for seven days' notice has been scrapped.

It will also become an offence for anyone under the age of 18 to buy a knife or a controlled weapon, such as a sword.

Mr Brumby defended the tough approach, saying, ''It is a minimum interference with someone's basic liberties and in the bigger scheme of things, this is about assuring that the community is properly protected.''

He was speaking after a year 7 girl at Bellarine Secondary College was cautioned by police and suspended for holding a knife to another student's throat. Principal Colin Sing described it as an isolated case but pledged the school would work closely with students, parents and police to ensure students behaved appropriately.

Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones said the immediate search power would give the flexibility ''to get into an area quickly, following an issue, to be able to suppress weapons and violence in that area''.

Crime Stoppers has also joined the push to crush the knife culture. The confidential hotline will supply information to Customs and Border Protection in a bid to curb illegal imports into Victoria. Police were already working with customs through Crime Stoppers tip-offs and yesterday announced a formal agreement where they would pool resources to stop illegal imports.

[Rastus]

Dang Phil...that's kinda tuff...trying to fix broken people by making laws that only the people who aren't broken are going to follow.  The entire dang world is losing it's rabbit-assed mind.

[philw]

Dang Phil...that's kinda tuff...trying to fix broken people by making laws that only the people who aren't broken are going to follow.  The entire dang world is losing it's rabbit-assed mind.

No law ever prevented a crime.   

[Hazcat]

Good Lord!  Guilty until proved innocent, no knife carry under 16, no knife or sword purchase if under 18 (how about pointy sticks?).

Is this ANY knife or is there a definition of what constitutes a 'scary knife'?

[philw]

Good Lord!  Guilty until proved innocent, no knife carry under 16, no knife or sword purchase if under 18 (how about pointy sticks?).

Is this ANY knife or is there a definition of what constitutes a 'scary knife'?

from my understanding it is "any" 

[Sponsor]

[JSC3ATLCSO]

No law ever prevented a crime.   

Nope.  It just makes more crime.   Maybe that is the point of all of the laws, too pad statistics for law enforcement and Law Makers.

(I am not bashing law enforcement.  They are needed.  Law Makers however, are not.)

[crusader rabbit]

When is the Oz Government going to issue you all lace panties and high-heel shoes?  You lot USED to have the reputation of being manly men.  What the heck happened to the collective Aussie balls?

I don't mean to rag on you, Phil.  But there must be someone willing to stand up and say, "Enough!"

[sledgemeister]

When is the Oz Government going to issue you all lace panties and high-heel shoes?  You lot USED to have the reputation of being manly men.  What the heck happened to the collective Aussie balls?

I don't mean to rag on you, Phil.  But there must be someone willing to stand up and say, "Enough!"

Too many softcocks and dare i say it "imports" these days.
Cant speak out cos your a racist, a redneck or just plain trouble maker.
There wouldnt have been a problem in victoria until a certain type of asian imports started using machettes and kitchen knives for their foreplay. Gone are the days of having a blue and giving up when some one went down. Todays society seems to embrace when some one goes down kick or stomp them to oblivion, I fear that our generation will be the last of real men. Herald the coming of the the deadbeats and the snags, I dunno how it got this way, I know that my Grandfather would be turning over in his grave knowing he and his mates fought in the great war to protect our rights and freedoms to see successive govts give minorities more rights than its citizens and eventually turn us in to a country like brittain.
I hate to say it but sometimes I am ashamed to be called an australian in the context of the image she now projects to the rest of the world. An image built upon the backs of heroes from our past and progressively dilluted by the actions of the present and future.
I think Jefferson had it right when he said "sometimes a little revoloution is a good thing" or words to that effect.

[WatchManUSA]

No law ever prevented a crime.   

Truer words were never typed!

[Pathfinder]

Liberty Victoria president Michael Pearce, SC, slammed the changes, saying they made it ''difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are slipping have slipped willingly charged into a police state''.

FIFY