Amendment Shifts Focus Of Bill Of Rights

by Pat Michl

Let me add another voice to the chorus opposing SJ-6, the proposed Victims' Rights Amendment, which affords crime victims certain rights against their offenders under the U.S. Constitution (WL, March 1997). Libertarians should oppose this legislation for several reasons.

First, this amendment detracts from the main import of the Constitution, which is to define the limits of government and preserve the rights of the people. By introducing two additional entities into the Constitution, the victim and the offender, the amendment draws attention away from the government. Do not be fooled by this distraction.

Although common street criminals commit horrific crimes against their victims, these crimes are for nothing as compared with the crimes committed by governments against their people. Common street criminals do not commit wholesale assaults on our liberty; governments do. And common street criminals do not commit genocide; governments do. The Constitution was meant to guard against government excess and, ultimately, against genocide, not against common street criminals.

Second, this amendment provides no grounds for the accused or convicted offender to obtain any form of relief, and exempts the government from any claim against it for damages. How unfortunate for the wrongly accused and wrongly imprisoned. How convenient for the government. Sovereign immunity persists despite the havoc imposed by government on the lives of people who have been unjustly accused or prosecuted. The king can do no wrong.

Third, this amendment promotes in society the victim mentality and the growth of Big Brother. In this era of the Wenatchee witch hunts, the drug war and sexual abuse hysteria, many citizens are classified as ''victims.'' And victims, being helpless, need Big Brother to protect and serve them. This amendment emphasizes our ''victimness.'' It promotes helplessness and dependence, rather than self-reliance and self-defense--the latter two traits being anathema to the police state.

If Congress were really serious about the plight of victims, our laws would provide for more, rather than less, gun ownership. And people would be expected to defend themselves, thus never becoming victims in the first place.

This amendment is another step in the long steady march towards the police state.

Two thumbs down.