Legislation currently and quietly making its way through the Texas State Senate threatens to overtly trample the personal property rights of Lone Star State residents in the name of protecting public health. If passed, Senate Bill 186 would allow government officials to illegally trespass onto private property without a warrant, and the bill uses the alleged need to treat stagnant water that some say could be harboring West Nile virus as the excuse to do so.
As reported by CBS 11 News in Dallas/Fort Worth, the bill, authored by Senator John Carona (R-Dallas), is being presented as a common sense solution to treating nuisance mosquito invasions, particularly in areas where private property owners are failing to do so themselves. As Texas approaches "West Nile season," some are concerned that pools, ponds, and other standing water sources on private property could be a threat to public health, thus the alleged need for city officials to take aggressive action.
Co-authored by Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), the same woman who is right now pushing to allow underage Texas girls to consent to vaccinations without their parents' permission (http://www.opposingviews.com), S.B. 186 provisions that government officials are free to enter private property without a warrant when such property "is reasonably presumed to be abandoned or that is uninhabited due to foreclosure."
You can read the full text of S.B. 186 here: http://www.opposingviews.com
The specific case presented by CBS 11 News as alleged evidence of the need for S.B. 186 involves a private property owner in Plano whose backyard pool became a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Neighbors of the property claim its owners had "abandoned" it, at least for a time, and that the pool was becoming a nuisance. After posting numerous warnings on the door of the home and getting no response, city officials were eventually able to obtain a proper warrant to enter the property and treat the mosquitoes.
Using public health 'threats' to trample personal property rights is a common police state tactic
But this normal procedure of due process is apparently too cumbersome for the Texas government, which now hopes to bypass the normal warrant-obtaining procedure and enter private property at will using West Nile virus as an excuse. In typical false-flag style, the Texas government is basically using public health scare tactics to convince Texans to sacrifice their private property rights.
"Are we going to have the potential for overzealous government workers wanting to go into these houses without going through the proper steps?" asks Pete Schulte, a local attorney who opposes the invasive measure, as quoted by CBS 11 News. "Does this give the government too much leeway?"
Many who recognize the bill as a legislative Trojan horse are saying yes to these two questions, recognizing that governments are quick to use these types of bills to serve their own interests when convenient. The words "reasonably presumed," after all, have the potential to be distorted and misused, opening up the door for all sorts of abuses later on down the road.
"The state and government is always ready to pass more laws taking away your rights, and invading your [property]," commented one concerned citizen on the CBS 11 News piece about the dire implications of S.B. 186. "This seems like another one of those cases."
by: Jonathan Benson
Sources for this article include:
http://openstates.org/tx/bills/83/SB186/
http://dfw.cbslocal.com
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