A long time ago people were allowed to protect their property. Homeowners could even place traps in their homes to kill trespassers. And then there was a big change in the law and it was no longer acceptable to use deadly force to stop a burglar. Now we have experienced another big shift in the law: if you are committing a crime and breaking into a house and injure your hand while breaking the plate glass, then you get to sue the person who owns the property. The message is that “[t]hieves are people too, and they are entitled to a safe working environment like everybody else.” Ninth Circuit Judge, Alex Kozinski, addressed the Southwestern community at an event sponsored by the Federalist Society, on Tuesday, December 9, 1997. Judge Kozinski repeatedly used the term “lunacy” to describe the process of misplaced responsibility. It is lunacy that our legal system has come to “subsidize behavior that is irresponsible or self-destructive, and it is precisely this kind of behavior that any rational legal system should try to suppress.” When a person assumes the risk and does something criminal or attempts suicide in front of a moving train and gets their legs Read More …