In Victoria, Australia, a place where corrupt unions and progressive politicians rule the roost, a young girl was murdered at a private party.
Of course, the political instinct in response to this is never to let the judicial process run its course; prosecuting the suspected murderer by a fair trial, sentencing them to prison if found guilty, letting them go free if found innocent.
Nope, in Victoria, the answer is to look to increase regulation.
Wait, what?
What new regulation is required in a murder case?
Seriously…… why? Because the apartment where she was murdered was a short term lease through the rentals website service, so, in the lefty logic, AirBnB must somehow be partially responsible.
Maybe the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, has a point. Let’s step through some counter arguments to our instinctive position that it was 100% the murderer’s fault that she died;
Devil’s Advocate Position 1
If AirBnB hadn’t let the apartment to a bunch of teenagers, they wouldn’t have thrown a party which got out of hand and a murderer wouldn’t have murdered her.
Let’s face it, who amongst us hasn’t had the urge to violently murder someone at a party in a short term rental apartment? None of us? Hmmm, maybe that’s not Daniel Andrews’ greatest argument then.
Devil’s Advocate Position 2
If AirBnB hadn’t rented the apartment, the party wouldn’t have happened and a violent murderer wouldn’t have murdered the girl.
Because teenage parties were only invented after AirBnB was established? Because murders never occurred before AirBnB was established?
Devil’s Advocate Position 3
AirBnB have a duty of care to all visitors of their rental properties. Therefore there should have been some protective measures in place to prevent a murderer from murdering in the property.
By this logic, your rental car company should prevent you from crashing the car or hitting pedestrians.
Bill’s Opinion
If you are a legislator in a country with Common Law, consider the possibility that, 803 years after Magna Carta, there may already be appropriate legislation to cover most major crimes. How likely is it, after all those years and hundreds of thousands of man days spent considering legislative responses to public policy questions, that you’ve just landed on the best solution to a pre-existing problem?
Murderers are responsible for their crimes, not the owner or letting company of the room in which the crime was committed.