3 ms·

For one Australia does not have a "bill of rights". In the US, the police require probable cause to even stop or question someone. In Australia there is no such

For one Australia does not have a "bill of rights". In the US, the police require probable cause to even stop or question someone. In Australia there is no such requirement. While they can't just arrest or detain people at will, they have far more power over every day people. Please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicious_Lawless_Association_Disestablishment_Act_2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicious_Lawless_Association_Di... This law would not be possible in the US due to the US constitution's protection of freedom of association, while it has been strictly enforced at times in the state of Queensland. These sorts of powers substantially weaken organized crime but at major cost to civil rights.

polshaw 9y ago
>In the US, the police require probable cause to even stop or question someone They do not need probable cause, they need "reasonable suspicion"[1]. The same standard Aus had until around a decade ago (now reduced). There were nearly 700K stop and searches in NYC in 2011 alone[2] (vastly reduced now) which undermines your suggestion that the BoR provides solid protection in this particular respect. Although I agree there are some protections offered by codified rights. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_stop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_stop 2. http://www.nyclu.org/content/stop-and-frisk-data http://www.nyclu.org/content/stop-and-frisk-data