Posted on 10/03/2011 6:20:37 AM PDT by Immerito
The Harris family's life began to unravel around dawn on the last day of August.
R.J. Harris, who is 77, was in bed when a noise jolted him awake.
Bam. What was that?
Bam. It sounded like an explosion.
Bam. The front door swung open and officers in masks swarmed inside, pointing rifles.
Police! Hands up! Police!
Harris' wife, an aunt, a son, a grandson, a granddaughter, a great-grandson and a cousin all bolted awake. From the floor above, where one of the Harris daughters lives with her family, came the blast and stench of smoke bombs.
Mr. Harris, standing in the middle of the house that he bought 41 years ago, that has lodged his large family through the neighborhood's gentrification, kept thinking: All you had to do was knock.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
“It would be pretty easy for ...”
With that kind of speculation you can justify the maximum amount of force for the most trivial of infractions.
So, you’d be ok w/cops surrounding your vehichle, getting you out of the car, onto the ground, strip searched, and cuffed before they tell you they pulled you over for not wearing your seatbelt?
I’m confused.
They DIDN’T shoot the dogs and threaten the lives of children and old people as they lay face down and handcuffed for hours?
They then followed up through the inspections dept. and destroyed the lives of the family by proxy?
The tactics are changing.
This is an opinion column written by a leftist author. All of the relevant facts regarding illegal activities at the home in question are buried deep in the article. It’s pure spin.
Why on earth would you believe a single word of it?
Ok, I checked out the house of this family. They could do quite well if the house sold. In fact, they could be financially well off. I'm not suggesting they give up their house, on the contrary. The old gent and his wife own it and have done quite well for themselves. Seems to me with all the people living in the place, somebody could fix the place up.
Nevertheless, 1850 N. Seffield Ave., in Chicago is worth $1,046,300. It has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and was built in 1876. Not sure if this includes the 2nd house on the lot.
This family needs to find a lawyer quick before they move one thing out of the house. Once they fix the violatons, they should have no problems with the city and could remain in their home.
To justify their existence and keep the SWAT members interested.
I've watched a few of the SWAT reality shows on TV.
It's amazing to me the way they get away with destroying some of the houses they hit.
How? By refusing to sell their property to Yuppies?
What illegal activities?
...and the county assessors site will fill in any blanks left by Zillow....
—By refusing to sell their property to Yuppies?—
Maybe I’m missinformed. I didn’t see that in the article.
I did see the part about the park though. I’ve actually seen neighborhoods with those little kids park areas that actively keep out people that don’t live in the neighborhood. And they actually have the right to do it.
Because I know the article cannot give us every single tidbit of information, we all zero in on the stuff we find important and ignore the stuff we don’t. I zeroed in on several things:
1. Use of swat - that was repulsive to me.
2. The family basically monopolizing the park.
3. Condemned house.
One is bad, but not related to 2 and 3. We can all agree it needs to be stopped. But I’ve driven through neighborhoods where a bunch of well maintained homes surround a home with 4” thick moss on the roof. Cars on blocks in the yard, broken windows, plants growing in the gutters, siding panels actually MISSING, greese spots in the street where they park their “usually not running” vehicles, and a yard that has not been mowed or trimmed in years.
In the old days we would have just burned the house down, whether they liked it or not. Now you seem to have to start with Swat.
Bottom line - the family was innocent victims of Swat, and that was not appropriate. But if you want to live like uncivilized people you are going to have to find a neighborhood where your neighbors don’t care. That’s life and always had been.
Are you actually arguing that if someone is different from his neighbors it is acceptable for them to lie about him to the police, and that anything that happens to him is actually HIS fault because he is an “a**hole” for simply expecting his property rights be respected and/or for attempting to exercise his right to individual self determination??
Really?
That doesn’t strike me as a particularly conservative position.
—It’s amazing to me the way they get away with destroying some of the houses they hit.—
I used to watch Cops back in the 90’s when I had TV. The show turned me against the cops. Sure, they were dealing with a somewhat criminal element, but the way they did it was repulsive.
It doesn’t sound like they can afford a lawyer.
I just hope something/somebody comes along to stop what I believe is being done to them.
—Are you actually arguing that if someone is different from his neighbors it is acceptable for them to lie about him to the police, and that anything that happens to him is actually HIS fault because he is an “a**hole” for simply expecting his property rights be respected and/or for attempting to exercise his right to individual self determination??—
No.
—That doesn’t strike me as a particularly conservative position.—
It’s not. A conservative postion would be to understand that actions have consequences. And, although the phrase “you right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins” very much applies, don’t think the “but I didn’t touch your nose” argument works if you continue to swing your fist and stop just short of my nose.
People looking for trouble will usually find it. Also, although we are not yet Singapore, there really are minimal standards for living in nicer neighborhoods. They will find a way to get rid of you - one way or another. Key word is “minimal”.
These people appeared to have tripped the “minimal” switch.
Something seems to be missing from this article. 40 officers do not gas-bomb a house and storm it at night, over misdemeanor offenses listed. Futhermore, you cannot seize a home, over housing violations; there is this little thing called ‘due process’. If there were violations, you would simply arrest the violators; not seize the home. If there are dozens of housing violations - you provide sifficient time to address these violations (clogged gutters? really?)
I dont think due process exists anymore/
Yeah, tell me about it.
I’m still paying 2006 “bubble” taxes on a house that’s dropped by 2/3 in value.
I agree with you. Something is missing. However, apparently someone claimed there were drugs there. That would explain the “excuse” for using Swat. Also, I didn’t read in the article where their home was being confiscated. Rather, they were ordered to bring the home up to minimal standards before people could live there.
This isn’t Blade Runner, and it isn’t rural Tennesee. If you want to live in a place like this you have to uphold certain standards. It’s just the way the whole world has always worked. It is one way nice neighborhoods STAY nice.
I don’t like watching sausage being made either, but I like sausage.
When R.J. Harris bought two houses on Chicago's North Side in 1970 — $65,000 for the pair — the neighborhood was not yet one of Chicago's most coveted.
As new, mostly white people moved in, and almost all the other black families moved out, the Harrises sometimes felt marginalized. Still, when developers knocked, they said: Not for sale.
In a neighborhood of new mansions, it stood out, with its bedraggled American flag, the window fan, the brown wooden steps that sloped straight to the sidewalk.
What I did NOT see, was any claim that the Harris family monopolizes Privet Playlot Park. The article notes that their house and the park are separated by a vacant lot, but I cannot find any reference to the family monopolizing the park, nor can I find any indication of accusations that the Harris family is responsible for the drug dealing or other problems which are apparently evident in that park.
Will you please provide quotes from the article to back up your claim regarding any misuse of the park on their part?.
PS - he house was not condemned until AFTER the SWAT raid. Prior to that “ they had never been issued a building code violation”.
[snip]
In July, Ald. Scott Waguespack's aides contacted the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy office for the 18th District. The alderman's email noted that some neighbors had complained about unleashed dogs and drugs in tiny Privet Playlot Park. The playground is separated from the Harris home only by a vacant lot.
While the alderman himself says that he had not focused on the Harrises as a major problem — he was more concerned about nearby empty lots and vacant houses — his office also forwarded to CAPS a complaint letter that had arrived with a photo. In the photo, a little girl stands in the playground staring down at drug paraphernalia.
Seems political: alderman wants action, developers want land & neighbors want family from the old version of the neighborhood out. Drugs make a good excuse; meth is the current bugaboo.
And, this IS Chicago, the place "Lord Obama" calls home. I'm sure Rahm will be on it any day now.
I never said it does, I just offered it as a likely reason why somebody pulled some strings to get SWAT to visit. I'm going to guess that somebody in the neighborhood has connections to the Chicago political establishment.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.