Posted on 03/20/2002 9:02:11 AM PST by nemo
The government responds by sending a man to use force to smash down his door and invade his home.
All the while, Mr. Cruz is negotiating a deal with the citizen which would have (a) respected his property rights and (b) had the same effect that the government wanted - a rehabbed property.
Now two men are dead because the government didn't know when to stop intruding in people's lives and invading their property. A nonviolent, freemarket solution was in the works. But the pencil pushers at the Corporation Counsel (Carol Mosley-Braun's old digs) wanted blood instead of peace.
Well, they issued a subpoena to him back in January and he ignored it. They talked to him through the door for several minutes, and apparently, he ignored their attempts to get him to come quietly. What next? After waiting almost two and a half months for him to comply, should they just sit and wait for him to die or what?
Mr. Wolk probably didn't have the money or the savvy to defend his property in court and he knew it. Who was he hurting? Why did he have to submit to a humiliating summons? What purpose is served in harassing a painfully shy old man?
If the system is wasting time and resources on such ridiculous nonsense in a city plagued by real crime and real criminals, then it will inevitably break down whether Mr. Wolk shows up for the charade or not.
Court system? We have millions upon millions of criminal illegal aliens running all over our streets. The courts don't seem too concerned about these criminals, do they?
The officer serving an arrest warrant was doing his job, the courts were doing their job and two men are dead unnecisarily becuase of a system that is in total disregard of the fundamental law of the land.
A housing court should not have any power over non rental property. It was his private property and the inspectors and courts levied fined against him totaling iver $14,000 without benefit of a jury trial. That house we may presume was held in fee simple by Mr. Wolk. How he maintained or did not maintain his property was nobody's business but his. He was not directly harming any of his neighbors and since he did not like strangers on his property they should have kept the H#ll out. Like I said two men are dead. Two people dead over 29 housibng code violations found last July.
"[I]nspectors found a rotting porch, missing stairs, missing gutters, torn siding, a collapsed porch and other dangers." Given the conditions in much of Chicago's less pleasent neighborhoods where landlords have a duty to tennants to maintain rental housing on the market (a case for the state regulation of commerce and a case of acting upon a tennant complaint) there is much more to this story than meets the eye. There is also a cse that can be made about excessive fines and unreasonable time limits imposed on Mr. Wolk. Of couse his greatest crime was he just wanted to be left alone by stangers. We can not have that after all it takes a village.
Yes. If the government can give visas to two terrorists 6 months after they died, then the government can wait 10 or 20 years for Wolk to die.
I should hope not; that's mighty big of you.
Who is the judge of being mentally right? Here was a 77 year old man, peaceful, but stubborn. Here was a cop that broke into his house, even if he had a court summons, its still breaking into this 77 year old man's house. So, the old man did what he did and tried to protect his hearth/home. It took someone else's actions to initiate this old man response.
Sounds like his house was becoming a nuisance to his neighbors.
It also sounds like this guy really needed help, not a subpoena to come to court. But if someone won't come out, what do you do...? This one's a stumper, folks...
Too bad for the cop, though. Probably wasn't a good idea to break down the door with a sledgehammer, although he did have a warrant. I'm torn; I can see both sides of this one.
The department policy is for officers on patrol or street duty to wear them, said John Thomas, first deputy superintendent. The department will review its policy on vests in light of Marquez's shooting, he said.
Why review the policy when enforcing the policy seems to be the answer?
From the article posted above:
Wolk's case dates to July when the city found 29 violations of the housing code at his two-story brick home in the 2400 block of North Avers, records show. After neighbors complained to the city, inspectors found a rotting porch, missing stairs, missing gutters, torn siding, a collapsed porch and other dangers.Wolk was fined $14,500 on Oct. 16. He failed to show up for six court hearings. On Jan. 15, a judge issued a "body attachment" calling for police to take him into custody and use force if necessary.
Ald. Vilma Colom (35th) said her office tried for more than a year to deal with Wolk. She said she tried to tell him about city programs that could have provided money for repairs.
Usually the elderly person is taken into protective custody and hauled off to a nursing home and sedated while city inspectors loot the place of cash and valubles; then the dumpster shows up and some contractor cousin of another city employee throws a lifetime's worth of possessions away and boards up the property; they lien the property for the work and scoop the real estate through a court appointed "guardian" (usually a politically wired attorney).
Could some of you defending the cops on this case, explain to me why they were serving the summons in the dark of night? with a sledgehammer?
Something doesn't smell right on this.
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.