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.
I should hope not; that's mighty big of you.
Obviously not.
Some common sense would have saved the man his own life...next time, maybe.
Oops, there'll be no next time.
If the government doesn't recognize private property rights then the whole system fails.
Yeah, sort of like convicted murderers getting paroled after 7.
Wrong. They should have burned the bustard out.
If they flaunt authority in housing court we can assume that they will also litter and j-walk.
A firm hand is what Citizens need and want.
Our country is a littel safer today, no doubt due to the sacrifice of an officer totally unprepared for the task.