[wideawake]

Let's see. A citizen owns a home. The government tells him how he is supposed to make use of his own property that he's lived in for 75 years. He tells them that it's his own property and that it's none of their business. This is his right - what is the point of owning property if you can't dispose of it as you wish?

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.

[Henrietta]

After neighbors complained to the city, inspectors found a rotting porch, missing stairs, missing gutters, torn siding, a collapsed porch and other dangers.

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.

[arm958]

Now two men are dead because the government didn't know when to stop intruding in people's lives and invading their property.

You are a first class idiot. The old man let his placed go to sh*t, wouldn't take GENEROUS offers of help from anyone, pissed off his neighbors, and then pulled out a gun and murdered a cop who was woing his job well! I'm glad the bastard is dead, but I morn for the cop and his four children. You are a disgrace.

[coloradan]

Great summary!

[spodefly]

Spot on appraisal of the situation, at least as gleaned from the article.

It used to be that the 'cranky old neighbor' was left alone to live out his life, but we have all become so inured to the vagaries of the state that some (even on FR) see this as a case where the police and the courts did the right thing. WRONG!

Anyone that cannot see that the police and courts had no damn business messing with a property owner (kookie or not) who did nothing to harm anyone else (property values are not justification for this!) should have their head examined ... they are way more dangerous than a 77 year old man living out his life in his home.

[Darth Sidious]

I feel sorry for Officer Marquez: although the actions he was directed to perform were morally wrong (government intrusion on private property), he himself is not at fault. He was a slave of the enemy, not the enemy itself.

Add two more to the growing bodycount of government run amok.

That said, the slaves do have a free choice: they can either serve the people, or serve unbridled power. There is no middle ground. They must choose to aim their weapons against the people as a show of force, or aim them at the heart of the bureacrats as a somber warning.

And in case the bureacrats haven't noticed, we've a lot more guns than they do.