Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
A Man’s Home Is His Castle, Right?
Obama’s palatial estate in Martha’s Vineyard.
[Link] Homeowners call them “criminals”, but law enforcement refer to them as squatters.
They break into your home, move their stuff in and refuse to leave!
Thankfully, some lawmakers see this as a travesty and seek to restore the Constitutional protection over private property rights:
District 10 Sen. Owen Hill and House District 16 Rep. Larry Liston are also sponsoring this bill they hope will send squatters packing.
Under the proposal, law enforcement would have the authority to immediately remove squatters. The bill also goes a step further by making it a class 1 misdemeanor if the squatters alter or damage the homeowner’s property.
From the Cato Institute:
America’s Founders understood clearly that private property is the foundation not only of prosperity but of freedom itself.
Thus, through the common law, state law, and the Constitution, they protected property rights — the rights of people to acquire, use, and dispose of property freely. With the growth of modern government, however, those rights been seriously compromised.
This seems to be just one more example of a woke culture out of control. Up is down. Right is wrong. Black is white. And property, gender, and everything is fluid. Daily. Good grief. What is next? With this kind of ‘thinking,’ where does it stop? Why not allow a ‘D’ student to sit at an ‘A’ student’s desk and appropriate all of their grades. Is nothing respected and inviolate anymore? This is simply crazy and chaotic and turns the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness completely on its head!
There needs to be a federal solution to this attack on property rights and freedom and clearly set out their inviolability. Perhaps we need to sic a mob of squatters to the Obama Martha Vineyard estate in order to provide proper motivation to fix this outrage?
Published in General
A reminder, though, that deeds are not actual dispositive proof of ownership. A deed basically just tells someone where to look in the real records. The TITLE records.
The people who I bought my house from, 3 years ago, could still have a “deed” to it.
So what? They still don’t own it now.
And if I lost my current “deed” copy, that doesn’t mean I no longer own it.
Most relevant in the current discussion, it’s not something for cops to be deciding, on-scene.
How about this: immunity from prosecution for the rightful owner of the property for any steps taken to immediately remove squatters from their property.
That is, the day they find out there is a squatter, they can remove the people and any all of their property from the premises. No waiting weeks for court rulings. Just remove them, and not have to worry about being punished.
but if it’s later determined that they are not in fact the rightful owner, then they can be subject to heavy legal sanction.
That’s okay with me, although if the “squatters” have what they thought was a valid lease from someone who didn’t have legal right to do one, they might feel justified in using lethal force to defend themselves from a “home invasion” or what-not. So either or both parties could end up being legally correct, but dead. How comforting would that be? It’s like the age-old driving wisdom, “you may have the right-of-way, but end up dead. Is it worth it?”