Forum Post: CHECK THE LAW - It may be a crime to remove tents
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 20, 2011, 2:30 p.m. EST by qwiksilver
(46)
from Los Angeles, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I caught just a scrap of a local tv news program here in LA, but there is a law that keeps the police from removing the cardboard and tent homes of the homeless on Skid Row. It is such a powerful law that they can't even remove the garbage from the sidewalk without facing federal prison time. Federal? Someone needs to contact the ACLU on this one. They might know about this. It may fix it across the country so that the police cannot touch the tents. Hope this helps.
It is against the law. You will note the term "judicial officer" or "Officer of the Court" which is what a Police Officer is.
TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 21 > SUBCHAPTER I > § 1983
§ 1983. CIVIL ACTION FOR DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
This is good too. There is another that specifically addresses private property. It is the law that allows the homeless to pile garbage on the sidewalks of Los Angeles and no one can come remove it because it is "private property."
It is your right to protest something our government does that you disagree with, do the police have the right to confiscate and destroy your property?
I don't know why you put "private property" in quotes. Many homeless people live with all their belongings in garbage bags because they can't afford suitcases. It is not garbage. It's really their belongings.
I know this, but there is some that is not property. Human waste and rotted food being some of it. I've been to Skid Row. When the smell hits you, you realize it's not someone's collected treasures or can collection (a way they make enough money to live). It's sort of that "portapotty at a music festival" smell.
14th amendment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_use
Takings that are not "for public use" are not directly covered by the doctrine,[2] however such a taking might violate due process rights under the Fourteenth amendment, or other applicable law.[citation needed]
5th amendment (last clause) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Thank you!
It's a private property law. Someone in OWS has to be an out of work attorney. I remember the legal industry hemorrhage in 2009. I lost my job as a legal secretary. From what I hear, many of my comrades in law are still out of work. (I work, but it's not my chosen profession and for a hell of a lot less.)