Meet Philly’s community service thugs: “A band of brigands”
The federal porkulus bill contains $6 billion for something called the “Neighborhood Stabilization Program” to combat blight. The money is being dispensed to to state and local housing authorities and non-profit organizations across the country under the guise of community service and economic redevelopment to clean up and purchase foreclosed homes.
There has been little scrutiny of who’s getting the gobs of taxpayer money and how it’s being spent.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if what’s happening in Philly (which set up an NSP-type program several years ago) is being replicated across the country.
Look:
Nine city workers who were assigned to clean up blight in Northeast Philadelphia instead acted like a “band of brigands” by illegally entering homes and ransacking them of cash, jewelry, TVs and guns, District Attorney Lynne Abraham said yesterday.
The nine are current or former employees of the Department of Licenses and Inspections or the Mayor’s Office of Community Services who were assigned to the Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP), an anti-blight program supervised by the Managing Director’s Office.
From June 2006 to January 2008, the nine conspired “to invade people’s homes” to steal whatever they could, Abraham said at a news conference while announcing the results of a grand-jury investigation into the case.
CLIP was implemented in Northeast Philly in 2002 to deal with quality-of-life issues, such as a homeowner who didn’t mow his lawn, who left trash on his property or who didn’t fix a broken window. If an owner failed to fix a problem after having been given notice, a city crew was sent to fix it and the owner was billed.
The grand jury’s investigation centered on five homes from which items were allegedly raided. In each case, L&I inspectors failed to get a court order to enter the home, Abraham said.
Instead, L&I inspectors and CLIP crew members either broke into the homes or abused their position as city employees to throw residents out of their homes, while alleging that they were at the homes to check on property-code violations, Abraham said.
Once inside, the CLIP crew stole whatever it could, hauling out furniture and other valuables and dumping them into city trucks, she said. This was “a clean-and-seal operation, which very rapidly became a clean-and-steal operation,” Abraham said.
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Wow, these non-profits sure can rake it in!
Again, nanny state intrusion! I’ll mow my own grass when I’m damn good and ready! Stay the hell off my lawn! Give me a bill like that and I’ll staple it to your bewtocks with my scatter gun!
Yes indeed. It sure looks profitable to be a non-profit these days.
Hey Philly, how’s that Road Home working out for you?
That $6,000,000,000 should have bought bulldozers to push Philadelphia into the ocean.
And then they will increase the fine and eventually put a lien on your property.
You really have a problem with laws that enforce minimum standards of maintenance to one’s property in an urban area? You don’t think your decision to not mow your lawn or fix the broken window, or remove the rotting trash from your porch doesn’t adversely affect other people?
Ah Philly…
Take that show on the road!
Another good reason to have the 2nd rights…come on my property and start taking my possessions, draconion, left wing court order or not it wouldn’t take long before you realized you shouldn’t be in my house.
Its my property, not yours. P*ss off.
It lowers my property value, increases crime which in turn raises my insurance rates…If the government doesn’t fine you, a neighbor should probably kick your ass.
“You don’t think your decision to not mow your lawn or fix the broken window, or remove the rotting trash from your porch doesn’t adversely affect other people?”
Not when the rest of the neighborhod is a rat infested, gang run, crack addled hell hole.
In other words, it’s not your property, it’s ours. We’ll crush you if you oppose us.
That’s what covenants are for. If somebody is violating property restrictions, that’s at most grounds for a fine, not cause for some city thugs to raid your property. Speaking only from personal experience, I’ve seldom seen people treat their own property that way. Generally you’ll find that the rundown, messy places are rentals.
That is a stupid strawman. Where anyone ever got the idea that property rights were, or ever have been, absolute rights is beyond me.
That doesn’t mean it can’t go too far. I don’t agree at all with Kelo. But that is a far cry from building codes.
The obviously illegal behavior of some criminals that were not acting with the authority of the city government is beyond the point.
If I only had a brain..
Stupid strawman or not, looks like threatening language to me.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Mayor Michael Nutter or Gov Ed Rendell had something to do with this, even though I don’t see them mentioned.
I am sure that applies to dear ole Akbar that wants to slaughter a goat for a night time feast during Ramadan.
I was talking about the “legal” ones.
So as I understand you, you don’t object to building codes, but should only be able to enforce them through a fine. If the homeowner thumbs his nose and ignores the codes and the fines, the government should not be able to take further action?
This is the least of Northeast Philly’s problems. Trust me.
Homer: C’mon Ma! Bring the chillun! There’s no gators…ow. ow. ow. But plenty of snakes though! Woo hoo!
Did they hire the New Black Panther Party to clean up or something?
The theory is that if you deal with these issues, the bigger ones like vandalism, drugs, crime, etc. follow.
This was Giuliani’s governing philosophy when he was mayor of New York.
Does it work? Some say yes. Some say no.
That’s six billion dollars being robbed from the taxpayers in medium cities, small towns, and farming communities, and using it to prop up large metropolitan areas that should be left to wither on the vine.
I couldn’t care less about housing and health care in Detroit, Chicago, New Yawk, or Fill-in-the-Blank.
Cities die. Take a cruise down the Danube, the Rhein, or the Mosel. You see ruins. It’s natural.
That’s from the link you provided.
Having the police address neighborhood crime is one thing … having Bubba from 4th and Luzerne Sts knock on your door to tell you to mow your lawn is quite another. I am not saying that there is not any value in addressing these issues. What I am saying is that there has to be a better way to convey the message about caring for one’s property. These “messengers” looted homes. I do not know about you, but this does not seem like the proper way to establish and implement a so-called “Neighborhood Stabilization Program”.
A chance to agree with Chap. While I don’t want a bunch of thugs telling me what to do with my property, the idea that anyone should be able to do anything they want with their property located right next to the property of others is a bit extreme and, fortunately, not usually allowed to happen.
I’m really tired ot the up to 15 cars in various states of disrepair about a mile from my house, (but very close to other houses), on the way out of my subdivision. I’d even settle for thugs cleaning this one up.
Apparently you don’t understand me. I am very leery of building codes, because about 90% of them are putting the government’s nose in a private owner’s business. The other 10% can be enforced with fines and appropriate further action as necessary. Raiding somebody’s property doesn’t come under the heading of appropriate, in my opinion. In the matter of building codes, I live and have almost always lived in small town, suburban or rural areas and building codes mean different things than they do in, say, downtown NY. And I don’t equate government bureaucrat-originated building codes with restrictive covenants voluntarily entered into as a condition of buying a piece of property.
Not that I claim any legal expertise in the subject.
At the rate things are going, I will soon be non-profit myself. I guess things get better then?
It is not the proper way, and it is not the way the program was either established or implemented. They were criminals who took advantage of their position. Would you question the value of military industrial spending simply because it was found that Lockheed Martin perpetrated fraud against the US?
Let’s define “raiding” why don’t we?
Once again, I think there’s a difference between building codes, covenants, and in this case, zoning. I have much less problem with zoning laws, because their primary purpose is to protect property owners (and yes, property values) and you know what you’re dealing with before you acquire and develop a property.
Sure, go ahead. I know what I mean by it – an invasion of private property by other than law enforcement operating under the usual restrictions.
Personally I define raiding as:
“Nine city workers who were assigned to clean up blight in Northeast Philadelphia instead acted like a “band of brigands” by illegally entering homes and ransacking them of cash, jewelry, TVs and guns”
So…the mailman?
Or the guy that works for the municipal utility that reads your meter? Or shuts it off if you are late on your bill?
They were able to take advantage of their position because yet again in the government’s rush to prove that they are creating jobs and “fixing” things they did not properly vet the people they put in these positions. I certainly understand that this was an unintended consequence, but it is one that could have been prevented. Any one with a brain could have foreseen this outcome.
Again, I am not questioning the value of the program itself. Rather, I am questioning whose decision it was to place Bubba in a position of authority in the first place. Police officers have established authority and people are aware of what the consequences will be when/if they break the law. Bubba has no such authority established in the neighborhoods he has been giving license to regulate. Therein lies a big part of the problem.
Lockheed Martin’s value to our defense and space operations speaks for itself. The NSP has to prove themselves worthy of such respect. Dare I say, this does not bode well for the program.
Good one.
Shall we keep this on a relatively intellectual level, or would you like to further devolve into absurdity? The answers to your questions are pretty much obvious, even to a lawyer. The mailman delivers with your consent. If you don’t consent, he won’t deliver. He also won’t deliver if you have a large dog sitting in front of the door, or if the house appears unoccupied, or if he’s just in a bad mood on any particular day. Around here, the meter reader works for a private utility, and has an implied right to enter your property to read the meter because if you tell him not to, they simply shut off the power. Really, you can do much better than this.
givings/b given.The government always thinks it has a good reason for treading on people’s rights. Public safety I can understand-it would arguably tend to infringe on another’s right to life-but there is no right to maintain property value. If a neighbor paints his whole house purple and your property value goes down, that’s not actually the government’s problem, and there’s no reason to expand government power to deal with it.
Huh? This program had nothing to do with the stimulus. This program has been in place for years. The crimes committed happened a year before Obama took office.
Which is why we have restrictive covenants that are enforced in civil court – although ours wouldn’t help you much with the purple house.
On December 17th, 2009 at 11:58 am, Rogue Cheddar said:
Yes, I have had neighbors like you before. The trash in the yard begins to smell polluting the air around the neighborhood. The trash and high grass becomes a sewer rat magnet, and pretty soon the whole neighborhood has a rat problem. Property values decrease, so essentially your stealing money without the benefits of actually being able to spend it.
So yes, in a residential urban area, your property upkeep is a concern to the whole neighborhood. The laws are written and enforced so your neighbors have a recourse other than tar and feathering you and running you out of town.
And around many other places, the utilities are owned by the government. If you refuse to pay your bill, they come on to your property and shut it off. They “raid” you home to take the remedial action necessary. That is no different than the remedial action of mowing your lawn and billing you for it. Do you think that the government should just take it on the chin and keep sending you bills that you ignore?
OK.
I wasn’t finished with my post. Darnit.
The crimes may have been committed prior to Obama taking office. However, the government is a pretty big entity and my comment was not directed at him per se.
30…look at the article.
You tried to claim that these crimes occurred because of negligent hiring brought on by a rush to use the stimulus money. That is obviously not the case.
I think the point being made here is the “CLIP crew under the benevolent leadership of Dear leader” will still receive money from the Pork Bill even after the stunts pulled From June 2006 to January 2008. But then, ACORN will still receive their money so why not CLIP.
On December 17th, 2009 at 12:07 pm, chapoutier said:
It lowers my property value,
Too bad! Another arbitrary imposement by some clerk.
increases crime which in turn raises my insurance rates…
How? Tall grass makes good people turn bad? Stay away from the Great Plains states then! (sheesh)
If the government doesn’t fine you, a neighbor should probably kick your ass.
What?! You don’t like how I manicure my lawn, kick my ass?!
You don’t like the color of house, kick my ass?! You don’t like the caulking around my windows, kick my ass?!
How very progressive and tolerant of you.
Something tells me that if you were my neighbor, we wouldn’t be sharing too many beers together.
Liberty for thee but not for me?
I hope my dog takes a liking to your bushes!
Falling on my sword is not a problem for me. I erred here, but please don’t characterize it as anything more than a mistake on my part.
Feel free to argue the overall value of such programs, or how such programs infringe on property rights, but to impugn the entire idea of enforcing building codes because of a few bad actors operating wildly outside the scope of their authority is absurd.
“enforcing building codes because of a few bad actors operating wildly outside the scope of their authority is absurd.”
II am thinking vetting and City Gov.
oversight, in other words, the City doing their jobs. But then, thats way, way too much to ask.
They don’t “raid” your property, since they are (as I said) acting with your implied consent, since you’re using their equipment. I realize cities are different(I’ve never lived any period of time in a place even remotely like urban NY or DC), but out here in the real world the meters are outside, so they don’t have to “raid” your house at all. And it is vastly different from “mowing your lawn and billing you for it”, or cleaning up your trash, or entering your house without permission to fix a broken window – which down here would get you shot. This is nothing but Big Brother run amok, but I know that city folk are so used to the government having its nose in every aspect of their lives that they don’t even notice anymore.
TXVet2,
The only such covenant I’m familiar with I thought was a form of creeping socialism, but yours sounds different. The one I’ve seen gets into acceptable exterior coloring, I think acceptable types of fences, etc., and dues are paid for services without regard to whether one even uses the services. If yours won’t help with a purple house, it’s probably much less restrictive than the one I’m thinking of.
Rogue Cheddar said:
I cannot imagine the numbers of people flying over fly over country remarking to themselves how badly those fields need to be mowed and those farms, don’t they have covenents/
Ohhhh….All that is required is “implied consent”? When you move into a municipality, you don’t think you are giving implied consent to follow its laws?
Yes and outside of Hicksville, Texas meters are generally on the outside as well. I don’t know what your point is. Is your lawn not your home? Also in those urban areas, people are separated by feet, not miles. And what you do with your property has a direct and immediate impact on those around you.
Anyone doing that is stupid and a murderer. They are given fair warning and more than enough opportunities to stop breaking the law themselves, without government “raiding.” Actions, or inaction, have consequences.
Because of this, I choose to live in a gated community with harsh convenants. My choice. The residents choice. I’ll not force myself on the public and , instead, associate with others that value the same standards. Thing is, they are all good people with nary a violation. . .as one would expect when we all chose to live in our community, a community of shared values.
No smelly trash, rusting cars parked on the front lawn, no BBQ grills on the driveway, no thumpa-thumpa wannabe’s playing their noise loudly. . .nope, a beautiful community, quiet, peaceful and a joy to live in. Heck, the dues even cover grass cutting, edging and triming and, when it snows, snow removal on the street and your driveway.
Ahhhh. . . . .
In the context of a building contractor not being able to pay his debts to suppliers, this is a crime called theft by conversion. In essence the Democrats are doing the same thing by illegally transferring public monies (ostensibly for public benefit) into the hands of political allies as payment for services rendered, or “neighborhood stabilization”. This is even worse because in the case of the contractor, one could argue that he was just a bad manager who could not fulfil his contractual obligations – not so with the Democrats and their diversion of public monies to “walking around money”.
This activity, on the part of Democrat politicians, has no clear objective except as graft. It is clearly criminal in intent and outcome, at least it appears that way to me. The fact that this was associated with street level thugs just illustrates the problem with politicians with virtually unlimited access to the public purse.
None of this public money will provide any long term structural benefit to the economy, but I’m sure it will pay long term political dividents to the Democrats. If this kind of behavior is not stamped out immediately then we should expect social anarchy in a very few years.
“dividends”
Depends on whether the law was in place when you bought the property. We’re not talking about criminal law, here, and there are adequate remedies for violations of civil law without “raiding” the property. Yes, all that’s required is “implied” consent, although the more I think about it, the more I think that the consent is more than implied, since you have a contract with the provider that provides for access to their equipment.
San Antonio is hardly Hicksville, and it’s a hell of a lot better than DC. You’re devolving into stupidity again. You should really try not to let your emotions control your thinking – it’s unseemly for someone who claims to be a lawyer. My last house had a zero lot line – which means that the water that dripped off of my roof landed on my neighbor’s property. Once again, at the risk of being redundant, there are restrictive covenants governing how your property must be maintained, and they can be enforced in court. That is not the same as a city agency sending a crew out to fix your windows.
You don’t seem to grasp the fact that our problem is with the law itself, not to mention the fact that it was wide open for abuse because of bureaucratic inattention to how it was enforced. But I don’t blame you for continuing to try to change the subject to meter readers and mailmen. I wouldn’t want to be in the position of trying to defend those Philly bureaucrats, either.
And come to think of it, isn’t Hicksville in New York State? Isn’t that where you came from?
Ours have similar requirements, such as a minimum of 40% brick, stone, or mortar exterior, 100 foot setback from the road, etc. This particular neighborhood is all large properties (5 acres and up) and so we don’t have covenants governing lawns, etc since most of us don’t even have real lawns. My next door neighbor at my previous home painted his bright yellow. What an eyesore! It was his choice and his right, but when he sold it, the new owner painted in brown the first week.
And that’s the way it should be and generally is out here in “Hicksville”, which I guess was intended to mean everyplace where the ground isn’t made of cement.
Have you considered Roundup?
Some people keep their grass mowed, you can keep yours brown.
John Deaux said:
I was going to consider your recommendation for a minute but then, mine is dead brown already due to being winter and the last couple of nights being below the 20′s. What is barely green is being assaulted by 2 goats and a cow lol
TXVet2:
I would tend to find what you describe a bit too much, too. However, I’m talking about arrangements where there is, for whatever reason, little or no choice, not arrangements like Hulka’s, where everyone chose it. I’ll have to think about where I draw the line between “in practical terms, no choice” and “choice, okay,” because I don’t have anything really clear at the moment, just a gut feeling as to when it’s individuals sorting things out versus creeping socialism. The covenant I’m familiar with tends to function like a little government without the same restrictions on what the rules should be, but the choice seems to be more in theory than in practice. (It’s not referred to as a covenant, but seems to attempt to serve the same purpose.)
I’ve used Roundup, works great on the poison ivy. I’m afraid if I go all brown, the liberal racists will still be up in arms.
How’s this for Better Lawns And Gardens?
Rogue–I live in the great, grassy midwest. Mrcakes has to take two days to mow our large lawn.
We have tried to take up most of the space with vast amounts of expensive cement patio & a large inground swimming pool.
Oh, and he does take a little ‘vitamin G’ to the vegetation along the fence row every so often…
LOL
Um, you are the one that chose to denigrate where I live by calling it not “real world”, so you can stuff any righteous indignation you have on behalf of your home. Oh and DC rules.
Restrictive covenants do not cover nearly anywhere close to all the property in the US, and if your neighbors house is not covered, it is pretty unlikely he will enter into one, so I don’t understand what point you think you are making by constantly citing to them. If you don’t like the fact that they can come onto your property to fix your messes, then don’t move there. But I have no problem with the government enforcing its own laws. You seem to object to laws providing for minimum upkeep of property. I think that is a demagogic position that has absolutely no bearing in “the real world” where your piss poor home keeping ability has real and negative consequences on those around you.
My next door neighbor seems to have devoted whatever is left of his life when he’s not working on his hot rod to mowing his lawn. It seems like he’s always at it – although it is about 2 acres. Funny thing is, it doesn’t look much better than mine, and all I use is deer.
I do so enjoy it when I reduce you to hysterical gibberish.
Profound.
In other words, when it comes to yard work, Mrcakes is a wiz!
No, this is profound:
because it so concisely reveals the mental attitude of the average (OK, I don’t know if you’re average or below, but just for the sake of argument, average) Marxist toward representative government.
I think this particular argument goes to one of the most fundamental differences between statist-leaning and libertarian-leaning people.
Chapoutier, why do you believe that the maintenance of property value is a legally protectable right?
Put another way, why wouldn’t it be illegal for my neighbor to rob me of this value?
And in any case, maintenance of property value is not the only, or even primary, reason for building codes.
Ummm…you do know that Washington DC is an actual physical city where people work, live and play, right? With arguably the 2nd best performing arts scene in the country, top five restaurant scene in the country, the best museums in the country, great park land, 4 pro sports teams, great neighborhoods… Just making sure you were aware that there is in fact a city beyond Federal Triangle.
One can hate the government and still like DC.
Oh sure, if you want to risk a tear in the space time continuum!
So, if I do anything that impacts anything’s market value in a negative way, you feel it is stealing?
What about writing a poor review of a product that could cause its market share to go down?
Organizing a boycott?
Moving into a neighborhood where I am considered a less than desirable resident because I’m unmarried, childless, the parent of ten children, not into the correct sports team, Wiccan, Christian, Hindu, fill-in-the-blank…?
Wearing a shirt that makes fun of another company?
Building a rival company and creating competition?
Giving investment advice?
What is your definition of stealing?
But you cited it as a reason above, didn’t you? I am actually willing to allow that a property maintenance law can be legitimate if it’s an issue of safety. However, property values or aesthetics, no. I do not believe that maintenance of property values or pretty views are rights, and that when we start making everything into a “right,” we’ve started driving down the road to tyranny without any brakes.
I also feel like pointing out that something can rise to an issue of safety in a fairly urban neighborhood that does not rise to an issue of safety in a rural one. Thus, I believe such rules should be on a locality basis.
With arguably the 2nd best performing arts scene in the country, top five restaurant scene in the country, the best museums in the country, great park land, 4 pro sports teams, great neighborhoods
The most beggars per block of any city in the U S.
Because that value is a totally arbitrary virtual value decided unconstitutionally for the sole purpose of taking money from one’s pocket. Just like the “view tax” because some putz decides your view is better than someone else view, so, higher tax!
Chap, you’ve had so much liberty taken away from you, that, you don’t even recognize it anymore.
If he is breaking the law, as in not following building codes, in doing so, then yes.
I agree. I am not arguing that Wyoming have the same laws as Philly. But lets not pretend that the government does not have a damn good reason to insist that people who live literally feet from each other, abide by certain laws regarding their property.
This is untrue. I was accosted far more by beggars when I lived in NYC than in DC. Unless you mean Congress.
I can’t recall one thing I have ever wanted to do that I was prevented by my government from doing so.
Plus, arguably the worst public school system in the country and the most corrupt city government east of Chicago.
Don’t have kids, so don’t care about 1 and 2 is totally false. Go to Providence or Boston and see what city government is like there.
In any event, I was referring to the unconcious but nevertheless pervasive attitude among the left that they are our rulers, not our representatives, that was inadvertantly encapsuled in your teeny-bopper slogan.
A) It is okay that Thing A is illegal because it qualifies as stealing.
B) Thing A qualifies as stealing because Thing A is illegal.
So, any time a government has a “damn good reason” to make a law, you believe that that law cannot be a threat to freedom?
You obviously have a very limited imagination, not to mention a dull and uneventful life.
I’d like to see some neighbor try to “kick my ass”.
get the enviro nuts in to find some exotic endangered speckled fly in your yard, and you are golden. the reality is this is all just reparations in the guise of urban renewal. we’ve been renewing that urban for 50 years on a near continual basis. maybe it’s time to try a new formula, cause this one sure ain’t working.
Paging Valerie Jarrett…
Actually DC is a happening city. Height restrictions so you can see the sky, tree-lined streets, tons of interesting things to see and do. And the lawns are mowed so the burglars won’t trip climbing out the windows and running through your yard.
You’re including the Redskins? Ok, they’re getting better…
Gitmo will soon have space. Perhaps the social misfits who don’t mow their grass could be sent there indefinitely. Oh wait, I still haven’t raked my leaves. Never mind.
Is there anyone out there that wants to control the control freaks? Anyone???
On December 17th, 2009 at 12:57 pm, chapoutier said:
Yes, I would. It happens all too often. It can and has resulted in the deaths of servicemen and women due to everything from shoddy workmanship to below spec goods being pawned off on the military with a wink and a nod.
But that’s beside the point here. There should have been due process involved. The owners, if found in violation of some health or safety code, could be fined, they could have civil penalties invoked up to and including eminent domain. However, breaking and entering by an entity of the government, even in socialist states like New York and Pennsylvania is to my limited understanding a violation of the fourth amendment (illegal search and seizure) Fifth and Fourteeth (Due process of law) of the Constitution. These were people acting under colour of authority and not only should the persons committing the act be held responsible and liable civilly and criminally but the agency they worked for should also be held responsible and accountable under the law for failing to adequately safeguard, preserve and protect the rights and property of the citizens of Philadelphia, egregiouly, openly and outrageously and all that legal mumbo jumbo and IMHO the leaders of this organization be given the same sentences as their subordinates who committed the crime on their watch.