THE 21ST CENTURY LANDLORD AS COP

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This one’s for you.! All of you who thought it was wonderful when tobacco companies got hung with liability even though their products have carried warning labels for 30 years, because you don’t like smoking in restaurants; all of you who think it’s wonderful that firearm manufacturers are hung with liability because criminals misuse their products ("you aren’t to be trusted with that gun"); all of you who think your neighbors need your benevolent legal supervision to lead their lives to your personal satisfaction, not theirs; all of you cheer and shout with glee.

This theory is now being used to hang you with liability, not for anything you have done or failed to do, not even for anything you have allowed, but simply for the layout of your building or complex, and the ground of your liability is that you bought it.

Yes! That’s right! Don’t believe us? Read this, {The Expanding Role of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in Premises Liability. This is not a publication of some left wing fringe group. This is the United States Department of Justice speaking. You squealed in delight as you focused the power of the mob to your pet projects and prohibitions. Does this touch any of your middle of the road, politically correct erogenous zones? No? Not feel good? I want to hear squeals, equally as long, equally enthusiastic, just as loud, for the arrogation of your liberty and property.

Now they’re after you. You may, when they’re done, be forced to employ your own private police department to patrol your apartment building while still turning over half of what you earn to the government for nothing in return. In any event, you will be forced to ensure each tenant against each criminal who might hide behind the odd Magnolia tree. But, what the heck, your causing a net cost to the health care, criminal justice, or "whatever" system and must be forced to bear your fair share.

How does it feel, now that the power is turned against you? Does "Bill of Rights" have any meaning to you? If so, and if you think it should be respected, do you think you might spend a minute finding out what it says and why your fellow citizens might be entitled to protection under it? And having adulterated it and weaseled around it to get what you want so far, to frame an exception to enact whatever life regulation you think your neighbor needed to be a better person, to whom will you now turn for its actual enforcement on your behalf? We will run an article on this later.

By the way, check out these publications of the Department of Justice for those who are interested in promoting a crime free environment. They have some excellent ideas which can be implemented by a free landlord. They can also be implemented by a landlord with a ring through his nose, connected directly by a leash to the Department of Justice.

Community Policing and D.A.R.E.

Physical Environment and Crime

The Systems Approach to Crime and Drug Prevention

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