Category: Crime

Of late, New Wife and I have been watching the “24 Hours in A&E” TV show on Amazon in the evening.  Of course, it being a Brit show, it comes off as a PR blowjob for the NHS, because the doctors are all wonderful, the facilities are excellent, the care immediate and so on.

Of course, the episodes are carefully located in the two best hospitals in the U.K. (London’s King’s College in the early seasons, and St. George’s in the subsequent ones), where all the above is true.  Were the show to be filmed in any of the other regional NHS hospitals, the show would include things like hours-long waits for a simple CT scan, 12-hour (or longer) waits for treatment of “non-life-threatening” ailments, inadequate ambulance service, incompetent / uncaring staff and all the other horrible stuff that are so much a part of the NHS, and which is reported upon almost daily in their newspapers.

But all that’s just background.

A couple of nights ago, one patient featured was a Spanish guy who had come off his bike and fractured his ankle.  Part of the background was an interview with his “partner”, an Italian woman with whom he had shared his life for many years.

They were, in simple terms, anarchists who had taken part in violent street demonstrations all over Europe and the UK, and when not doing so, were professional squatters, who took over unoccupied houses and lived in them, all excused with the simple excuse:  “There were homeless people, and there were unused houses;  so we just redressed the balance.”

Being anarchists, of course, the concept of “private property” had no meaning to them, and so these fucking freeloaders could live rent-free and indulge themselves in their pointless “world-changing” little games of street theater.

New Wife had to shush me because I became increasingly angry as the tale unfolded, and started yelling invective at the TV, as any sane person would.

The final straw came when we learned that this Eurotrash pair had since become parents of two children, and the family was now living in a rented house as ordinary citizens.

Of course, what I wanted to happen was for them to go out for an afternoon visit to the park with their kids, and return to find that their house had been taken over by squatters.  But I was denied that karma, unfortunately.

All this came to mind when I read this little piece, sent to me by a Reader:

Squatting, whereby strangers move into the properties of American homeowners and refuse to leave, has quickly become part of the zeitgeist as a series of news-making stories have shocked the nation.

Squatters can gain certain legal rights under specific conditions, such as continuous occupation for a defined period, typically ranging from 5 to 20 years, depending on the state. In some states where laws make it difficult for police to intervene, including New York, homeowners and landlords are left with few options to reclaim their property. Many victims are forced to submit to costly and lengthy civil processes. 

Of course, the main reason behind the latter silliness is that squatting is being treated by government as a civil process rather than as a criminal one.  Considering that the primary (some would say it should be the only) function of government is to guarantee and enforce property rights, this abandonment of the criminal for the civil is disgusting per se, but we can talk about that some other time.

In the meantime:

Real estate mogul Shawn Meaike is concerned how hard-working, well-intentioned Americans will handle squatting issues as they grow more and more desperate.

“People are going to start taking matters into their own hands. That’s what we do when there is lawlessness,” Meaike told Fox News Digital. 

“Something really bad is going to happen,” he said. “Am I saying this right thing to do? No, I’m not.”

Well, I am saying that it is the right thing to do.

Because when government fails to do its duty, then citizens have every right to take the law back into its own hands, in this case, to protect their private property from the theft thereof by others.

Let me be even more specific.

If I were to come back to my own house to find it being unlawfully occupied by some scrotes and they refused to vacate the property immediately, there would be gunfire, and a lot of it.

And the cops?  They could come and collect the bodies and my statement of having been in fear for my life, having been threatened by the late criminals.

This anarchy bullshit?  It needs to come to an end, and if the State is unable or unwilling to fulfill its primary duty, then they have to understand that people will “start taking matters into their own hands”.

“They bought a property. They believe in the American dream. They wanted to get ahead. And the American dream became the American nightmare because somebody took what was theirs and the law was on the criminal’s side. It’s a scary place to be,” Meaike said.

He suspects that victims are already starting to get desperate as police offers in liberal-run states aren’t able to help..

All the handwringing and sympathy for these criminals, and misplaced respect for the law as it’s being perverted by government doesn’t mean shit.  We are, or used to be, a nation of laws;  and foremost among these were laws that define and protect both the concept and the substance of private property.  If the State (or state, such as California or New York) has abrogated its duty, they need to accept the consequences thereof.

And by the way:  the “rights” of the squatters?  They don’t have any.  They’re fucking thieves and criminals, no matter what the law thinks.  It’s the property owners who have rights, by law — and those rights include government protecting their property from misappropriation.

End of story.