One of Our Rulers’ most maddening assaults is their forcing the rest of us to act “charitably.” Usually, the State picks our pockets to finance its various welfare schemes or to propagandize–sorry, educate other people’s children. But it broke new ground during the plandemic by preventing entrepreneurs, notably landlords, from collecting monies due them. Its excuse? “Tenants … have experienced financial hardship or … moving from their home would pose a hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Not only did many states close their landlord-tenant courts (did any of us see a rebate in our taxes for a diminution of “services”? Absolutely not. But that’s Leviathan for you), local governments continued to steal billions in property taxes from those landlords. And the CDC illegally called a moratorium on evictions.
Happily, a judge denounced that absurdity for the overreach that it is. But that doesn’t address the myriad of landlords who’ve entertained non-paying “guests” for over a year. As always, Our Rulers are sickeningly munificent with other people’s money.
Such coerced “mercy” is especially rich coming from the sociopaths in office, given their hypocrisy and ruthlessness when pursuing some luckless serf. Here’s one example out of millions:
City Fines Elderly Man $30,000, Threatens to Steal His Home Because His Grass Was Too Tall — Court Upholds Fines as Constitutional
Dunedin, FL — Jim Ficken is not a criminal, has never been in jail, and is a model citizen in the town of Dunedin, Florida. However, the government dealt a massive blow to property rights by fining him $30,000 and threat of foreclosure — because his grass grew too tall while he looked after his mother’s estate.
The entire police state overreach began for Ficken in 2018 when he was out of town trying to take care of his late mother’s estate and his grass did what grass does, it grew. Knowing that it is unpleasing to neighbors to grow long grass, Ficken hired a friend to cut it for him while he was away, but that friend died and Ficken had no idea. …
Because Ficken’s grass was over 10 inches, the city government claimed Jim owed them money. Every day that Ficken kept his grass over the “legal limit,” the government would steal $500 from him. This went on for 57 days, and now, the government claims Ficken owes them nearly $30,000.
“I was out of town when code enforcement officials first noticed my grass was too tall,” Ficken said. “They came back almost every day to record the violation, but never notified me that I was on the hook for fines. By the time I found out, I owed them tens of thousands of dollars. Then, they refused to reduce the fines and voted to authorize the foreclosure of my home. I am disappointed that the court sided with Dunedin, but what happened to me is wrong, and I will continue to fight.”
Fortunately, the Institute for Justice represents Mr. Ficken, and it’s promising to appeal this outrageous decision.
The stunning gall of these bureaucrats ought to foment another Revolution.
9:50 am on May 8, 2021
