The effort by the local government in Rochester, New York, to destroy the fourth amendment rights of renters.
The effort by the local government in Rochester, New York, to destroy the fourth amendment rights of renters.
These warrants are generated without suspicion of a crime and do not specify things to be searched. They remain valid for 45 days, permit multiple entries by code officers, and allow officers to film their inspections, which are later publicly available. The whole neighborhood is able to see the letters on a coffee table and the contents of a medicine cabinet. Inspectors are permitted to look through every aspect of a house, wherever there may be violations of “federal, state, county, or city law, ordinance, rule or regulation relating to the construction, alteration, maintenance, repair, operation, use, condition or occupancy of a premises.” Inspectors may look inside “interior surfaces” of closets and drawers to determine if they are “clean and sanitary.”
And then there’s this suspicious fact:
But David Ahl, a board member of the New York State Coalition of Property Owners and Businesses, alleges that the city is engaging in punitive action meant to chill the exercise of the right to deny consent. Through Freedom of Information Law requests he has discovered that city has filed 50 administrative search warrants since 2003, every single one of which target properties owned and managed by members of his organization.
Why is the Rochester government specifically only getting these broad search warrants against members of this particular organization?
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The effort by the local government in Rochester, New York, to destroy the fourth amendment rights of renters.
These warrants are generated without suspicion of a crime and do not specify things to be searched. They remain valid for 45 days, permit multiple entries by code officers, and allow officers to film their inspections, which are later publicly available. The whole neighborhood is able to see the letters on a coffee table and the contents of a medicine cabinet. Inspectors are permitted to look through every aspect of a house, wherever there may be violations of “federal, state, county, or city law, ordinance, rule or regulation relating to the construction, alteration, maintenance, repair, operation, use, condition or occupancy of a premises.” Inspectors may look inside “interior surfaces” of closets and drawers to determine if they are “clean and sanitary.”
And then there’s this suspicious fact:
But David Ahl, a board member of the New York State Coalition of Property Owners and Businesses, alleges that the city is engaging in punitive action meant to chill the exercise of the right to deny consent. Through Freedom of Information Law requests he has discovered that city has filed 50 administrative search warrants since 2003, every single one of which target properties owned and managed by members of his organization.
Why is the Rochester government specifically only getting these broad search warrants against members of this particular organization?
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
While I hold no brief for the City of Rochester, the spokesman for the aggrieved renters isn’t doing them any favors when he says things like “And the city is using them against the poor and disenfranchised, not against those who are wealthy enough to own their own homes.”
This is exactly the sort of formulaic trope that polarizes factions and makes the other side stop listening. I rent, and I’m not poor, nor have I ever been disenfranchised since the age of majority (look up the word, Michael Burger). I’ve also owned homes, and I’m far from wealthy. The plaintiffs need to can this clown and find someone who can make rational arguments based on the merits and the law.
The inspections only happen every 6 years?
And I can see why the warrants are made to last 30 days. They are probably waiting for the residents to be available for the inspection so no single day can be set.
Video taping the event is good practice so both parties have evidence of the state of the residence.
Putting it out in public is stupid.
Owners have always had the right to enter a rental property at their whim. With a reasonable warning in most cases.
Police have always had the right under reasonable suspicion of a crime.
And city inspections can be handed out to anyone, owners included.
To me it sounds like a few stubborn people just tilting at windmills.