Family shattered after raid, home loss

Chicago Tribune ^ | October 2, 2011 | Mary Schmich

[Travis McGee]

[rarestia]

So SWAT barges in with some animal crimes officers, go through all this hullabaloo and take 2 people and 4 dogs away for misdemeanors?

No wonder people are pissed at the cops. All of this time and money spent to bring in 2 people on misdemeanor animal cruelty/abuse charges? Sad.

[ZULU]

NAZIs.

The War on Drugs is increasingly lookiing like Prohibition on steroids.

Innocent Americans are being harassed and devastated by a law-enforcement establishment drunk with power and Federal Funds

These cops REALLY hate dogs, don’t they?

[2banana]

Why do police insist on going “SWAT” when a polite knock on the door would suffice?

[PapaBear3625]

From the article comments section, is a good summary:

The "facts" in  your article-

-at least 3 dogs were malnourished in this kindly home

-a veterinarian reported the situation to authorities, 
not neighbors

-a public park was co-opted as the "yard" of some adult 
Harris children -two with current criminal records

-a house full of adults had major building code and
 sanitation violations

Please tell me what neighborhood would ignore the obvious
problems here? Why should they?

Mr. Harris had long ceased to be neighborly and had 
retreated into his own troubled world.

Taxpayer money developed the park and maintains it. 
Neighbors clean it. But only the Harris'
use it. 

The Harris family appear to be a nexus of bad news in an otherwise-gentrifying neighborhood. Some neighbors finally decided that they were bad for property values and had to go.

[liberalh8ter]

The Harris Family is guilty of owning a neglected home in a coveted neighborhood. They're guilty of being in a different social class of the new neighbors.

[Hodar]

Something seems to be missing from this article. 40 officers do not gas-bomb a house and storm it at night, over misdemeanor offenses listed. Futhermore, you cannot seize a home, over housing violations; there is this little thing called ‘due process’. If there were violations, you would simply arrest the violators; not seize the home. If there are dozens of housing violations - you provide sifficient time to address these violations (clogged gutters? really?)

Did the parents not pay their mortgage; and this was a raid/eviction effort? This article seems biased, in the extreme.

[Lazamataz]

This.
Crap.
Has.
GOT.
TO.
STOP!!!

[Dudoight]

This is disgusting. I hope there is a happy ending to this and they get appropriate $ for this obviously desirable location.

Is there any recourse for this family?

[Lazamataz]

The Harris family appear to be a nexus of bad news in an otherwise-gentrifying neighborhood. Some neighbors finally decided that they were bad for property values and had to go.

Yes, and absolutely ANY level of force is JUST FINE. Shoot, dawg, they should have nuked the site from orbit.

Just to be sure.

[Dudoight]

“The Harris Family is guilty of owning a neglected home in a coveted neighborhood. They’re guilty of being in a different social class of the new neighbors.”

Absolutely...this is so unfair.

[Lazamataz]

Something seems to be missing from this article. 40 officers do not gas-bomb a house and storm it at night, over misdemeanor offenses listed.

It seems like, these days, they do.

[Ditter]

Someone, either a Realtor, a home builder or an individual wanted that lot to build a new home on. Nasty way to get it, shame on them.

[coloradan]

98% of cops give the other 2% a bad reputation.

[IbJensen]

The 40 officers on the scene....

Like most other cities there are just too damned many police that have too damned much time on their hands!

This would never had happened if there was a good community organizer on board like our esteemed president.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Politeness doesn’t get you cool toys and more funding. I mean who wants to know which fork to use for the salad when they can kick in a door instead?

[P8riot]

Chicago thuggery at it’s finest.

[WayneS]

Hey, at least this time they just stole some dogs instead of shooting them...

[liberalh8ter]

It's always cheaper to run someone off than to pay them their price. Everyone has a price and I'm sure Mr. Harris has one. It's probably more than anyone wants to pay.

This isn't just a Chicago problem, if it's successful there, it will happen everywhere.