Standoff in Passaic NJ: Home stormed by SWAT team over code violations (porch and windows) Home stormed over code violations Tuesday, July 20, 2004
PASSAIC - A crackdown on city housing violations escalated into a standoff Monday when a homeowner refused to cooperate, prompting authorities to call in a SWAT team, one that broke down a door and shot her with non-lethal weapons.Code enforcement officials arrived about noon, wanting to talk about, among other things, broken windows and a deteriorating porch - violations written three months ago, said
Community Development Director Donald Van Rensalier.
It just so happened that 109 Quincy St. was smack in the middle of an area targeted in Operation Clean Sweep, one of the mayor's initiatives to rid the city of substandard housing.
They knocked on the door of the crumbling 2½-story wood frame also to check out complaints that power had been shut off and the house operated on a generator, something authorities consider a hazard.That's when things started to go awry. The woman inside started hammering shut the doors and barricading windows."We heard a motor running and she wouldn't let us in," Van Rensalier said.
"We called the cops to help us out."In turn, police enlisted the Passaic County Sheriff's Department Emergency Response Team, who arrived in a truck sporting its motto, "We Make House Calls," and decked out in riot gear.
"I guess someone overreacted and called the SWAT team," Mayor Samuel Rivera said. "To have an ambulance and the crisis team from St. Mary's [Hospital] was enough. This person here is harmless."After making no headway, Sheriff Jerry Speziale, Police Chief Stanley Jarensky, and Rivera grabbed Rick Figueroa off the street, a mailman whose route was stymied when police cordoned off that stretch between Hamilton and Columbia avenues.
Authorities had him knock on the door to try to coax out the resident, a woman they kept calling "Mrs. Martin," though her identity has not been established.Records list Michael Martin as the property owner.When those tactics failed, armed officers stormed the back door. Glass shattered, a result of the woman breaking a second-floor window,Speziale said. Once they entered, she threw hammers and nails at them, authorities said. An officer fired one beanbag round.
Paramedics clad in riot helmets helped carry her out to a waiting ambulance as utility workers shut off power and electricity. Both accounts in the two-family building are in good standing, said PSE&G spokeswoman Jennifer Connell.
"We had a situation where we actually had to protect her from herself," Speziale said. "She was very out of character."The woman, who neighbors said has become something of an urban legend because children believe her house is haunted, was taken to St. Mary's Hospital."As far as I'm concerned, everything was done in an appropriate fashion," said Passaic County First Assistant Prosecutor Bruno Mongiardo.
"They used a minimal amount of force."Meantime, onlookers clustered behind crime scene tape, shaking their heads and wondering what all the fuss was about."We all know her on the block," said Eric Garcia, a Quincy Street resident. "She's always locked up in there and she doesn't want to come out.E-mail: camachoa@northjersey.com
RIGHT FROM THE United Nations Community Development Director Donald Van Rensalier.
Private Property May Become Preserved
Saturday, July 10, 2004
KING COUNTY, Wash. — Residents of King County, Wash., will only be able to build on 10 percent of their land, according to a new law being considered by the county government, which, if enacted, will be the most restrictive land use law in the nation.
Known as the 65-10 Rule (search), it calls for landowners to set aside 65 percent of their property and keep it in its natural, vegetative state. According to the rule, nothing can be built on this land, and if a tree is cut down, for example, it must be replanted. Building anything is out of the question.
Most of the residents who will be directly affected by the regulations — those who own property in the rural areas of the country — are fuming. They see the new regulations as a land grab and a violation of their property rights.
"My take is it's stealing — out and out stealing," said county resident Marshall Brenden. "They're taking 65 percent of your land that you fought for years to pay for, paid mortgages on and now you can't use it."
But supporters and environmentalists say personal property rights do not trump the rights of a larger community to save the eco-system (search).
"We're trying to keep the rural area a place that isn't just McMansions and ball courts, but instead has those natural processes," said Tim Trohimovich of the group 1000 Friends of Washington (search), which aims to promote healthy communities and cities while protecting farmland and forests.
The plan is being pushed by King County Executive Ron Sims, who is currently running for governor.