Posted on 09/25/2009 3:16:06 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
St. Paul may soon pass a social host ordinance that punishes adults who knowingly allow parties, where minors are drinking. That includes adults who aren't even there, including landlords. "They bear some of the responsibility to ensure it doesn't continue," said St. Paul Council Member Russ Stark.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.citypages.com ...
I'm surprised the National Park Service rangers don't arrest you.
Liberals never make other Liberals take responsibility for their actions. It is easier to put the blame on some poor hard working schmuck who is just trying to make a living.
I saw 10 colleges/univ in St Paul. Presuming that they have dormitories, those Pres could be held liable as the 'landlord'.
My neighborhood association in conjunction with the police have used these types of laws to great effect. It is significantly easier to rid your neighborhood of the renting drug dealing/prostituting/pre-teens breaking into houses type using these laws than letting the cops handle it.
Well then they shouldn’t be surprised if anyone refuses to rent to anyone with kids in the 11-21 age group! If this were law and I was threatened with being held responsible I would refuse to rent to anyone with kids in that age range.
And it is always better to take the easy way out right?
It would already be a crime for a landlord or any other adult to be involved in providing alcohol to a minor- right?
So then what is this all about. This is about finding someone else to punish for a crime that the landlord in fact very well may have no control over it, and is a victim of a tenant gone bad as well. The landlord has no recourse in an event like this other than paying a lawyer a couple of thousand to try and evict the tenant. Of which liberal laws now assume that the tenant is always the innocent party. And if the tenant is of lower income then they can get county lawyers who won’t charge them a cent. It is called legal aid.
Now if the cops were to charge the landlord with such a crime as this then the landlord would have to launch a legal defense to prove there innocence. This would cost a huge amount more money. The Law here is making one guilty of a crime by simply maybe having any knowledge about it. know who can say what the knowledge even really is or isn’t. The landlord might very well have no personal relationship with these tenants at all.
Underage drinking is a crime. Providing alcohol to a minor is a crime. If those laws were enforced then the problem is solved. But that is not enough. So lets make everyone guilty. Lets make all the neighbors guilty who know and do not report it. And if grandma and grampa have any knowledge then throw them in jail too. And if the mailman maybe sees something then lets make him guilty too.
You can have your new America, and its way of viewing the world. It is not for me. And when they lock up the people who don’t have health care, and fine away every cent they have, then you can cheer that on too.
Excellent points...
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Well, the best I can do is assure you that this type of action is only taken in severe and on-going disruption. Landlords around here are MUCH more careful about whom they rent to.
I have neighbors who have spent the last 3 months taking shifts at night to watch and protect their own and the property of their closest neighbors because the police insist that if they didn't see it, it didn't happen. Kids under the age of 15 are given less than a wrist slap. One kid stole a neighbor's car and set it on fire. He is 13. A girl planted a pipe bomb next to someone's house. She is 12.
It was after the pipe bomb next to the house that the neighbors started keeping watch. Tell me you would put up with this on your street without using everything at your disposal to stop it.
By the way, the Police Chief dismisses our concern because we don't have anyone being shot. Yeah? Not yet.
having been 18 and a senior in high school in that year or so when 18 was legal in this state i have to say it is kinda hard, drinks or sports, or both? LOL There is also the problem of having friends a few months younger whom you want to party with and you are the one who can get the stuff, so 19 probably would be a better age, 99% will be out of high school by then and less likely to buy for younger classmates and underclassmen.
tickles, I myself was 18 once...when the legal drinking age was still 18. In fact, I became legal to drink a total of 3 times here in NY.
When I turned 18 in February, I became legal. NY state changed the law, and on December 1 of that same year...POOF! I was illegal again, until February. Two years later, the same thing happened. Legal, not legal, legal, not legal, legal. It was utter and complete nonsense then, and it’s nonsense now.
BTW...I was a junior in college on my 18th birthday, and was firmly established in a career by the time I was 21. I was an adult in all things except my ability to drink beer. Sporadically.
The point is, we need to make a choice about the age of majority. Shall it be 18? 21? We need to decide, because this article illustrates what can happen when the Law of Unintended Consequences shows its face.
Regards,
PS: If you recall, most states changed their drinking ages only under the duress incurred by the Fed sticking its nose in where it didn’t belong (as usual). I doubt very much they would have done so without that particular extortion. It was among the only things I didn’t like about the Reagan administration.
Quick tell acorn that property ownership strategy they advised might not work.
So then your real problem is that the police are not doing there Job.
Agree. My kid and I have “split” a beer since she was just a little thing.
Well giving him a bear might harm him, but a cold beer might be ok:)
That may be true, it is not against the law for a landlord to NOT be aware of the crime being committed, I.E. Alcohol being served to minors. As a landlord that only visits tenets occasionally to see if the property is being kept up and to order needed repairs, why should I be liable if a parent allows their underage teen to drink? You are a fool if you think that is a fair law.
Absolutely. I suspect that is why these laws get passed.
The landlords should refuse to rent to anyone under 21 OR anyone with kids under 21. They should send out notices to their tenants with children under 21 that should the law pass their lease will not be renewed.
Prime example of why the drinking age should be lowered to 18 or 19. This is a stupid nanny-statist law that will do more harm than good.
You are right! The drinking age should be 18. The neo-prohibitionists and statists want the government to run everyone’s life.
How about kicking people out of public housing if their underage kids drink, do drugs, commit crimes?
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