Lots of animosity in Homeowners Associations. But for any homeowner who thinks he should fight back in novel ways, the link below is incredibly important. This person is facing ten years in prison for retaliating against an HOA tormentor
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This letter to the editor of the Washington Post is well-balanced so I won’t comment further.
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Yep, nobody’s guiltier than this long-time reporter. So many times over the past four decades the real import of a story has just sailed over my stupid fuzzy head.
But it’s fun to be a witness when a reporter suddenly has that head-thunking moment when he or she realizes that they’re actually reporting on a story that has real national significance!
Today’s ‘head-thunker’ is Jodie Fleischer of “Channel 2 Action News” in Forsyth County, Georgia. She’s just discovered that private HOA security guards are embued with the same powers as police officers in making traffic stops inside Homeowners Associations. Now try to understand this: Homeowners Associations are private non-profit corporations which have ZERO government powers, ZERO government enforcement abilities. Yet these sleazy little white-bastion gated communities are acting like they have all the Constitutional Powers customarily reserved for trained police officers. Every trained cop in the country should be mightily offended.
We’ve already had the Trayvon Martin disaster where an untrained ‘HOA security cop’ killed a kid who was walking through the neighborhood. Again, I have no opinion as to whether the fault was Trayvon’s or George Zimmerman’s. But this is like a ticking time bomb in every one of the nation’s carefully coiffed gated communities.
Trial lawyers are broke right now. Their phones have stopped ringing. The recession has eaten deeply into their personal savings. They are birds-of-prey at this moment, floating and circling over the countryside looking for any available carrion in these HOA communities. Every single time a private security guard pulls his lights, siren, badge and ticket writing stunt on a detained motorist, there’s a lawsuit in the making.
Every time a lusty young private HOA security guard takes a sideways glance at a low-cut blouse on the most recently detained motorist, there’s gonna be Hell to pay.
And it ain’t Hell that’s going to be paying the legal bills. It’s each and every member of that private gated Homeowners Association.
Jodie Fleischer, take it from a long-time fellow reporter. You’re hanging onto the threads of a donkey’s tail. This story will kick you into the mud, or into the Big Leagues.
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http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/do-security-guards-issuing-traffic-tickets-overste/nXXbD/
A woman in Putnam County, Tennessee called police to say a possible burglar was ‘casing’ her home. She heard a noise, then the doorbell. And a cute little lady said, “Oh I’m only here for the Homeowners Association, seeing if anybody lived here.”
Putnam County investigators say there’ve been lots of burglaries there, and some crooks are obviously casing homes for possible break-ins.
But since when does a cute little lady with a clipboard actually do the scouting for a burglary ring?
Oh, there’s a theft about to happen, for sure. But it has nothing to do with burglary rings. No, this sounds way too familiar. It actually IS someone scouting for money. But she doesn’t want your TV. She wants to see if she can find any code violations that you can be sued for.
So, Lady Homeowner, you don’t need to buy a firearm. But you might want to scout for a lawyer to protect you from the HOA nonsense that’s coming. I’m just sayin’.
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Even the normally pro-CAI lobby in the Colorado legislature is looking at a couple of bills which could slightly moderate the horrific powers of Homeowner Associations.
Deborah Grigsby writes in OurColorodo News.com that lawmakers are “mulling over” two bills that would impact the ability of Homeowners Associations to foreclose on homeowners who are late on their fees. A second law would require that all community managers be somehow “professionally credentialed.”
Well, dad-gummit Miss Grigsby! I’m sure you’re a nice enough lady. But I wonder if the signers of our Declaration of Independence “mulled over” the fact that by signing that document they were essentially signing their own death warrants? And I wonder if John Adams, and James Madison “mulled over” giving an extra Bill of Rights to all American citizens?
No, our founders fought tooth-and-nail and risked their lives to give Americans true independence. And they didn’t require that lower level managers got “professionally credentialed.”
Can’t reporters get it through their thick skulls and muddled minds that our elected leaders SWORE AN OATH TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION?
That’s what’s missing in all these fractious little debates around the country over who and what should have the power to fine, lien and foreclose, and if so, when.
Dang it! LOOK AT THE CONSTITUTION! And for your bathroom break, READ THE BILL OF RIGHTS! It’s mighty clear that this country was founded on some pretty basic principles which we all seem to have forgotten as we buzz open the fancy gates of our gated neighborhoods, and on hands and knees beg a private non-profit neighborhood association for permission to plant just one extra rosebush.
Americans are to bow to no man. None.
And that’s not arrogance.
It’s what we fought and died for.
