Good Samaritanism Could Lead to Big Fines for Wisconsin Couple

No letting homeless sleep on porch

A Wisconsin couple's act of compassion could end up costing them big time.

Throughout the past year and a half, Brenda Konkel and Robert Bloch of Madison have been allowing homeless people to store belongings in lockers on their front porch and letting those without shelter sleep there, too, according to the Madison Capital Times. But after a neighbor complained to the City of Madison that Konkel and Bloch were providing such services, local authorities concluded the couple was breaking the law. If Konkel and Bloch don't get rid of the lockers and stop allowing guests to sleep on their front porch this week, they'll be facing a $300 daily fine.

Comments

[John Galt]

Madison being the hardcore "Liberal" stronghold it is, the equating compassion with lawlessness comes as no surprise.

[straffinrun]

It's more Oscar M than James M. Can't stand Mad town. I probably shouldn't have gone to school there.

[Anon E. Mouse]

Sorry, but if my neighbors started using their residence as a homeless shelter, I'd have a problem with that. Zoning laws exist for a reason. I would no more want a homeless shelter across the street from my home, as you would want a lead smelter across the street from yours.

[Scarecrow Repair]

And that reason is control freakery. If you want to control your neighbor's property, buy it, or negotiate a contract with them.

This fear of lead smelters, big box stores, slaughterhouses, etc. cropping up in residential neighborhoods is a smokescreen, a strawman. Neighborhoods don't have the infrastructure to support such businesses. Anyone who claims to worry about that is an idiot.

You are one of those idiots. Go stuff your strawman somewhere else.

[Anon E. Mouse]

I'm guessing you rent?

[Scarecrow Repair]

I'm knowing you must be an idiot if you have to ask if you are guessing.

[Anon E. Mouse]

I'll rephrase my statement: You're probably a fucking renter or still living in your mother's basement, if you don't understand the need for zoning laws.

[Charles Easterly]

"Anon E. Mouse",

I would be concerned if my next door neighbor(s) were repeatedly allowing several individuals to sleep over/gather at their house(s)as described in the article. Yet as long as my neighbor(s) and their "guests" didn't cause any harm I'd probably leave them alone, just as I would hope they would do the same for me.

Are you worried about your property's value going down if your neighbor(s) were doing this? Is that your main concern?

Regards,

Charles

[Anon E. Mouse]

My main concern is that homeless people are generally homeless for a reason. You have to fuck up your life pretty badly, and make a whole succession of poor decisions to be homeless in the US, and be bat-shit-fucking-crazy, unemployably stupid, drug addicted, or a combination of these.

I don't want them in my neighborhood because they're bat-shit-fucking-crazy, unemployably stupid, drug addicted, or a combination of these, and they have a history of poor decision making.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Then arrest them and charge them with a crime WHEN THEY COMMIT A CRIME.

Hassling people who have not committed a crime is another definition of a statist control freak. Go live in Ferguson, I understand they will have an opening for a cop pretty soon.

[Anon E. Mouse]

See, I don't feel like I need to wait until there's a hundred fucking bums living in my neighbors yard, and every home in the sub-division has been burglarized. That's why I'm FOR zoning laws. It's a simple thing really: I won't start burning tires in my front yard if you don't start housing bums in yours.

[Scarecrow Repair]

So you do believe in predictive criminalization?

[Anon E. Mouse]

Of course not, but I do believe in common fucking sense, and I do believe that having a bunch of bat-shit-fucking-crazy, unemployably stupid, drug addicted people with a history of poor decision-making hanging around the neighborhood is going to lead to increased crime, the same way that you walking through a Detroit Ghetto with $100 bills hanging out of your pockets will lead to increased crime. Call it "predictive criminalization" if it makes you feel superior. I'll call it "common sense".

[Charles Easterly]

"Anon E. Mouse",

The original article mentioned that homeless individuals have been using the neighbors' front porch for approximately 1 1/2 years. There was no mention of increased crime of any type.

Does that alter your opinion?
I'm interest in your reaction, but will have to check much later to see it.

Regards,

Charles

[Charles Easterly]

"Anon E. Mouse",

First, thanks for answering.

The reason(s) individuals are homeless vary, and I have no doubt they include others than those you've given.

But if you were correct about the reasons, is it the case that you see things such as zoning laws as "pre-emptive protections" of property rights? In this case it would be your property rights and those of the other neighbors.

"We must protect the neighbors from individuals who will, by their very nature, one day cause the neighbors damage/harm?"

Regards,

Charles

[Sevo]

Anon E. Mouse|9.23.14 @ 12:17PM|#
..."Zoning laws exist for a reason."...

To give slavers something to post about?

[Anon E. Mouse]

I'm guessing you rent too.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Here you show your true statist colors, gussing again, this time in the guise of certainty.

Congratulations, yes you certainly are guessing.

I'm gessing I'm typing?

I'm guessing I'm typing.

I'm guessing!

I'm Scarecrow, pleased to meetcha.

[Anon E. Mouse]

Jesus Fucking Christ, wanting some simple fucking rules doesn't make someone a "statist", you fucking moron. Grow the fuck up. It's easy to dream about "anarchy" from the comfort of your mother's basement. The reality is really quite different than what you would imagine it to be.

[Scarecrow Repair]

You're about as good at knowing how everybody else should live as you are at knowing how they do live. That's about as good a definition of a statist control freak as anybody has.

What harm has been done by these people sleeping on somebody's porch? If there's no harm, what's the problem?

And if it really is property values, then I bet I know how often you've paid your neighbors the difference when they improve their house and increase your property values. What? You say you don't? Then you have no gripe when they lower your property values.

[Anon E. Mouse]

That's an utterly stupid argument. When a neighbor does something that raises my property value, it's because they did something to raise their own property value. They're already reaping the benefits of making an improvement. Conversely, if my neighbor is running a fucking soup kitchen and has homeless bums hanging out on his front porch, not only will it decrease my property value, there is no amount of improvement I can do to cause them to increase. His acts are causing me loss, and other than insisting the county enforce the law, there's nothing I can do about it. To say that I "have no gripe" because I don't pay them to improve their own home is...well, it's fucking moronic at best.

[Scarecrow Repair]

His acts are not causing you a loss.

Under your logic, everything that happens within view of your house is under your purview, right? How far does this extend? If I build a house on a mountain slope ten miles away, does that ruin your view and I owe you money? How anout the backslope of a mountain, do I owe you money every time I light off a fire and the smoke upsets your view?

I suppose if you have crappy vision, I owe you less, and contrary-wise, if you buy a telescope, I owe you more.

Nuts to that. My property is my property. As long as I don't destroy your property by undermining the foundation or digging a cesspool, you have no gripe, just as I have no gripe about what you do on your property.

[Anon E. Mouse]

Like I said, zoning laws exist for a reason. Anybody with a brain knows that running a half-way house for homeless people in a residential are will cause property values in that residential area to decrease. I don't want my property values to decrease because of you're a shitbag that puts old cars up on blocks in his front yard, or has homeless derelicts living on his front porch. That's why I built in an area zoned "Residential", and not "Commercial". What you do ten miles away on your zoned property is irrelevant, as long as you don't erect a fucking plutonium processing plant upwind from me. If you want to live in a house that looks like a junk-yard, or if you want to start a home for homeless people, that's great, as long as you do it where it doesn't negatively affect my property values. And yes, I'm willing to pay the state to shoot you in the fucking face if that's what it takes to keep me from losing tens-of-thousands of dollars of my hard-earned investment just because you want to illegally house bums.

You see, the law is good for both of us. In an anarchy, I'd talk to you nicely about it, and try to get you to see things my way. If that didn't work, I'd simply burn your fucking house to the ground and plant a garden where you used to live.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Lots of babble. No answers. Lots of bluster. No content.

You are ruining my property values. Go away.

See how that works? See how stupid it is?

[ace_m82]

Good luck collecting that fine...

"But Peter and John answered them, 'You must decide whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God,'" Acts 4:19

Actually, I already know what they'd choose. And with that choice comes their condemnation.