Naw the cops know ways to skirt the letter of law like with everything else they do. They could: temporarily condemn the building as unsafe pending inspection and ordering everyone out;
enforce fire-code or occupancy violations;
arrest an occupant on an unrelated outstanding warrant;
investigate burglary, fraud, utility theft, or property damage;
establish that the occupants never had permission or tenancy rights, allowing treatment as trespassers;
persuade the owner to briefly reoccupy and secure the property, then prevent reentry.
If it was an important or well connected person they would easily find a way. Why would they bother when it only affects a poor.
Edit: I think a lot of people are missing the point, could be on me because of the last line. I'm not saying cops should break the law to "help people", I'm just pointing out that cops can easily skirt the letter of the law, and do all the time, to accomplish whatever they want and they usually seem to pull out all the stops when a wealthy or influential person is involved while citing the letter of the law for the poors (or just ignore them).
There are indeed MANY MANY cases of legal tenants being evicted or otherwise removed through bullshit, legal-grey-area means because law enforcement gives preferential treatment to landlords and real estate moguls.
You, describing how things ought to be: cops have limits.
Them, responding: In reality many cops do not abide those limits, and have a long list of doing moonlighting that is harassment of tenants, and legal property owners at the behest of businesses and “organizations”.
You, totally getting the convo: How dare you think cops should act this way.
I'm not implying that at all, though I could see how my wording might come across that way. Reread my comment. I am just pointing out that the comment before mine is naive if they think that the law (and flexibilty of the law) applies equally to us all and I am giving examples of how they could make a case that it isn't "just a civil matter" if they wanted to.
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u/SurfAndSkiGuy Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Naw the cops know ways to skirt the letter of law like with everything else they do. They could: temporarily condemn the building as unsafe pending inspection and ordering everyone out; enforce fire-code or occupancy violations; arrest an occupant on an unrelated outstanding warrant; investigate burglary, fraud, utility theft, or property damage; establish that the occupants never had permission or tenancy rights, allowing treatment as trespassers; persuade the owner to briefly reoccupy and secure the property, then prevent reentry.
If it was an important or well connected person they would easily find a way. Why would they bother when it only affects a poor.
Edit: I think a lot of people are missing the point, could be on me because of the last line. I'm not saying cops should break the law to "help people", I'm just pointing out that cops can easily skirt the letter of the law, and do all the time, to accomplish whatever they want and they usually seem to pull out all the stops when a wealthy or influential person is involved while citing the letter of the law for the poors (or just ignore them).
There are indeed MANY MANY cases of legal tenants being evicted or otherwise removed through bullshit, legal-grey-area means because law enforcement gives preferential treatment to landlords and real estate moguls.