Excuses, excuses, they passed the permit ordinance to collect fees, and their enforcement personnel are LEO wannabes who are badge heavy and self-important. The other day my wife was watching one of those hour long ads for SPCA/HSUS, Animal Cops and I was amazed to see an "Animal Cop" (he had a badge, but was not a cop) invade a property: "For the welfare of the animals."chasfm11 wrote:Our Town has recently started requiring permits for roof replacements. They did this because during some of the roof work, furnace and gas hot water heater flues were dislodged or disconnected. The inspector has to come out to verify that those are still in place. The problem is that while the inspector is there, they can "observe" anything else that they don't like and can issue you a citation. It is like a license to go through your property. A lot of the codes are pretty iffy and subjective. The amazing part is how the town seemed to have gotten along without all of this inspection "help" before.
Some of the engineers on our Town's inspection program have about the same kind of a mentality as the compliance officer in the OP. While it was not the smartest thing to leave a front door unlocked, the mind set of someone who would step inside because if it needs to be as far away from a public post as possible.
OK, I'm all for defending the animals, but there are rights involved, constitutionally guaranteed rights that are not allowed to be trampled by anyone for any reason.
And the "Animal Cop" even stated that he didn't have time to get a LEO out to the scene and get enough information for a warrant, and invaded the home of the person who was "abusing" the animals. Yes, the guy had way too many dogs and cats, and yes, two of the cats in the garage had pretty bad injuries from a recent cat fight, but none of this could be seen from outside, and yet the "Animal Cop" felt it was reasonable to force his way into the home.
Many years ago my wife and I sold our house. Years previous I had replaced a large portion of the supply side plumbing with PVC pipe. Between those times, the city we lived in, where the plumbers' union had a great deal of political power, had passed an ordinance making it illegal to use plastic pipe for supply line. During the public hearings discussing the proposed ordinance, I testified (as a fireman) that the amount of poison gas that would result from the supply pipes burning during a fire would be minimal compared to that given off by the much larger soil pipes and that using the poison gas from burning pipes was merely an excuse to allow the plumbers' union to make more money.
So here I was vacuuming the front hall of the house I had sold the day before, the last room and I was out of there, and this yoyo starts banging on the front door. I opened the door and he shoved a badge in my face and said "building inspector" and pushed past me. He entered the basement of the house, and then came back up seconds later and told me that there was plastic pipe in the house and I could not sell it. It was obvious that he knew there was plastic pipe, and knowing the city government I am sure they sent him out specifically because of my testimony and many letters about the plastic pipe.
I told him I was not the owner of the house and that he was under arrest.
When I explained that flashing a badge that way and entering the house that way were both criminal acts, he started mumbling expletives and left. Never any repercussions.