Here's a little more background and some updates on the garden evictions in Los Angeles this week.
The dispute goes back several years to when the city forced the landowner, a Mr. Ralph Horowitz, to sell the land so the city could build an incinerator. The project never happened, so the city turned the land over to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which allowed a small group of people to garden there for free. When the land did not get used for the public purpose necessary for the original eminent domain action that cost him the property, Horowitz sued to get it back and the city agreed.
The quotes yesterday were unfreakingbelievable, including an incredibly stupid remark by an incredibly bright lawyer who is representing the squatters. My very favorite came from one of the entitlement-addicted gardeners.
“We are just trying to grow food for our own selves,” one said. “And that's not a crime.”
Well, it depends on where you grow it. It is, in fact, a crime to grow food on someone else's land if you don't have permission to do so. The crime is called "trespassing." Try it in my back yard and you'll probably get a Louisville Slugger across your dome, if not worse.
Attorney Dan Stormer, whom I otherwise respect a great deal, filed a lawsuit claiming that undoing the eminent domain sale was a “backroom deal” that the farmers are entitled to challenge. “We're asking that the sale be rescinded because ... it was an unlawful gift of public money to Mr. Horowitz,” he said.
That's absurd enough, but here's the truly great quote: If that argument is rejected, Stormer said he may take legal action on other grounds, including arguing that Horowitz has rejected offers to sell the land on behalf of the mainly Hispanic farmers.
“If his rejection of offer was based upon race, I think we have a good claim for discrimination.”
I think Dan Stormer is smarter than that. He has to know that the discrimination claim is complete bullshit. When a bunch of hispanics call someone evil, and a member of the "Jewish mafia," and he then takes offense and decides not to do business with them, it is not unlawful discrimination. After they started picketing the man's home and calling him names in the media, I doubt he'd want to sell to them for any price, but that's not a bad thing, and I'm certain it has nothing to do with the skin of these people. It is reasonable to assume that Horowitz would treat a group of equally obnoxious Jews exactly the same way. Moreover, the underlying assumption -- that he wasn't willing to sell to them -- is also bullshit. Horowitz offered to sell 10 acres of the land to a trust set up on behalf of the farmers but the group was unable to raise the money before the option expired. The refusal to sell after an option expires is not discrimination.
Stormer said the recent evictions were merely a setback. “What happens next is we keep fighting. Fighting in courts, fighting in politics,” he added. Aha! The truth comes out. The group is really just trying to rally support, attract some has-been tree-climbing actresses and see if they can pressure this man into surrendering his land a second time so that a bunch of farmless farmers can grow vegetables for free.
But since all these supporters are so certain that it is appropriate to let people who have less take over the lands of people who have more, I'm sure it will be easy to reach a solution to this problem. The supporters can let the farmers use the supporters' own land.
Of course, I don't see Darryl Hannah or Dan Stormer offering up their own front yards....
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