Smarter than I am

I was trying to work out in my mind what the bigger implications of Kelo could be, but just couldn't fully grasp it.

Then someone else comes along and nails it for me:

This has to be a godsend for towns and cities that have been stymied so far in their attempts to shut-down any businesses, corporations, or private groups of which they disapprove. Private gun ranges, airfields, RV tracts, hunting preserves, fishing resources, minority religious congregations, newspapers -- all are now fair targets for seizure and closure "for the economic benefit of the people."

Want to finally get rid of that adult bookstore or strip club?  Get your local government to determine that a high-rise apartment complex on the same parcel of land would be for the public good.  Wish that big gun store would disappear?  Wouldn't the city get more property tax from several smaller politically-correct boutiques?  Tired of those shady used car lots?  Wouldn't high-rent office buildings make more economic sense?  Make all the things you don't want go away, just by demonstrating the potential for greater local tax revenues!

What happens when they come for your small business?  What happens when they come for your neighborhood tavern?  What happens when they, THEY, a collection of pinhead local board members that hardly anyone in the community really knows about, or one idealist in a black robe, start seeing that THEY suddenly have the power to drive out "undesirables"?

What happens if the all-Christian city council starts looking at the potential tax revenues of land currently used by Jewish businesses?

What happens if the all-white city council starts thinking that a new shopping mall could bring in more tax revenues than all those low-rent apartments occupied by Hispanics and African-Americans?

This will be the end of gun stores in states like New Jersey.  This will be the end of adult entertainment in the Bible Belt.  This will lead to a new generation of segregation. 

Why?

Because you no longer have the right to own your property!

Hats off to Rand and Kerry Country for this observation.  It got me thinking, and I'm not liking what comes to mind.

(hat tip to Coyote Killer)

Comments

[Jeff]

Equally likely: what happens when the liberal, atheistic city councils suddenly realize how much in property taxes those non-tax paying church and synagogue (but never a mosque)sites are worth.

[Gullyborg]

Yes, that is the key.

People are trying to frame this as either good for the right or good for the left, depending on their point of view. But this issue transcends political ideology. It isn't right or left; it's right or WRONG and this case is WRONG.

If you are a liberal in a community with a conservative government, your property rights are in danger. If you are a conservative in a community with a liberal government, your property rights are in danger.

Essentially, this is a fine example of the tyranny of the majority. Whoever is in charge suddenly has more power over those who aren't.

It is BAD all around, right or left.

[Mark]

Bad all 'round, indeed. And it has the potential, on several levels, to get really, really ugly.

Most basic level, someone is ordered out of their house and refuses to leave. Aside from that person/family getting hurt, what happens when some of the neighbors pitch in?

And what happens when some people decide "If the courts don't care about the Constitution, why should I give a rat's butt what the courts say?" And proceed to act?

[rickl]

People are going to die as a result of this ruling. Not right now, not in great numbers, just one here and one there around the country.

When an aggrieved (former) property "owner" is facing eviction and knows full well the justice system won't back him up, what other choice does he have other than to take up arms?

Most people facing that situation, with their back up against the wall, knowing they can't possibly win when the local SWAT team surrounds their house, will think, "At least I'll take some of them with me".

So a homeowner and a police officer die during a property seizure. It won't even make the news beyond the local area, and the media will portray him as a "right-wing gun nut" or "anti-government type".