Riot reparations "I live in a suburb of Los Angeles in the golden state of California. Like other states, the place I call home has been hit hard by the Wuhan Flu. Unemployment is high, businesses are closing, and our state’s budget is in freefall. If that weren’t enough, California has accrued millions of dollars in damages from the George Floyd riots. Now, I’m all for doing my part to help my state recover from this current economic crisis. But paying for riot repairs? Not so much. As a homeschooling mom who walked away from a lucrative career in high-tech to raise and educate my children, I’m not down for this costly revolution. Instead of cheerfully contributing my husband’s hard-earned wages towards the payment of National Guard troops and cleanup crews, I demand reparations." . . .
. . . "I’m not sure what they teach in public school these days, but I can tell you that my homeschooled children have been taught that when you make a mess, you clean it up. In fact, my kids have spent whole school days scrubbing down walls, tidying up rooms, and pulling weeds as part of their home education endeavors. After all, civilized children learn in a clean and orderly environment -- one that should be as lovely as their penmanship. I assume it’s the same for government-educated children. Therefore, as part of reparations, I ask the rioters to pick up a scrub brush in one hand and a bucket in the other and get on with the business of cleaning up their messes. It seems to me to be the reasonable thing to do. And while they’re at it, I request that they restore the toppled statues to their proper places so that children -- homeschooled or otherwise -- might enjoy field trips to memorials where they can learn more about their history and forebears." . . .
How property owners harmed by the riots could sue the negligent governments that allowed the damage "Property owners who have suffered great losses in the course of recent riots and chaos in American cities should be able to sue for just compensation. It is called inverse condemnation which is the flip-side of eminent domain. Property rights are a cornerstone of the American system and are protected constitutionally from government overreach. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments include Due Process Clauses and the Takings Clause, which are the bedrock of constitutionally protected private property rights, wherein we are not to be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” … “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” . . .
(Emphasis added by TD)
. . . "When elected officials ignore the safeguards necessary for upholding these rights, or even worse, promote antithetical measures, diminution of private property value and erosion of individual rights abounds.
"Devastated property owners should have an avenue of recourse beyond battening down the hatches hoping to ride out the storm. Justice could mean just compensation through inverse condemnation."
