City inspectors board up raided home for “code violations”

The Sushi Bandit

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Sat Aug-30-08 01:42 PM
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City inspectors board up raided home for “code violations”

Source: Minnesota Independent

After the police raid this morning at 3240 17th Avenue in South Minneapolis, in which the homeowner Monica Bicking and two other people were arrested for “conspiracy to riot,” city inspectors came in at about 11:30 to board up the two-story home. City officials, including Tom Deegan, manager of the city’s problem properties unit, were on hand along with Casterjon, the private contractor in charge with boarding, to close up the home for what Deegan calls “code violations.”

Bicking’s lawyer, Bruce Nester, asked for more specific reasons for the boarding and attempted to halt the boarding process until he got them, but he was thwarted by officials and police. Deegan says he will release specific reasons for the boarding to the Joint Information Center (a partnership with MPD and SPPD) later today. Alex, who only wants to go by his first name, was at the house during the raid. He moved in to the home, along with Bicking, two weeks ago. He says that along with the other three roommates, they had invited around 30 people to stay at the home during the RNC so that friends from all over could be involved with protests. They had no intent of causing a “riot,” and were part of a peaceful protest mission. Still, Alex says electronic equipment and anything that could be used to make molotov cocktails was confiscated from the home. The police even took cans of paint out of the garage. The Minneapolis police conducted the raid after a warrant was issued by Ramsey County as part of a joint powers agreement in place between the two cities for the RNC.

After the police spent hours loading a truck full of electronic equipment and other property from the home, officials from the city’s problem properties unit showed up to board up the home. Alex says he was told it was because there were too many people sleeping in the attic. “We had a bunch of mattresses on the floor, because we had people staying with us,” he says. “And now they’re saying Monica’s house will be shut down for that. She’s in jail now. She’s not here to defend herself. It doesn’t make sense.” Neighbors were angry that the city was boarding the home, too. One neighbor yelled to police officers, “We have a crack house next door that you do nothing about. But then you’re going to board up the home of these kids! This is pure propaganda and you should be ashamed of yourselves!” Indeed, the home next door did have a number of visible code violations: tall grass and weeds, trash in the yard.

Yet along with being unable to enter her home, Bickling will have another rude awakening when she’s released from jail: The city charges $6,000 to homeowners for boarding up properties. Often these are charges for abandoning properties, a result of the foreclosure crisis. But in Bickling’s case, all that anyone, including the roommates and Bickling’s lawyer, were told before the plywood went up is that the home had “code violations.”