75 cops, 6½ hours of gunfire, for an eviction in Pittsburgh
75 cops, 6½ hours of gunfire, for an eviction in Pittsburgh
The suspect, William Hardison Sr., shot at deputies trying to serve an eviction notice, resulting in a standoff that lasted about 6½ hours.
Details are still scant, but...
“I mean, he had a lot of ammunition in that house, and certainly ... all of us were strapped, you know, with ammunition, and we were calling for additional ammunition,” Kraus said. “Like I said, we tried to give him every opportunity to come out.”
...I'll go way out on a limb and suggest that this could've been handled better.
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...I'll go way out on a limb and suggest that this could've been handled better.
Yeah, I mean, they could stop evicting people and sentencing them to homelessness.
That would be a start and would have avoided this entire thing.
I mean the guy could have not spent all his money on guns and ammo and pay rent?
Where are guns on Maslow's hierarchy of needs do you reckon?
Ammo costs far less than rent and lasts far longer then just a month when purchased.
It's also not essential, so...
(I know, I know, it's hard for you guys to admit that guns aren't the most important thing in life)
You sound no different than boomers telling younger people to stop buying lattes and avocado toast to fix our financial burdens.
(Under handed comments add nothing to the conversation, you just sound like an asshole)
Edit: I thought this guy couldn't afford rent and was another victim of the housing crisis, rather then just refusing to pay it (something about being a sovereign citizen). My bad.
Dude, if your budget is so tight that you can barely afford to pay your rent then choose your priorities. For that guy it was guns > rent? He deserves zero pity if he gets thrown out on the street. Heck, gun nuts are all about individual responsibilities? Well that's what individual responsibilities looks like and it looks like he just couldn't accept it so he felt the need to shoot at the people coming to evict him.
I meant more generally, arguing rent over ammo or other relatively inexpensive (vs rent) wants. Sorry I didn't realize this particular individual seems to have been avoiding rent rather then unable to afford it.
My bad.
Even if it was an issue with being able to afford it instead of avoiding it, hoarding non essentials while you're struggling to pay for essential needs is fucking ridiculous, sell that shit, keep a roof above your head.
Well part of my point is that ammo is very cheap. 1000 rounds of 22lr is like 100USD. Even 1000 rounds of 5.56/.223 (AR-15 ammo) starts around $500. Hence why I compared it to lattes and avocado toast. Cutting all that out doesn't fix the cost of housing or slumping salaries.
Im speaking generally ofc, idk how much ammo this guy had. But more ammo than you could fire in 6 hours is cheaper than youd expect.
If you think 100 dollars is cheap then you probably shouldn't be talking about the prices of necessities vs amenities. I bought gas today and now have less then 100 dollars to my name. I'm making it work, but don't act like dropping that kind of cash to shoot at cops for a few minutes is cheap. Let alone a 6+ hours.
Depends on how long it takes you to spend the $100. $100 in one sitting? Absolutely I agree that's expensive. $10 every month over the course of a 10 months? Many would consider that cheap and ammo takes years to go bad.
Regardless, my point is $100 isn't going to pay your rent. But in this guys case it seems like it doesn't matter, he doesn't want to pay rather then couldn't.
Guarantee you that him just liquidating the guns and ammo would've been enough money for a new apartment or to pay his rent.
Dude didn't want to pay and wanted to fight the gov because he was a SovCit.
Sources said Hardison believed he was a sovereign citizen, meaning he thought he was exempt from the law.
A Channel 11 News photographer discovered a video of Hardison during a prior interaction with police in 2019. In the video, you can see a Moorish flag, which is flown by Moorish sovereign citizens.
Hardison had a criminal history dating back to at least 2000.
Source: further nested news links if you chase the articles back.
Ah. Fair enough this guy sounds like an asshole.
Apparently if you're sufficiently against property rights, they're vital.
Buying guns is better praxis than paying rent.
Agreed, but this is probably not the case to make the argument with. If someone has the guns and ammo to fight off police enforcing property owner rights (something they would be way more gung ho about than stopping a school shooter it seems) for six hours, they have the money to pay for rent.
No one should need to pay rent.
How are you going to finance housing then? Honest question. Not everyone can buy housing outright. Lots of people are very poor at managing their finances. See, my mom for exhibit A.
Socialized housing that is paid through government funds and taxes.
We do need socialized housing, but the government doesn't have the ability to construct and manage most of the housing. Too expensive. The bureaucracy would kill it, just look at what happened to the Soviet Union.
My city can't even build an apartment building without spending 8 years in design review. And they're having a private nonprofit so ask the lifting.
US real estate is worth around $43 trillion.
People should be allowed to occupy and damage any property they've set foot on once, not matter how expensive
People should have a home if the action here were to provide another housing option, then this wouldn't have happened. Also seems the person likely had a traumatic reason for being evicted and needed help.
I agree. But I probably wouldn't phrase that as "they could stop evicting people".
Even if well implemented social housing existed, one should still be able to evict people from expensive property they aren't willing or able to pay for.
We need to throw people on the streets otherwise we risk damage to private property!
Indeed. If you want anything better than the cheapest apartments to exist, you have to be able to evict people who can't afford more than the cheapest apartments.
But people these days can't even afford the cheapest apartments, so what's the point of having "better" apartments for the minority?
So instead let the people move into those apartments for free, damage them and then let them shoot at police trying to evict them?
Would you be willing to part with your life savings to give them to me just because I left a comment to your thread? If not, why are you expecting other people to part with the houses they built with their life savings for some random bloke?
By definition, people can afford the cheapest apartments, because that's how those apartments get rented at that price point.
Do you not see the problem here?? Your definition only includes those able to rent. As soon as the price of the cheapest apartment rises anyone under that cutoff becomes invisible to you.
Yes that is what happens when you have too little supply.
Fuck the children of poor people, idiots should've been working to supplement the families income if they didn't want to be crammed into a room with their siblings. Lazy ass kids...
crammed into a room with their siblings
I love how you say this like it's a crime against humanity lol
👍
So I can just take all your stuff and you're fine with it because fuck private property?
There are huge problems in the current system but just letting the person with the most guns do whatever they want is not a good solution
Personal Property is distinct from Private.
You're literally advocating for stealing from one person to provide for another here so the question is apt.
and they gave the correct answer.
If it prevents someone from being homeless without risking someone else (or me) being homeless then yes. Private property should not be of a higher concern than someone having shelter.
You could be helping hundreds of people in poor countries survive, but you're not. You should be selling your property and donating the proceeds to UNICEF or similar.
Do you not understand the difference between taking from someone that's hoarding a resource required by society and taking everything someone owns?
You have more than you need, though, and someone else needs it more than you do. You don't have to give up everything you own, just everything in excess of your need.
This is bad faith trolling. Youre conflating the private property corporations and the wealthy hoard, depriving people of vital resources for their own profit, with my personal property of a few spoiled apples that I wasn't able to eat.
Me pinching pennies so I can donate even more is not going to make a lasting impact whereas disowning those willfully depriving others will.
You said
Private property should not be of a higher concern than someone having shelter.
Your private property could be used to help house someone much more in need than yourself.
Some people should be allowed to fail.
Some people being anyone who is unable to pay rent?
Sure, I could conceive of a scenario where someone who couldn't afford rent should be allowed to fail. Are you unable to?
Dude, shut the fuck up.
I hope you get to be in this dude's situation one day and you have to take your homelessness with a please and thank you, sir, may I have another.
He occupied a house, not an apartment. He got evicted because he wouldn't settle for less than a whole house.
I may be in this dude's situation one day. And you know what I'm gonna do? Move to a cheaper apartment.
Where do you have that information? There was nothing about the reason for the eviction in this article or the one it linked to.
Here is a pic of the residence. Idk if rented or not but it is not small
And here is the real reason for the conflict
Sources said Hardison believed he was a sovereign citizen, meaning he thought he was exempt from the law.
Channel 11 News photographer discovered a video of Hardison during a prior interaction with police in 2019. In the video, you can see a Moorish flag, which is flown by Moorish sovereign citizens.
Hardison had a criminal history dating back to at least 2000.
Source is the link to yet another article found within the linked article mentioned in OPs linked article. They post his address I snapped the Street View pic from that.