A Georgia homeowner recently landed in jail after she attempted to remove a squatter who was allegedly living in her home. Loletha Hale tried to move back into her home in Clayton County, but was charged with criminal trespass. Hale had undergone a painstaking process through the courts trying to evict the squatter to no avail, taking matters into her own hands.
“I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in deplorable conditions. While this woman, this squatter slept in my home,” Hale said. However, when authorities were called to the property, she was called to see the issue through the alleged squatter’s perspective. “Just think of it from this perspective, though. Everybody isn’t as fortunate as you to have a bed. All the little things, a bed in their house, food in the kitchen,” a deputy said.
The alleged squatter, Sakemeyia Johnson, was cited by police under Georgia’s new Squatter Reform Act. However, the Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Latrevia Lates-Johnson determined that Sakemeyia was “not a squatter” because she was related to a previously evicted tenant’s partner. However, authorities claimed that Hale didn’t have a proper writ of possession to evict Johnson, thus making her attempted eviction illegal.
The controversial incident has sparked major discussion online about the state of property rights in the United States. “A homeowner is jailed and told to check her privilege for calling the police on a squatter residing in her house,” the popular X account End Wokeness wrote. However, some pushed back, where one person wrote, “The homeowner was jailed because she took matters into her own hands instead of evicting the “squatters” legally and letting the process play out. This is a risk all property owners take when they rent to others.”
Others maintained the laws regarding squatters must be changed. “Squatter laws need to change… when you break into a home and squat … it’s a crime… producing fabricated “agreements” should result in jail time while this may be a game to the squatter (to see how long I can live in someone else’s property rent free).. there are real consequences to the homeowner..” one person wrote.
Echoing this sentiment, one person said, “At some point Americans are going to realize that, in its current form, the “justice” system is largely a joke. There are exceptions, but the overall thrust of the system is pro-criminal, careless about victims, and corrupt in a thousand ways. It doesn’t even have justice on its dance card. Judges are the central factor in this. If we can, we should vote nearly all of them out every time until good judges (assuming there are some) become more than a tiny majority. Term limits enforced by the people. Then we can focus on the remaining biased, arrogant, robe-wearing, “your honor” bozos who deserve zero respect and no job.”
Watch news coverage of the controversial squatter incident in Clayton County, Georgia below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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