Boss Bergman Law

Boss Bergman’s Law

The City of Worcester has a long history of using police power to violate the Constitutional rights of its residents and interfere in what are civil matters. The City ordinance regarding panhandling was recently ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. The pursuit of criminal charges against BlackLives Matter protesters by the City Manager was declared not to be a criminal matter by the Worcester Court.

The City government has also asked the Attorney General to investigate fraud charges against a predominantly Black run community center when the City’s own audit found not fraud. In this case the City Manager caved into a gang of racists in the City Council.

Once again the City Council of Worcester will decide on whether it will seek police force in what is clearly a civil matter. A reasonable person could conclude that this new ordinance is another abuse of police power.

On February 9, 2016 City Councillor Moe Bergman will petition the Council for an exception to State statutes. He wants landlords to have the ability to evict tenants who are charged with illegal possession of weapons.

Of course anyone who has an illegal weapon is a cause of concern and the police should be involved. However the issue is that of eviction, a wholly civil matter.

There are civil remedies other than increasing the police power of the City of Worcester. The best remedy is to have a clause in the lease that the lease can be terminated when there is a conviction of illegal weapon possession. Even this might not be needed if the conviction results in incarceration. In any event the lease will at some time expire and it does not have to be renewed.

For tenants at will the landlord can evict a tenant with a 30 day notice.

The landlord or business manager should have the common sense to screen a potential lessee BEFORE the lease is signed. This is standard business practice.

The real purpose of Mr. Bergman ordinance is to help landlords in low income neighborhoods get rid of tenants they do not like. It is essentially a new way for landlords to circumvent the rights of tenants found in the statutes.

Mr. Bergman’s ordinance will probably be ruled unconstitutional if it reaches the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.  It punishes people who have not been found guilty of any crime and presumed innocent. The other items in the so called Public Nuisance ordinances of the State and Worcester could also then be reviewed as well.

It seems to me that the petition will fail at the State level. No other city in the Commonwealth has such an ordinance and the usual way to establish such use of police force would be through the State Legislature.

Reportedly some elements of the Mr. Bergman’s petition’ as drafted by the “use the police first” City Manager Augustus’ are downright silly. It includes a clause giving the District Attorney of Worcester County permission to evict tenants. As we all know eviction is a civil matter and outside of the germane of the DA.

This petition is especially bad as it shows the influence that bad or incompetent landlords have on the making of laws. It also shows the propensity of the City government to use police force unnecessarily against mostly poor people.