Hate Crime help?

July 25, 2017 7:55 PM

Can police remove a visiter from your home if no longer welcome?

My friend experienced a situation where he was verbally attacked and spat on for being gay, he slapped back and was beaten. The guy has no lease to his house, but the police are saying they cannot remove the attacker from the home.

Is this truth or is this because the police are failing to do their job? Currently my friend is in the hospital and some of his friends are at his house as the attacker is still there in his house!!- it's hard to know what is happening but there if video footage of the police saying they can not remove the guy. What is going on here? If you'd like to see video footage you can pm me, he's currently asked to share info about this all over and is seeking advice. He might be able to pay the guy off to leave, but I am genuinely concerned the police are not doing their job, possibly because my friend is gay-- or maybe the laws are so messed up that you can't require an unwelcome guest to leave your home even if they beat you up. How is that a law?

Sorry if this is convoluted, I'm worried about my friend. At least if I can know whether the police are failing I can try to help by spreading this, if that's really the law I don't even know.

posted by xarnop to Law & Government (14 answers total)

It depends on the jurisdiction, but generally cops say this when they think there may be a landlord/tenant relationship where you would need to go through the eviction process to get rid of them (or if they are trying to worm out of doing anything).
posted by gatorae at 8:00 PM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The guy has no lease to his house

The fact that you mention the concept of a lease indicates that this is not a case of "I invited him over for coffee for half an hour", but a longer term 'visit'. In that case, he may well be a resident of the house even if there is no lease - it depends on how long he has been staying there.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 8:04 PM on July 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

Has your friend reported the beating as an assault to the police? Is there a police report? Can he press charges? I'm not sure where you are located, but in some places there are special rules for eviction and removal of an assailant from a victim's residence. Speaking with police, an LGBT advocacy organization, and a tenant's rights organization can help you figure out options.
posted by quince at 8:15 PM on July 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Yes the police came and said they can't do anything, but he could take it to civil court, they took him to the ER and it sounds bad- his friends paid the guy who beat him to leave. They are asking for people to call the police and file complaints about how it was handled so I was hoping to figure out if the police actually did anything to call about. Basically the police left the people who beat him with head trauma in his house breaking and damaging his stuff and said they couldn't do anything and it seems like bad laws if that's the case. He is very plugged in to the LGBT community so hopefully they can get him better advice. Waiting on how he's doing in the hospital just wishing I could do more.

I guess at least the people are gone from his house now. Thanks for the responses.
posted by xarnop at 8:38 PM on July 25, 2017

You might get more helpful answers if you can provide the jurisdiction and more specifics about what the assailant's position in the house is - unofficial tenant, overnight guest, etc.

Thanks for trying to help your friend. I hope he'll be okay.
posted by bunderful at 8:46 PM on July 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

If there is some sort of living situation, you can look into domestic violence restraining orders. In my area the police will enforce those and get them out of the house. Legal Aid in my area helps people with those, but they are very easy to do yourself, too.
posted by gatorae at 8:58 PM on July 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: -unofficial tenant (offered a few weeks)
Bowling Green

Are there no laws about someone breaking your stuff remaining in your house? I think there may be options once he gets out, but they said because he was not in a romantic relationship with the guy he can't pursue domestic violence issues. (My understanding of the video.) I guess maybe civil court is his only option. I'm hoping he has some lawyer friends in KY who can advise. So far there's a news channel that said they are looking into it.
posted by xarnop at 9:03 PM on July 25, 2017

I don't understand why the person was not arrested and taken to jail for felony assault and destroying personal property. A person's status as a tenant does not give them immunity against criminal charges.

This sounds like it might be worth checking with a local attorney to get sound legal advice.
posted by merejane at 10:25 PM on July 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

The best course of action here would be to formally report the attack to the police and press charges, even if it's after the fact, and get an emergency restraining order -- the police will use that as a means to eject the unwanted visitor from the home.

Without your friend pressing charges or obtaining a restraining order, the police really can't do much if the attacker had resident rights.

These are not complicated things to do, I promise. It can all happen very quickly and easily. Best of luck.
posted by ananci at 1:11 AM on July 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's been a similar situation going on with the family next door to me for nearly the past year. Granddaughter is living rent-free with grandma, who has dementia. GD has physically attacked her grandma and her own mother when she's come over and intervened. But surprise, surprise - GD can't just be kicked out, even though she's never paid rent, because she's a lawful occupant of the house. In this jurisdiction, length of occupancy plus the fact that she gets her mail at that address is sufficient to prove she has a right to be there. She'd have to be served with an eviction notice, and the process takes time.

The cops told the family getting a restraining order would work faster than filing to evict her, since once it is granted the person must leave the premises immediately. The fact that her grandma was at imminent risk of further harm from GD was the basis for getting the order. It worked. Once the order was granted, the cops assisted the family in removing her from the premises.

Not only should your friend file charges, but getting a restraining order against the assailant would be a good idea, too.
posted by Lunaloon at 4:36 AM on July 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Lawyer. If someone is violent, they can generally be evicted quickly. The police can stop someone from vandalizing property. A lawyer will know how to proceed. This is domestic violence.
posted by theora55 at 5:24 AM on July 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Wow. I was pretty much positive that the cops were wrong about the domestic violence thing, but it turns out that they were right and Kentucky has an absurdly narrow definition of domestic violence. And the requirements for a protective order are a little more difficult for me to tangle out, but it looks like they might be similarly limited in scope and not applicable to non-romantic relationships between non family members.

Man, I hope I'm wrong about that, because that is absurd. Somebody tell me I read that wrong.

I'm not getting why the attacker wasn't immediately arrested for assault, at least, though. Did the police have an answer for that? Can he file a report for assault now?
posted by ernielundquist at 7:11 AM on July 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Good news- he reported back to me, is ok enough to leave the hospital and is in the process of lawyering up and has a large community of friends on site trying to help with the process (and that included holding police accountable if they messed up for not arresting the man for assault).

I don't know any more details but I do feel like he's in good hands now- thanks so much for all the answers, this was eye opening and possibly an avenue to work on in terms of social justice/progress inasmuch as I can because it does seem like the laws are pretty broken if this is the was handled "properly".
posted by xarnop at 2:38 PM on July 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

It is possible that in the officer's mind the choice was to arrest none or both (due to the slap). There was what might be characterized an assault on the part of both parties.
posted by Carbolic at 5:57 PM on July 26, 2017