Landlords in Oakland are banned from finding out it renters are criminals

Progressives, aka socialists and communists, seek to “destigmatize” criminal behavior in Oakland, California with a very dangerous measure.

The City Council has unanimously passed a measure banning landlords from performing criminal background checks on applicants. They cannot know if the applicants are criminals.

The vote was unanimous Tuesday night and they are the first city to do so. It’s the year of the criminal.

“Indescribable emotions and feelings,” said John Jones III of Oakland, who got out of prison in 2012 and struggled to find a place to live in Oakland despite his well-paying job as an aviation mechanic.

They probably worked hard to find this one sympathetic example. if he turned his life around, that’s wonderful. But, who knows. He was involved with the gangs in the area, was convicted of dealing drugs, and was the child of a father who was in the Black Panthers and a mother who was a member of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

It endangers landlords and their businesses.

Another progressive “reform” measure is taking place in Oakland under the leadership of Mayor Libby Schaaf. She is the mayor who signaled gangs and warned all of the illegal aliens in her city of an upcoming ICE raid.

It puts renters in a terrible position and it could turn his/her rentals into a hellhole. There are all sorts of criminals and some are very dangerous. Landlords need to know.

This is like the “Ban the Box,” a program that seeks to forbid employers from asking about job applicants’ criminal background information. Mr. Jones is in that program too. If the criminal decides to harm an employee or a customer, it is the business owner who is liable.

Burdening landlords and employers for the benefit of people who engaged in crime is hardly fair.

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