Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman slammed the soft treatment that squatters receive during an interview with the New York Post published on Saturday.
A TikTok user went viral in late March for telling illegal immigrants how to use so-called “squatters rights” to “invade” empty houses after a New Yorker was reportedly detained for allegedly trying to kick such individuals out of her own home. Fetterman slammed the idea that squatters should be allowed to occupy someone else’s home, and told the NYP “I am not woke.”
“Squatters have no rights,” Fetterman said. “How can you even pretend that this is anything other than you’re just breaking the law?”
“It’s wild, that if you go away on a long trip, for 30 days, and someone breaks into your home and suddenly they have rights,” Fetterman continued. “This is crazy. Like if somebody stole your car, and then they held it for 30 days, then somehow you now have some rights?”
Two teenaged squatters that were wanted for the death of a woman, who was found dead in a duffle bag inside a New York City apartment, were arrested in Pennsylvania on March 22, according to the NYP.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on March 27 to crack down on the “squatters scam” in his state by streamlining the process in which authorities can remove such individuals from homes. The bill also added three new crimes in relation to squatting.
Fetterman also took aim at soft-on-crime policies that allow repeat offenders to roam free, including in the case of New York Police Department officer Jonathan Diller who was killed allegedly by an individual who was previously arrested 21 times.
“If this individual is convicted, then he should spend the rest of his life in prison, and never have an opportunity to get out,” Fetterman told the NYP. “If you have those kinds of established records, it doesn’t serve any greater goal to allow people that are offending, offending, offending and allow them to not be held accountable.”
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