Premise of drug house
law ethically dubious
The Dominion Post reported Tuesday on the Greenmont Neighborhood Association’s proposal of a new “drug house” ordinance in Morgantown. In that article, these laws were accurately described as “making [landlords] responsible for what goes on in the property.” The goal is the eviction of repeat drug offenders.
City Council will be hearing arguments about this issue soon.
To see how dangerous these ordinances can be, one only needs to look at the law passed in Martinsburg — the same law offered at the Greenmont Neighborhood Association as sample legislation.
The entire premise of the law is ethically dubious. In no other aspect of jurisprudence would we ever consider holding people responsible for activity they are unaware of and have no participation in. Indeed, the law specifically allows the city to fine landowners for the actions of their tenants, regardless of whether the city even informs them of the activity. [549.02, subsection (a) ii.]
Perhaps of most concern, the law authorizes automatic warrants and searches by the police at any time once anyone in the house has been caught with drugs twice — regardless of who else lives there. [552.02, (d)] This new carte blanche power strips basic Fourth Amendment protections, and could almost certainly be successfully challenged on constitutional grounds.
All of this will result in landlords requiring background checks, and ultimately, the inability of anyone who has previously been convicted of drug offenses to find housing.
If we can’t shake the pre-Enlightenment notion that people do not have sovereignty over their bodies, surely we can agree that making people with addictions homeless (by prosecuting a totally separate group of people) is not the answer to any problem Morgantown is facing.
Kendall Perkinson
Morgantown
New carrier’s name tied
to USS West Virginia
On Jan. 19, the U.S. Navy announced that the newest aircraft carrier will be named for Doris Miller, the most celebrated hero on the USS West Virginia when it sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Oglebay Hall Memorial Plaza contains the ship’s mast and bell from the USS West Virginia when it was decommissioned. Included in that area are plaques honoring those who died that day and a plaque honoring Doris Miller.
The USS West Virginia was raised and re-entered the war later. Doris Miller was reassigned to a warship that sank two years later. His remains were never recovered.
I believe that it is appropriate to make known West Virginia’s connection to this history. I hope that this newspaper will publish a more detailed accounting of these events.
Scott Burnworth
Westover
Democrats ignored their
own who broke the law
I see by a letter in The Dominion Post that the crooked Democrats in Washington have brainwashed a lot of people into thinking the lies they have been telling about our president are true.
These people are convinced that this president is corrupt, but he is doing a far better job than the last three presidents ever did.
Would he really break the law. If you really want to get to the bottom of this mess go back to the Obama administration and look where the corruption started. President Obama should have been impeached for the very things that the Democrats are trying to get rid of President Trump for.
Obama got away with it for eight years and they never said a word about him breaking the law along with crooked Hillary Clinton. She got four people killed in Benghazi and nobody said a word.
You know I always heard if something works and it is not broken don’t fix it. The only thing that needs fixed is the crooked Democrats in Washington and the way to fix them is get them out of Washington. They have been there far too long.
Ralph Correll
Morgantown
