In a number of cases around the country, law enforcement agencies have destroyed or severely damaged the homes or businesses of innocent people. When property owners sue for compensation under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment (which requires payment of “just compensation” when the government takes private property), law enforcement usually claims they aren’t required to provide it because their actions fall within the “police power” exception to takings liability. The latest case of this kind involves an LA SWAT team that severely damaged an innocent man’s store in the process of unsuccessfully trying to detain a suspect.
Reason’s Billy Binion summarizes what happened:
It took Carlos Pena decades to build his local business after immigrating to North Hollywood, California, from El Salvador. It only took a few hours to destroy it.
While Pena is the one who created NoHo Printing & Graphics, where he fashioned commercial signs and banners, T-shirts, headshots, and other products, he is not the one who did the damage, despite the fact that he has been left with the bill and without a livelihood.
In early August of last year, after a fugitive violently thrust Pena from his shop and barricaded himself inside, a SWAT team from the City of…
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