Comments Elsewhere

Vince: If not for the illegitimate force of government, Horowitz, et al would not have had their homestead terminated. Anything that occurs as a result of the illegitimate action should be null and void. The property should revert to the original homesteader.

Anything at all? No matter how long the property has remained abandoned and no matter what Horowitz himself did with respect to it?

Horowitz abandoned his claim to his share of the plot for 15 years before he took the city to court — not claiming that the land had belonged to him all along (which would have justified only a share of the land being returned to him without compensation to the city government, NOT the piratical “sale” of the entire property in return for a pay-off), but rather that the city was the owner of the land for the last 15 years but was under a contractual obligation to sell it to him.

Whatever imaginary quasi-Rothbardian defense you might be able to put in Horowitz’s mouth for his claim over a parcel of the land, he IS NOT making that claim in fact. His public actions constitute a quitclaim of his claim on his share of the land to the city government from 1985-2003, and thus an abandonment of a direct claim to the property. The urban farmers were thus justified in treating the land as abandoned property, available for homsteading and transforming by personal occupancy and labor. If Horowitz changes his mind NOW, and starts demanding compensation for an illegitimate seizure in 1985 (rather than asserting the non-existent rights that derive from a piratical “sale”) then he has a right to demand restitution from government officials but no right to take even his share of the land, let alone the WHOLE LOT, out from under farmers who homesteaded it while it was left abandoned by him and the other former owners of the land.

Here are a couple of questions that may help us to break out of the circle into which the conversation has fallen.

1. As it happens, there are a number of people who lived or had businesses on land that was seized by their city government and then turned over to Wal-Mart, who then set up stores and parking lots on it. Are you claiming that the homeowners or business owners victimized by the land seizure have a right to come in 15 years after abandoning the land to the city government, forcibly seize control of the plot on which the Wal-Mart sits, blow up the store and tear up the parking lot, and then take over control of the plot, after more than a decade of continuous operation? I don’t think this is true even of cases where the store directly colluded with the city government in order to make the initial theft — let alone of cases where the new occupant played no role in the theft, and only came along years after the theft had been made.

2. Are you claiming that Horowitz has a just claim to seize the ENTIRE farm, as he did, or only that he has a claim to seize a parcel of it equivalent to his share of the land?

2a. If the latter, what basis could he have for seizing the land that never belonged to him before the seizure, which would not provide just as good a basis for the farmers claiming rightful ownership of ALL the land, including Horowitz’s share?

2b. If the former, then which parcel of the land has he got a right to claim? And do you think that there is ANY length of time that Horowitz could have left the land unused, or ANY public actions he could have taken, which would constitute abandonment of the property for the purposes of future homesteaders? If so, how long and what are they?