Joe Pulcinella: “In either case, coming down on any side other than that of the owner in immoral.”

I agree. But Horowitz is not the rightful owner of the property.

The farmers are. The lot had been abandoned for seven years when they came to it, and they have transformed it with their labor for the past decade and a half. Horowitz’s claim to the lot is based on his “purchase” of it from the city in 2003. But the city government cannot rightfully sell what it does not rightfully own, and in fact its claim to the land was no more valid than a pirates’ claim to “his” buried treasure. Horowitz’s “title” to the land conveys no more legitimate authority than the arbitrary grants of feudal fiefs from one warlord to another.