This is a sad testament to just how far down into a police state the United States has descended. Undercover cops in Hillsborough County, Florida hired 118 handymen just so they could arrest them all for not having licenses.
Rest easy citizens. The cops saved us from those pesky handymen who only want to do a job in exchange for money without first being extorted by the state for a license. The sting, known as “Operation House Hunters,” saw sheriff’s deputies pose as homeowners seeking handymen on social media to do jobs that required licensure. These unsuspecting handymen would be lured to one of five homes, where undercover deputies filmed them performing or agreeing to perform prohibited tasks like painting or installing recess lighting.
According to Patch, the stings were carried out between March and December of last year. The arrests were announced yesterday. “These 118 con men and women were posing as contractors & preying on innocent homeowners in Hillsborough County, who were just looking to repair or improve their home,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister at a Tuesday press conference. The mug shots of those picked up in the sweeps were displayed behind him on big posters.
Notice the language. The sheriff actually said these people were “preying on innocent homeowners.” Preying on the innocent is now doing a job in exchange for money? No, the real problem was that the handymen chose to do their business without the state’s permission. And that is unacceptable in a police state like the USSA.
Sheriff: “We have arrested 118 people in an investigation we called, ‘Operation House Hunters.’ These 118 con men & women were posing as contractors & preying on innocent homeowners in Hillsborough County, who were just looking to repair or improve their home.” pic.twitter.com/5TQyb1QteZ
— HCSO (@HCSOSheriff) February 4, 2020
At least the majority of Twitter users called the cops out for their disturbing need to use violence and force against people for trying to provide a service in exchange for money…
Oh praise be!! We can all sleep safely!! Thank Lord for the #thinblueline between us and bad paint jobs!
— Gator Man (@OrangeBlueGator) February 6, 2020
This is why the authority granted the State should be reigned in. Operating without a license should at worst be a fineable violation at best not an offense at all. People have the right to provide service and arrange contracts between themselves without the State's permission.
— AlextheTerrible (@AlexKLacey1) February 6, 2020
What terrible people. The police department, I mean.
What an unbelievable waste of resources.
— Floidberg (@floidberg) February 6, 2020
Only eight of the people arrested as part of Operation House Hunter were repeat offenders, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department. The other 110 were arrested for first-time offenses. The bulk of those charges were for “unlawful acts in the capacity of a contractor,” a misdemeanor offense that can come with a $1,000 fine and a 12-month jail sentence. Repeat violations can result in a felony charge. -Reason
What’s worse, is that the cops are usually the ones conning these contractors into doing work without a license says Leslie Sammis, a criminal defense lawyer in Tampa, Florida who is defending some of these handymen. Frequently, she says, officers will hire a handyman on the pretext of performing work that doesn’t need a license, and then during the course of the job ask them to do something that does, like unhooking a toilet or laying some tiles.
“When the handyman says no, then the undercover detective moves the conversation to something else and then comes back to the question later in a different way,” says Sammis. “By the time the handyman gets to the location, they want to make the homeowner happy and end up agreeing to perform work that they didn’t intend on doing when they first arrived. The undercover detective[s] are just creating a crime that probably wouldn’t occur otherwise.”
And that’s the nature of the police state, folks. It won’t get better either until we all stand up to this tyranny.
In exchange for safe schools and lower crime rates, we have opened the doors to militarized police, zero-tolerance policies in schools, and SWAT team raids. The insidious shift was so subtle that most of us had no idea it was happening. This follow-up to Whitehead’s award-winning A Government of Wolves is a brutal critique of an America on the verge of destroying the very freedoms that define it. Hands up!―the police state has arrived.
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in my state anyone can get a contractors license. no proof of skills needed. it is scary the people out there doing shitty work. sure they will do it for less than the big guys but the big guys have a reputation to uphold. pbj construction will be closed tomorrow. to resurface as construction ass. do it yourself. its not that hard. this is why lazy cheap homeowners get burned. the rich people just pay the pros. anything to do with home repair attracts frauds cus the $ that can be made.
censorship
Police Farce! If these were actual police in America, they would be arresting politicians and judges for signing confessions of crime contracts, like Executive Order 12333, the Espionage Act, the NDAA, FISA, Section 702, Section 215, the Electronic Survellance Act of 1984, HR6393, the Patriot Act, and the American Freedom Act, all of which are high crimes and treason against the sovereign, We The People!
I think, this is another one of those false alternatives, where I am being asked to choose between a bracero and a badge pirate.
What are the choices you have given to indigents —
halfway house with forced labor, and no freedom of movement
prison with forced labor
degree with forced volunteerism
ebt with fake makework
busing temp workers away, with no living wage
You statists can’t stand the thought of human trafficking?
Also, did the licensing improve the quality of worksmanship, or the intelligence level of third worlders?
On my last “social call”, involving concrete, you needed a landscaping engineer to plant a dozen, generic shrubs from the garden store, down town.
When the concrete truck got ‘constipated’ I climbed and unjammed it with a shovel, for free, while the licensed, brown people were paid top dollar to watch a white self-starter.
No college is strictly necessary, in order to perform advanced, technical skills, successfully, although balloon framing and concrete are about as cerebral as cooking Pop Tarts.
Independently-productive people, please get intellectual property rights. You definitely know a better way of whatever it is you are doing. Squeeze every last penny out of the post turtles.
But it’s all good. These patriotic men and women who dedicate their life to public service and…blah…blah…blah…
Just a coupla bad apples in a barrel full of honest people with impeccable standards.
Little entrapment here, little white lie there. Little planting evidence here, little sting there. But other than that, they mostly have the public’s best interests at heart.
Just ask em
after nearly two years of my husband procrastinating his to do list ,i hired a handy man that came highly recommended by a friend.
my friend didnt give me a lot of details other than saying he was
wonderful and assured complete satisfaction.
a week or so later I scheduled an interview and will admit being somewhat surprised in meeting a very handsome young witty african american man Chaz.
well my friend was right ,Chaz is amazing and very skillful in doing anything i have ask of him
and that covers a lot of territory.
as an added bonus my husband’s mood has improved immensely now that Chaz is “filling in” for him.
if there is a license for spectacular, im sure my Chaz has one.
Rebekkah m it sounds like you are servicing Chaz? Is this correct?
your chauvinist usage of the term “servicing” is exactly why Chaz is thriving.
You are a Race Traitor Rebuke-a. Plain and simple you are disgusting!
And why would someone make such an belligerently ignorant statement without knowing my race?
“Officials” masquerading as pillars of the community.
What else would you expect from Florida? This is a state that loves speed traps, hands out tickets for going 1 MPH over the speed limit, fully embraces speed light cameras, and allows cops to assault citizens without any consequences. People get the government they deserve.
“What else would you expect from Florida”
I was born and raised in Florida, but fled the state in 1985.
At one time,many decades ago, Florida was the ideal place to live and raise a family, but those days are long gone.
Bottom line is Florida is overpopulated and doesn’t have the economy to support such a large population.
A case of undercover cops doing more harm than good. Like the war on drugs.
So typical of ( to quote Biden in his charm offensive against a 21 year old female college student for asking if he thought that it was possible to win the election since he lost the Iowa caucas,)
the lying dog faced pony soldiers!
Women should not have the right to vote. Ever.
Is that why the handymen were arrested? As a protest of the sufferage act? Are you a member of the Taliban?
concordance — man, woman, wife, husband
If you believe this is a conservative voting bloc.
SHUTTLESWORTH V. CITY OF BIRMINGHAM, 373 U. S. 262 (1963): “If the State converts a right (liberty) into a privilege, the citizen can ignore the license and fee and engage in the right (liberty) with impunity.”
California Bank v. San Francisco, 142 Cal. 276, 75 Pac. 832, 100 A.S.R. 130, 64 L.R.A. 918. “A state may impose an excise upon the franchise of corporations engaging in a business which every private Citizen has a right to engage in freely. The privilege taxed is the right to engage in such business with the special advantages which are incident to corporate existence.
Were these handymen INCORPORATED under the auspices of the state?? Because if not, then the state FRAUD has no authority over them!
And they wonder why they get shot at. China garbage does not work for American people.
Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I was a licensed contractor here in Mexifornia before our state was flooded with illegal immigrants that took all of the work by undercutting the prices of legitimate business. I say keep arresting these unlicensed individuals if you want to keep the trades professional.
Florida is notorious for unethical contractors. When you shake hands with them you count your fingers. They don’t pay labor squat and their work ethic and abilities tend to reflect it. It’s common for a contractor to ask you to tip their employees. Interestingly you can pay the contractor in full, hold a cancelled check as proof and that contractor failed to pay for the materials the supplier LEGALLY puts a lien on your home. More people desire to live in Florida than the economy can support. It’s the land of scams. Go inland a few miles from the coast and you’ll often see heartbreaking poverty.
I’ve actually had greater success with unlicensed handymen but they’re for small jobs. You pay in cash and only after the job is complete. Anything big in Florida, “Caveat Emptor”, (let the buyer beware).
What a crock of $hit. Licenses are when the government steals your basic human rights, like the right to work, and sells them back to you. I’ve contracted my entire life, done $20,000. deals on a handshake and never been burned. I’ve always done way above average work, way above and beyond what most people expect, and go the extra mile for all of my customers. I contracted my first job when I was 20, back when you didn’t need permission from pencil pushing parasites to exist. I will never bow down to parasitical tyrants, period. That contractors license doesn’t mean a damn thing, half the “legitimate” contractor sheep in my area are hacks who rip their customers off and do sub-par work at best.What a bunch of crap, hassling men most of whom are trying to earn an honest living working with they’re hands. F$%k those sorry ass cops !
The question that begs to be answered…”WHO is preying on WHOM?”
Who is still stuck on first base:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg
Who is still stuck on first base.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg
The NYPD has essentially declared war on DeBlasio, under the hilarious allegation that DeBlasio sold them out to the 1%, saying, ” game on.” While not being a DeBlasio supporter, it is impossible not to see through this Orwellian double-speak language. If the NYPD endorses Mr. One Percent Stop and Frisk Mike Bloomberg, everyone will be ROTFLOL!
A license to paint?? Wtf that’s crazy
This happened to me in San Diego, some time ago. I had an ad on C-List, “Carpenter Available for Hire”. A guy called me to a house in a burned out area, which they had declared a “disaster area”. Arrested, charged with a FELONY (because of the disaster area), and jailed. My face on TV, accused of defrauding the homeowners. took the plea deal, got my license, and paid a small fine.
Talk about using a hammer to open an egg! I’ll never forget the use of excessive power, nor forgive it.