New York City’s squatter nightmare continues: Brian Rodriguez, the repeat-offending thug who squatted in a Queens woman’s house and had the audacity to try and sublet rooms in it during his squat, has been cut loose with no bail.
Let that sink in.
A vicious crook with previous convictions for burglary and drug offenses tries to literally steal a woman’s house out from under her, and a bonkers judge decides he’s a good candidate for supervised release.
Prosecutors asked for $100,000 bail, and rightly so.
Rodriguez faces burglary, grand larceny and criminal trespassing charges and a possible 15-year sentence if found guilty.
But now every other thieving squatter in Gotham has gotten a message loud and clear: Go right ahead.
After all, this is the same ugly affair that saw the house’s rightful owner arrested when she attempted to boot Rodriguez.
And Rodriguez’ scummy lawyer had the cojones to claim the crook was the victim of . . . journalism.
“The press is responsible,” screeched Gerald Levine of the court proceedings. “The press came in and whoop-whooped up the whole big to-do!”
No, sir: Your lowlife client’s crimes are an outrage, as is the fact that he got zero bail — and the monstrous New York law that enabled his takeover in the first place.
Remember: In the city, squatters gain possession of a property after only 30 days.
The real owners then have no means to get rid of them except a slog through the byzantine housing courts, now logjammed from here to eternity.
The process, in other words, is the punishment for being a law-abiding citizen.
Yes, there’s some hope. Even lefties like Assemblyman Ron Kim and state Sen. John Liu have introduced legislation meant to fight back.
But until the law changes, it’s open season on the Big Apple’s homeowners.
