With those numbers the racist rulers of Tempe have found a clever way to keep Blacks from renting apartments in Tempe. Get apartment owners to refuse to rent to felons, under the guise of making apartments crime free and you can limit the number of Blacks that live in Tempe. That is because such a high percentage of Black men have criminal records.

It is an undisputed fact that a huge percent of the Black population has a criminal record. But why is the question. Civil rights activists say the criminal justice is racist to the core and Blacks are not treated fairly. Racists often say its because Blacks are natural born criminals.

What ever the truth is the City of Tempe has discovered this fact and uses it as a clever way to keep Blacks from living in Tempe!

The way the system works is Tempe asks apartment owners who become part of the system to refuse to rent to felons, saying this keeps criminals out of apartments. That part of the system keeps many Blacks from renting apartments in Tempe.

Tempe has a second hook into the system that cleverly allows apartment owners to be agents of the Tempe police and cleverly bypass the need to get a search warrant when the police suspect the apartment renter might be hiding something illegal in his apartment.

Tempe instructs apartment owners to have a part of the rental agreement that says the person renting the apartment can be evicted in 24 hours if the police say the person is guilty of a crime. The agreement specifically says the person doesn’t have to be convicted of a crime, only that the police have to accuse the person of being a criminal, will allow all the people living in the apartment to be evicted in 24 hours.

Nia Pinheiro Manager of the La Paloma Apartments says "It’s simple. Once the police determine a violation has taken place [i.e.: say a person is a criminal], it’s out of our hands [we are forced to evict the person in 24 hours]."

So you could be arrested and in jailed unjustly. The Tempe Police order your apartment owner to evict you, and in 24 hours you have been evicted.

Your still in jail and can’t remove your property from your apartment in the 24 hours, so the owners change the locks to keep you out. And since you have agreed to this in advance now the owners are free to let the police search the place without a warrant, after all it has reverted to the landlord, because the police said you’re a criminal.

Who knows the legality of all this, but if your arrested as a result of it, you’re going to have to pay big bucks to find out.

This Tempe web page describes the system in politically correct words.

While it is easy to bash felons, because many of them have done bad things, the question is it fair for the government to discriminate against any group? I say it isn’t.

Would it be fair for the City of Tempe to ask, apartment owners to refuse to rent to gypsies, atheists, homosexuals, single mothers, vegans, anarchists and members of the FLDS church because the Tempe Police Department thinks those types of people commit more crimes then the rest of the population? I don’t think so.

If that is true then it is also wrong for the City of Tempe and the Tempe Police Department to ask apartment owners to discriminate against felons and refuse to rent to them. The City of Tempe should not be allowed to discriminate against anybody! Even if being a felon isn’t a politically correct thing. The felons have done their time, and should be treated fairly.

October 12, 2007 article in the Tempe issue of the Arizona Republic.