Home of The Defendant
ACCOUNTABILITY in Policing
REPEAL“Crime-Free” Housing
RESTORE Renter’s Rights
LATEST NEWS: CLASS ACTION OPENED AGAINST GRANITE CITY – CLICK HERE
Many of the citizens of Madison County are in dire straights: citizens of Madison and Granite city are facing an epidemic of corruption, systematic racism, and police misconduct that has left many families devastated and homeless.
Renters are among the worst effected. Through the “Crime-free” housing ordinances, the city coerces landlords to throw out entire families if for any reason police decide they don’t want the family in Granite city. Of course in practice these ordinances unequally target minority groups, and can have devastating consequences on families who were just barely scraping by as it is.
Kevin Link, “The Defendant” (middle)
My name is Kevin Link and I refused to play along with Granite city’s agenda. I am protesting these ordinances by refusing to purchase “Crime-free” business licenses or evict innocent customers. Other Landlord’s and I regularly rally for this cause hoping to build awareness.
I served over 80hours of community service due to refusing to purchase licenses, and I will gladly take community service again before I pay a fine into this corrupt system.
I took these business licenses to the Appellate Court of Illinois, who sided with me stating ““Further, Granite City submitted no evidence showing that defendant was required to have the requisite license for any of the four properties,”.
Read all about my Appellate victory here: https://madisonrecord.com/stories/628910613-without-a-lawyer-granite-city-man-wins-ordinance-violation-case-at-fifth-district
Dive Deeper into the problems and consequences of “Crime-Free” Law WITH THESE NEWS ARTICLES:
‘Crime-Free’ Housing Ordinances, Explained – Professor of Law Deborah Archer explains how the ‘Crime-Free’ ordinances are abused by municipalities and serve as an extension of “Jim Crow” laws promoting racial segregation in housing.
Cities are Pressuring Landlords to evict people under ‘Crime-Free’ Housing Laws – This article by Cinnamon Janzer describes how these laws allow the city to pressure landlords to throw out their customers when they do not wish to evict. Features interview with Yours Truly.
Cities Should Repeal “Crime-Free” Housing Laws – This article by Molly Greene details how under the Crime-Free housing ordinances, families can be thrown out simply for having the police called too many times: which cause some citizens to be afraid to call for police assistance when they really need it.
Also check out this Channel 4 News Report on Crime-Free Housing from 2020:
About “The Defendant”
My name is Kevin Link, I am a 57-year old resident of Granite city, and through my local, family owned real-estate business I have been proud to serve my customers for 30+ years. Unfortunately, due to recent actions by Granite city officials it has become impossible to continue serving my customers and I will have to close my doors.
For the past fiveyears I have been the target of a harassment campaign by Granite city with the ultimate goal of forcing me out of business. It all began when in 2016, I opposed the “Crime-free housing” ordinances for the first time when I refused to the demands of Granite city police to evict an expecting mother from my property. She was innocent of any wrongdoing, it was her boyfriend who had only been accused, not convicted, of a crime.
Soon after my refusal I became the target of countless malicious and baseless tickets. City officials routinely visit my customers at their homes to slander my properties and myself, resulting in the abandonment of my properties.
–“My Story” goes into detail about the many problems I had with Granite city which led to my business becoming impossible to operate.
Business License Cases – These are my current Defendant cases vs. Granite city disputing my refusal to purchase the Granite city business licenses which have been unjustly used to subject hundreds of innocent citizens to homelessness in Granite city.
Exhibit “Z”: A statement filed with Granite city detailing how their directives have uprooted the lives of my customers.
STL Public Radio Article on Crime-free Housing – Don’t take my word for it, this article details the damaging affects of public corruption and heavy-handed law enforcement which has resulted in the needless eviction of hundreds of Granite city citizens.
As a landlord in Granite City, I have noticed many unusual events regarding the policing of my tenants. Multiple times I will cited as ” unknown occupant not on listed lease” only to find nothing wrong at the location, yet the matter remains on my public record.
Also, many times my tenant will tell me that the ticketing officer will speak about me in a defamatory way.
Further, when I am brought into court, seems sometimes they have no idea why I am there and tell me to come back next month
We are all too familiar with wasteful court appearances such as you describe. It is all too common that I attend a demanded court hearing only to be told that Granite city has “lost” my paperwork, and so we will have to reconvene next month in a further waste of my time that would be better spent managing my struggling business; at some point it is hard to write these occurrences off as simple mistakes or “misunderstandings”.
As far as defaming, a tenant of mine recently moved out because a city inspector came by her house unannounced, and proceeded to speak of myself and my property in a defamatory way.
These injustices cannot be allowed to continue unchecked, thanks for sharing your experience Bill.
Do you sell tee shirts?
I might like a ” I survived kangaroo court ” tee shirt and maybe coffee mug
Not currently, we wouldn’t want to belittle the huge issues here in Granite and Madison city through the selling of “cash-grabby” merchandise. Thank you for your interest though, Jake!
Great post.