Squatting Is Nine-Tenths of the Law, Apparently

The famed anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon wrote in 1840 that "property is theft". This slogan has since been carried all over the streets of the world on banners and pamphlets by countless thousands of anarchist activists. On would accordingly expect that today's anarchists would remember these three simple words that inspired some many of their ideological forebears. And I was given to understand that squatters in Western Europe often claim to be anarchists, or at least to be inspired by anarchist theories. But now it seems squatters in the Netherlands have abandoned the simple creed of Proudhon for that capitalist phrase 'possession is nine-tenths of the law'.

In September Parliament finally passed a law making squatting illegal, one of the few good initiatives taken by the former Dutch government under Prime Minister - and Harry Potter look-a-like - Jan Peter Balkenende. No longer would law-abiding property owners have to fear waking up one morning to find their houses or offices seized by balaclava-wearing youngsters. Even the left-wing mayor and aldermen of Amsterdam, usually favourably disposed to squatting, said they would uphold the law and start evicting squatters as soon as possible. So that was that, or at least that's what everybody thought.

Squatters, not content with returning their newly-conquered homesteads to their rightful owners, began claiming protection under the European Human Rights Convention, which prohibits someone from having his home taken from him without judicial fiat. Yes, squatters, having taken a home from its owner by simply occupying it and refusing to leave, in what seems to me clear violation of the Human Rights Convention, now claim protection under the same. What's worse, as the Dutch public broadcaster NOS reports, a bleeding-hearted judge is actually going along with this idiotic - there's no other word for - line of reasoning.

Squatting is robbery, plain and simple and squatters should not expect the law to support them. When news of the impending ban first emerged, squatters took to the streets carrying placards saying "your laws, not ours" meaning that they did not obey the democratically-made laws of society. Yet now, in the face of certain eviction, they choose not to make a stand based on ideals, but surrender quickly and claim the protection of the laws they claimed to despise. I always thought, misguided and abhorrent and criminal though their actions were, squatters at least were led by ideals. But no, they are nothing more than opportunistic hypocrits and they should be treated as the crminals they are.