On April 7, 2009, the Allouez (WI) Village Board approved a program that allows landlords to use a “crime free lease addendum.” This addendum states that “if a tenant is suspected of criminal activity within the property, the tenant can be evicted for violating the lease.”

I’ve never heard of a municipality anywhere in the United States that kicks out a citizen if he or she is named a suspect in a crime. This is a bold move on the part of the village, and since it also goes against everything that the American constitution stands for, I must also assume that Allouez will secede from our nation and form their own sovereign territory.

DISCLAIMER: Like many Americans, I get my news from local, national and global web sites and TV stations. If a particular story piques my interest, I look into it further on additional web sites and TV stations in order to form a realistic and, most importantly, accurate depiction. Corporate and municipal web sites are usually quite helpful in this regard.

For the above story, my only source is the Green Bay Press-Gazette. The first place I looked for clarification is the Village of Allouez web site. While they do provide board meeting minutes on their site, the most current such document is dated March 17, and that document makes no mention of this issue. So, if the newspaper article is indeed accurate, then property values in Allouez are about to plummit as residents scatter to new homes in a country where its residents are presumed innocent until proven guilty.