Harris Family

Missy Chott
Op-ed column opinion piece--Harris Family
The Harris family was wrongly accused of many things. Their house and property was wanted and the Harris’ refused to sell it, and I believe they were accused of many things such as drug making and possession, mistreating their dogs, and the poor condition of their house. This family was a hard working family and they have done some hard labor to get the house they lived in. Mr. Harris had jobs like dumping rocks, loading ice, piling huge water jugs on skids, and a custodian while his wife worked as a file clerk. Mr. Harris blew a disk in his back doing all the hard labor in order for his family to survive. I can relate to this, because my dad blew a disk in his back working as a carpenter. It’s impossible to have a job doing physical labor with a bad back from what I’ve seen what my dad has been through.
The Harris’ are an older couple and are retired and just wanted to enjoy time with their family in their home. Now that their home has been wrongly taken away, they have no place to go. To top it off, they had some neighbors talk badly about them and now they have all kinds of lies and rumors all over the media about how they make meth, abuse their dogs, are loud and that their house looks like a dump and they don’t take care of it, when they were one of the first people to live there. When they moved in the neighborhood, their house fit in fine. Now richer people are moving in and they stand out a little bit. They are not ashamed of what they have, because they know they have worked hard for what they have and have come a long way in their lives. All they want is to be left alone and live happily with their family. They even stated in the report that if anyone had a problem with how they lived, all they had to do was knock on the door and talk to them about. There was no need for their neighbors to go behind their backs and talk to the media about what kind of people they think they are when in reality, they have no idea the struggles they have been through.
The way the police barged in and woke the family up was ridiculous. They thought they had evidence to do so because of the rumors they heard from the neighbors and what the vet told them about the dog which was all not true. Also how they came in with like forty cops was over the top. They came in like this family had killed someone or something. They should have got their facts straight before they intruded someone’s home and found absolutely nothing.
I do not understand why this family is being evicted from their home. They were targeted for their property and it’s a shame how cold hearted people can be to get what they want. I’m amazed by how some of their neighbors turned on them and told the media and police what they thought this family did. The neighbors were so judgmental. It is really sad that this family has worked so hard for what they have and it was all wrongly taken away. It is hard to trust anyone these days and like the family said no amount of money can make up for the humiliation that they have been put through after all this.
If they would have knocked Mr. Harris said he would have let them come in and investigate whatever they wanted to. Instead the police choose to smoke out the house and barge in on the family with at least forty officers. This makes you question the reasoning’s they had to do this. The Harris family said they weren’t mad at their neighbors but they were hurt by how betrayed they felt and how humiliated they felt. They did have the smallest house on the block and their house was surrounded by nicer, much fancier houses. They were also surrounded by many different races, them being the only black race. it’s hard to tell what the reasoning’s were that they were truly targeted in this situation. Now this innocent, hard working family is out a home and has no place to go.