HOLLAND SURGICAL APPROACH
Channel: civicusa11
Date: 2023-01-02

On November 17, 2015, the City of Hesperia adopted its Crime-Free Rental Program based on the statements of former Hesperia Police Department Captain Nils Bentsen's assertion that criminals and criminal activity is directly related to rental housing.  

On December 14, The United States Department of Justice issued a  press release announcing a landmark settlement was reached with the City of Hesperia, its police department, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department over allegations it targeted Black and Latino Renters through its Crime-Free Rental Program.   

This video is of former Hesperia City Council Member Bill Holland explaining, “We are surgically going after those elements that create an inordinate amount of the problem in every single neighborhood,” Mayor Pro Tem Bill Holland reasoned.  DOJ recounted Holland explaining the goal was to require each landlord “to rid his rental…of that blight” similar to “call[ing] an exterminator out to kill roaches, same difference.”