Newark Forces Business Owners To Remove Barbed Wire Fences

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"Some business owners in this crime-plagued city say recent enforcement of a decades-old ordinance prohibiting some types of barbed wire and razor wire is making Newark more attractive - to thieves.

John DeSantis, owner of a lot used by an auto repair business in Newark's West Ward, says his property has been the site of more than a dozen burglaries since the summer, when the city forced him to remove razor wire on top of the 7-foot-tall fence that surrounds the lot." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28494232/

I can understand a ban on barbed wire in residential neighborhoods, they are an eyesore and a hazard to kids who've never met a fence they didn't want to climb.

But it's ludicrous to ban fences topped with razor wire from business establishments. An auto shop is going to be aesthetically unpleasing, with or without a barbed wire fence.

Many small businesses barely make a profit, the enforcement of this ludicrous law may force some small businesses to go bankrupt. How can Mr. DeSAntis turn a profit if his business has been burglarized a dozen times in less than a year?

When I'm at an auto repair shop I don't expect expensive art in the waiting room, and I'm not turned off by a barbed wire chain link fence.

I've never been to Newark, but I know it has a reputation as a very ugly crime-ridden city. Forcing business owners to remove barbed wire fences isn't going to help the crime problem, and it will do little to beautify the city.

Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.

Robert Reyes