VERA CHINESE FILE PHOTO | The Wading River Motel on Route 25.

On May 11, a county Department of Social Services emergency shelter caseworker, called a CW, made a routine visit to the Wading River Motel, where several homeless families from Riverhead had been placed.

A Riverhead Town Police car pulled around behind one of the buildings. The CW approached the officer to ask if there was a problem.  The officer stated he had not received a call, but was conducting patrols.  The officer then stated that “they” were not happy about a homeless motel being placed in Wading River.  CW asked who “they” were, and the officer sternly replied that it was the police department and the community.  The officer went on to say that they were going to shut the motel down and that it wouldn’t be there “much longer.”

He reminded her, “A lot of police live around here, and they don’t want this.”

This incident passed into a bad memory, until “they” tried to make good on their threat last Friday night, when a convey of vans as well as marked and unmarked police cars, with 15 to 20 police, code enforcement, fire marshal and town attorney staff arrived unannounced at the motel, sending fearful residents literally running to their rooms.

READ THE SUN’S NEWS COVERAGE OF MOTEL RAID

The police and their civilian-suited counterparts showed to the motel operator a town judge’s warrant they had obtained the day before, and waited until that night to carry out.  They went from room to room, using cameras to take pictures of the ID of each homeless resident to perform outstanding warrant checks, and searched through rooms and closets, obviously seeking any drugs or weapons they could find — all in the name of building code violations.

After a tense, and for the residents, traumatic few hours, the invasion ended, and all of this scowling crew left, with no contraband, one Vehicle and Traffic Law arrest for unauthorized use [woman later released], and their empty vans, with no code violation summons served on anyone.

What really counts is what happened between these bullying episodes.  The motel operator had been working with these same town code enforcement, fire marshal and attorney staff for months, and consented to every inspection they requested and performed.  He had underwriters’ certificates for every repair he made.  One code inspector, well familiar with the previous motel owner, said the place “never looked so good.”  the motel operator also cooperated with successful Health Department inspections prescribed by the state.

As a reputable operator, DSS placed families in his motel because all 52 family shelters operated by Suffolk County are full.  Use of motels as shelters is a last resort, as they slow down the process of getting homeless families back on their feet (though DSS still moves 30 to 40 families per month out of homelessness). Almost all the residents at the motel are single mothers with children.  None is a registered sex offender. Many are from Riverhead, as we try to place homeless families in their school district of origin.  We monitor the police blotters and keep in touch with the police and the town attorney, just as the operator has.

Town officials never once hinted of their terrible plan, though the place has been free of criminal activity.  So why the raid?  The checks and balances of the judicial part of government fell flat on its face with this warrant.  It authorized searches without identifying anyone to be searched.  Even one of the senior police at the scene remarked he never saw such a vague, sweeping warrant like that in all his years.

Town Justice Court served, or disserved these disenfranchised people, already suffering from the trauma of homelessness.

The judge acted not as a safeguard but as an enabler.  We cannot and must not accept this shocking turn of events.  The people of the Town of Riverhead are way above this.  All three branches of Riverhead Town government should be as well.

To quote the great Edmund Burke, “The best way for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”

Mr. Blass is the commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Social Services. He lives in Jamesport.