Cops to sticker New Orleans homes with a 'Scarlet Letter'

I am not sure what you’re getting at here.
Yes. I own a house that has increased in value in the last five years. I bought it low after the crash, and did a lot of work to it. It has almost doubled in value since when I purchased it. No. Its not in New Orleans, but that has no bearing on my point.

My point is that "real property" is a whole branch of law, and any negative action taken by a person/group that affects the value of homes in an area is actionable in a court. So, for example, if my neighbor paints his house hot pink, and it makes the property values go down, I can actually take him to court over it:

Neighbors hurting your homes value
If you can't get local agencies to help, appeal to your elected representatives at the city or county level. Sometimes these folks can kick the bureaucracy into gear. A real-estate attorney can tell you if you can pursue a lawsuit against the neighbor, but typically these are expensive and can drag on for months if not years, making them impractical for most people trying to sell a home.

This is where some of the power home owners associations wield comes from. You don’t have the right to do just anything you want to on your “real property”, because your “real property” is attached to your neighbor’s “real property”, and affects his properties value. This is also why almost every state has laws, codes, and/or ordinances regarding what you can do with your “real property”, and they can come out and fine you for non-compliance.

None of this applies to cars, which are not considered “real property”:

Legal Definition of Real Property
real property n. 1) all land, structures, firmly attached and integrated equipment (such as light fixtures or a well pump), anything growing on the land, and all "interests" in the property which may be the right to future ownership (remainder), right to occupy for a period of time (tenancy or life estate) the right to drill for oil, the right to get the property back (a reversion) if it is no longer used for its current purpose (such as use for a hospital, school or city hall), use of airspace (condominium) or an easement across another's property. Real property should be thought of as a group of rights like a bundle of sticks which can be divided. It is distinguished from the other type of property, personal property, which is made up of movable items. 2) one of the principal areas of law like contracts, negligence, probate, family law and criminal law.

Also, I don’t know where you get that your $500 car is not going to depreciate. I assure you that it most certainly will:

Know the deal on Auto Depreciation
Here's a standard rule of thumb about used cars. A car loses 15 percent to 20 percent of its value each year.

Knowing some “real law” can be pretty handy, especially if you rent.
Landlords tend to think they know the law a lot better then they actually do.

When I was in an apartment I complained about my downstairs neighbor having frat parties until 04:00 am. The neighbor then complained that I “walked too loudly in my apartment”. I received the notice that I was being written a warning by the complex. So I went down to the landlords office to talk to her about it.

She understood that it was all about retribution with me for my compliant, but that she had to write me up. I explained to her that walking is not internally disturbing the peace, it is normal usage of the apartment, and that is why I paid a higher premium for my place on the higher floor. She agreed, but told me that she could write me up for anything she so pleased. I tried to explain that she legally could not write me up for walking, and she respectfully disagreed with me.

So…

The first thing I did after I left her office was to walk around the complex, and write down all the apartments with grills on their porches. Then I called the city fire marshal.
$5000 fine to the complex per apartment with a grill stored under an overhang…

After that, I notified her that she had contractually breached the terms of their lease with me, and that I sought to terminate it with the intent to file for a constructive eviction:

Constructive eviction is a term used in the law of real property to describe a circumstance in which a landlord either does something or fails to do something that he has a legal duty to provide (e.g. the landlord refuses to provide heat or water to the apartment), rendering the property uninhabitable. A tenant who is constructively evicted may terminate the lease and seek damages.

Sighting that stopping me from walking around my apartment was a constructive eviction due to it rendering my apartment uninhabitable for normal use and enjoyment.

When they realized that they were going to have to pay me the monthly rent for the remainder of my lease agreement (Something like $24,000), plus all fees incurred with moving me to a new apartment, suddenly it dawned on here that she could in fact NOT write me up for just anything she wanted too, and that I knew exactly what I was talking about. I am guessing that she contacted the complexes corporate attorney (it was a big national firm), and got her butt reamed out, because I received a VERY polite notice that they had removed my warning, and that I was free to walk a loudly as I wanted around my apartment to my hearts content.

I lived there for an additional 3 years, and they were so polite to me during that time I cannot even begin to explain it. They were even ubber nice about writing in to my lender when I bought my house. Probably they were afraid that if they said anything bad I would sue them for slander/liable.

However, people play on other peoples ignorance of the law to get their way. If you have some idea of what the law really is, then you have an advantage over 99% of the other people out there.

I think that if you are found guilty then its your own fault, but if they don’t find anything you can sue them to pay for the damages. I believe that you have to take them to court over this however, they are not going to just willingly send you a check in the mail.

Dealing with search warrants
Most searches are very destructive. Your property is likely to be thrown about and damaged. So after the police have gone, take three or four dozen photographs of the place, before doing any clean-up. These may be useful in defending against criminal charges and/or in suing the police. Make sure you’ve got good enough lighting that the photos will come out well.

Family gets $333,000 for 2009 raid in which cops killed dog
A federal jury awarded $333,000 to a Chicago family Thursday after Chicago police officers raided its South Side home with guns drawn and shot its dog in a search that found no criminal activity in the apartment.

Maui couple sues police over home search
KIHEI, Maui >> A Kihei couple is suing the Maui Police Department alleging officers raided their home while executing a search warrant on the wrong address.
The Maui News reports that April and Norman Freeland filed the lawsuit in federal court in Honolulu in October.
The lawsuit alleges that on April 15 officers forced the Freelands to wait outside while they searched the residence for nearly half an hour, even after they knew they were at the wrong address.
The complaint claims police violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights and seeks $250,000 in damages and $1 million in punitive damages.
County lawyers say officers were inside the Freelands’ home for less than 10 minutes and left as soon as they realized they were at the wrong location.

Of course if they find something, you’re SOL.

NOW...
What really needs to happen is that people who make false accusations also need to also be held legally responsible.I believe that they can be arrested for making a false report, but the police don’t usually do crap about that. They want people to call in tips. So what happens is that us tax payers end up paying the price for this nonsense.

Yeah, despite our governments best efforts over the last few years we stall have that “damn piece of paper” called the Constitution here. Maybe you're just not cut out for life in the US. If I may suggest some places where you might feel more at home:

Democratic People's Republic of Korea
People's Republic of China
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Republic of Cuba