Reason.com by Christian Britschgi 5.18.2026
Samurai vs. Squatters: On the Street With the Hired Swords Reclaiming California Property Owners' Stolen Homes California has failed to protect private property from squatters. Desperate owners are turning to katana-wielding enforcers to reclaim their homes."We're probably not going to use grenades on this one, right? Because I got 'em."
James Jacobs had hired a motley crew of toughs online to help him clear squatters out of an Oakland, California, apartment building. None of the hired muscle accept the offer of smoke grenades. They intend to complete this job with the baseball bats and firearms they brought from home.
"All right, let's do this," says Jacobs. He grabs his katana and sets off in his long black leather jacket toward the apartment. His improvised militia follows single-file behind him. Half a minute later, they confidently walk through the front door of a two-story building off of Oakland's busy International Boulevard.
From across the street, I watch them enter and wait anxiously for the sound of gunshots.
It was another battle in California's low-burning turf war between the squatters who invade homes and the enforcers hired to reclaim them.
Across the Golden State, uninvited occupants have taken over countless residential properties and then refused to vacate. Homes undergoing renovations, vacant rental units, and even whole apartment buildings have fallen prey to squatters. Once they move in squatters are very difficult to dislodge. The legal process to remove them is expensive and can take months or years.
In their desperation, owners are increasingly turning to a rising crop of private rights enforcers to solve the problem. That includes Jacobs and his company, ASAP Squatter Removal.
Jacobs claims to have developed a long list of tools and tactics that enable him to remove squatters far faster than the court system, all while staying within the bounds of the law. Chief among them is a weapon he carries on every job: a katana, a curved Japanese sword that's more synonymous with samurai warriors than clearing squatters.
"In most industries, swords just don't make any damn sense," Jacobs says. "In this particular one, it actually does." The lightly regulated katana, he explains, is an ideal weapon for indoor self-defense and intimidation.
More:
https://reason.com/2026/05/18/samurai-vs-squatters-i-rode-along-with-the-armed-enforcers-handling-californias-squatter-crisis/
