A New York Times opinion column from Joe Nocera out on Saturday tells the story of last year’s Halloween Party at the law firm called Steven J. Baum, a practice outside Buffalo that the column refers to as a “foreclosure mill.” The firm thought that they would celebrate last Halloween by throwing a homeless-themed party, complete with the staff dressing costumes that made them look destitute and signs describing the various faux problems their characters had. One sign seems to read “Will Worke For Food [sic]” and photos show part of an office named “Baum Estates.”
The pictures were sent to Nocera by a former employee of the firm. Nocera described their conversation like this:
When we spoke later, she added that the snapshots are an accurate representation of the firm’s mind-set. “There is this really cavalier attitude,” she said. “It doesn’t matter that people are going to lose their homes.” Nor does the firm try to help people get mortgage modifications; the pressure, always, is to foreclose.
This firm in particular seems to have quite a history of foreclosing on homes that they had NO right to foreclose on.
I guess we should really not be that surprised to learn they thought so little of the people whose lives they destroyed that they would mock them by throwing a party, the theme of which was built around the devastation that they so callously visited upon them.
Hopefully Karma is paying attention.
As someone else on another site said:
ReplyDelete"THIS IS WHY WE OCCUPY!"
And yes trolls, Sarah Palin would be the first in line with a nasty word to say about the homeowners who had the nerve to try and partake of an American Dream.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe me? Her first overseas speech was to blame people wanting to own homes instead of rent or build out of extra Sports Complex materials. . .
"The mortgage crisis that triggered the collapse of our financial markets was rooted in a well-meaning but wrongheaded desire to increase home ownership among people who could not yet afford to own a home."
"Politicians on the right AND left wanted to take credit for an increase in middle-class home ownership. But the rules of the marketplace are just as constraining as human nature. Government cannot force financial institutions to give loans to people who can't afford to pay them back and then expect that somehow things will all magically work out. Sooner or later, reality catches up with us."
From the horse's mouth, in Going Rogue and rehashed in all her six-figure speeches since.
That they would do this is totally depraved. I hope the state investigates their firm, and if they pulled any legal shenanigans that some of those lawyers get their licenses suspended or revoked.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if those people attend church and feel godly all the while they are casting good people out of their homes - often without justification.
Man, this is pure slime. Shame, shame, shame on them.
Calling them "heartless bastards" would be too kind.
ReplyDeleteI can only wonder how these heartless, soulless creeps sleep at night knowing that they have condemned so many to homelessness, including children. They embody the very selfishness and greed that OWS is demonstrating against.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing to happen would be for Karma kickback exponential - have that firm go belly up and the CEO's end up jobless, homeless and destitute.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, even if that happened, which is unlikely, those people are so detached from reality that they would never acknowledge the error of their ways.
Amongst all those people foreclosed upon was huge group of CHILDREN that no longer had a roof over their heads either.
ReplyDeleteSo Baum thinks that's a funny party theme eh.
May they rot in hell.
~Canuck~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6JEgYs8A-Q
ReplyDeleteI don't know the validity of this clip (just found it googling Steven J. Baum), but makes sense that foreclosure is yet more opportunity to profit.
The only difference between these guys and a thug with a gun is the thug with a gun is easy to recognize. There is no accounting for the soulless. Just as we have laws to protect us against thugs with guns, we need laws protecting us from these guys.
LoveAndKnishesFromBrooklyn (and other); "THIS IS WHY WE OCCUPY!" Awesome!
What a people we have let ourselves become. I thank God for the OWS movement; it does show there is some hope left that human decency will re-emerge and ultimately prevail.
ReplyDeleteAnne in DC (@ 1:50)
ReplyDeleteThese people feel that they have the right to deny themselves nothing. These are the people who think that dieting is "self discipline" and don't realize that they are drones. They are sociopaths. The people who they see OWS or who are seen in homeless camps are not real to them. Those people are subhuman shells to them.
Their awakenings will be rude for them, but scary because if in this life something so tragic happens to the ones up as high as they are that they are shaken to see the cruelty of their ways, the rest of us will be really, really bad off.
I'd bet that every employee of this firm votes GOP and calls themselves a Christian, too.
ReplyDeleteThe sad/funny thing about these people dressed in "homeless attire", is that I'm pretty sure they are not privileged 1%ers. Like most of the mid and low-level right-wingers they've bought the bull that it couldn't happen to them, they're just too smart. They are probably a paycheck away and too dumb to acknowledge it.
ReplyDeletePathetic.
I wish karma acted a bit more quickly.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 1:31 p.m.
ReplyDeleteRe: "But the rules of the marketplace are just as constraining as human nature. Government cannot force financial institutions to give loans to people who can't afford to pay them back and then expect that somehow things will all magically work out. Sooner or later, reality catches up with us."
Funny how Palin's crony capitalism via Mat Maid (and all its derivatives) embodies exactly what she rails against in the financial collapse.
The state's ag commission has just approved a loan to her BFF Franci Havemeister's (lover of cows, that was her qualification to become Ag Secretary) father, a drive-through milk house with half a million dollars.
Cowman Havemeister is the one who said he doesn't ask for a handout from government, he just wants them to provide a market for him.
Teabagger rationale. . .no wonder Sarah did so well governing those people.
Great Comments, All!
ReplyDeleteThe core of this problem is the unwillingness to acknowledge the humanity and plight of the homeless in our country, the true victims of the greed of corporate America.
One Paycheck, One catastophic illness, One sheriff's sale, One death of a provider, one twist of fate can ruin the lives of an entire family.
OWS get's it, they share the same spaces and share what they have with those less fortunate, they bring the light of the media on the plight in our own back yards. They see the dignity in these people and are fighting for them as well as us.
We aren't line items to be slashed on a piece of paper, we're people who demand fairness and accountability.
This is what American Exceptionalism should look like.
Namaste, Gryphen. Your work isn't done in vane. You have my deep and profound respect and humble gratitude.
These people are deplorable. Profiting from people's misfortune and then mocking them at a party.
ReplyDeleteAnd when one or more of these people fall on hard times (and they WILL) they will of course not remember or acknowledge this party.
What heartless bastards. Now I'll be the first to admit that I have on occasion looked the other way when coming across the homeless and/or destitute, more from wishing such suffering didn't exist then from being purely indifferent to their suffering.
ReplyDeleteBut I would never, never mock them in such a cruel, callous way.
Again, heartless bastards.