Posted on 08/17/2012 7:08:31 AM PDT by Abiotic
In the age of Facebook and Twitter, a new crime has hit America: "Sharpie parties," gatherings of revelers armed with "Sharpie" magic markers and lured by social media invitations to wreak havoc on foreclosed homes.
Five years into the U.S. foreclosure crisis, Sharpie parties are a new form of blight on the landscape of boarded-up homes, brown lawns and abandoned streets. They are also the latest iteration of collective home-trashing spurred by social media.
At least six Sharpie parties were reported in one California county in recent months, where invitations posted online drew scores to foreclosed homes.
The partygoers are handed Sharpie pens on arrival by their hosts and urged to graffiti the walls - a destructive binge that often prompts other acts of vandalism, including smashing holes in walls and doors, flooding bathrooms and ripping up floors.
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(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Inhuman Animals lashing out blindly
Easy way to put a stop to all of that. They are no better than looters....Shoot to Kill.
now 3rd world plagues like west nile virus are sweeping the US
when are we going to STOP this insane influx of foreigners into our country!!!
Kids...... the same ones that voted for Obama in 2008....at least now they have something else to do besides worship/vote for “The ONE.”
How are the Occupados going to re-occupy homes and reclaim them from Eeeeeeevil Capitalist Bankers if their own 99%ers keep destroying them?
People are terrible creatures aren’t they.
Who would even waste their time doing something like this.
I was walking my dog on 84th street last night in Manhattan and this fellow around my age (I’m a young 30), came strolling aroudn the corner with an “Obama” t-shirt with his name and face on it.
Without even thinking I laughed right in his face (a true gut reaction to the sight of this).... he said “what?” I said “I’m sorry that was rude, I shouldn’t mock the pathetic to their faces, that isn’t classy”.
He didn’t get it and looked befuddled.
The government is doing this on purpose, so it won’t be stopped, just expanded..I.E the articles about the long DREAM applicants.
interesting way to get back at the foreclosing bank....post a party at 36 Elm Drive, tonight at 11:00pm...
This is why people were put out on the street with little notice years ago, and why employers give notice and walk employees to the door.
for later
You do know there's nobody living there, right? Those houses now belong to the banks.
I doubt there's a state in the union that lets you shoot to kill purely in defense of property.
I don't think what the "Sharpies" are doing is right, but shoot to kill? Out of proportion.
I guess I just do not understand this stuff.
I own a home. I took out a mortgage. I have been paying it for almost 19 years now.
The bank fulfilled their obligation to me. If I lose my job, I do not expect the bank to really take a huge hit. If the value of my home drops, I don’t expect the bank to forgive me.
I appreciate the anger of someone losing their home...but I just don’t get the anger directed at the banks.
Last time I worked at a bank, we did not put guns to anyone’s head.
Banks sit on property to keep the “value” on the books. They should sell and take the hit but nooo. I would love to own a house in Kalifornia at a reasonable price, so would a lot of people.
The answer is DDT! The mosquito population of the world was under control from the use of this insecticide as was Malaria until 1962 when the leftist tree hugger Rachael Carson wrote her book “Silent Spring”. Millions around the world have died because of the knee jerk reaction banning the use of DDT in mosquito control because of the allegations that were made in the book, many of which have never been substantiated by credible research.
A short stint in jail or a few months probation isn’t going to impact these morons. Put them into forced labor camps until they pay for the damage they’ve done.
Buy a bank. . .then you can run it any way you want.
seems like a way to manipulate short sale purchase prices.
One sharpie party and presto, instant 10-20 grand discount.
The perception that banks get away with murder and are never suitably punished for any of their varied transgressions is no doubt a factor here. A bit of backstreet vigilante justice, it seems.
Banks can do what they want. Having said that, my guess is their policy in this case is turning frustrated young people into democrats better and faster then any leftist propaganda ever could. Conservative institutions when they behave this way do no one any favors. They deserve the highest criticism.
“Buy a bank. . .then you can run it any way you want.”
If all their “assets” were properly valued per accounting rules and law, one might find them quite inexpensive, if they remain open at all.
“Usually they leave the damage and just drop the price,” Krotic said.
We've been lead to believe that the younger generations are "tech savvy". Yes, they may know how to download apps, music, and text at blinding speed, but the current Pepsi Generation is no different from their predecessors-- still as dumb as a bag of rocks.
If you want four more years of this crap, an America in decline. Please make sure to vote for Obama or stay home on election day.
I am not against that.
I don’t know what these people think they are doing.
Vandalism is a crime, not a Social statement.
It generally depends on the amount and degree of fraud committed by the bank in the process of pursuing the foreclosure.
Humans sure can be feral now and then, huh?
What normal citizen would want to return this criminal government-by-children delinquents to power for another four years?
You may not like that kind of grassroots justice, but there are consequences when thugs and looters invade a neighborhood.
Suppose you owe $100K on a $250K house when you are laid off.
Suppose the bank then "loses" your next payment, and starts applying lots of fines and fees on your loan, and bumps the interest up, all while continuing to "lose" or misapply your payments. Now you owe $300K on that house and are foreclosed on and get nothing. And in some states you still what's left on the $300K bill after the bank sells your house in a sweetheart deal for $150K.
Banks can and do put figurative guns to peoples heads these days.
nakedcapitalism.com is a bit of a lefty site, but they do a good job with stories on such banking corruption. A search on the term 'fraudclosure' would also help with your education.
So while a lot of what the article describes is simple hooliganism, vandalism for the fun of it in this lawless age, there still is reason to be angry with the banks.
As far as your experience at a financial institution, you need to realize that your experience is one end of the scale, and Jon Corzine is at the other. There's a lot of corruption going on between the two ends.
I strongly disagree.
Knowing the cost and years of effort that went into buying and maintaining my home, having a mob destroy it might make me snap.
The appropriate response is a matter of collective decision by society, and the circumstances that trigger the decision. I can see it happening.
Why don't you run a test?
Publish your address on line, let the criminals trash it and let us know if your arrogant, holier-than-thou opinion changes.
As long as they don't sell, they keep the value on the books for the full mortgage amount plus some appreciation. Once they sell, they have to write it down.
Another test-case for the flash mobs that will cover the landscape in October.
They are carrying fraudulent value on their books. It is a scam all the way around.
“dunno what you said to me, but I know I dint like it.”
I got a first hand view of that issue recently, where decades of experience was ignored with predictable results, when a mentally-challenged woman was planned to be fired, was somehow informed the night before, and mysteriously the office was trashed that same night.
The perp was titularly the manager, but incompetent and inept, protected by "friends" higher up in management.
Unfortunately, there were no witnesses to the damage created, and the folks who first viewed the damage neglected to file a police report.
After November’s election,those liberals can go jump off that bridge.
You obviously can't grasp a foreclosed home is EMPTY and UNOCCUPIED. If you were still there in "your home," a sheriff's deputy would haul you off to jail. The indignation you express doesn't apply here, much less the inappropriateness of "shoot to kill" for vandalism.
But that's a whole other subject.
Unfortunately, as a result, ALL homes in California are overpriced (even in the depressed market) by at least 50%
Breaking and entering.
Criminal trespass.
Criminal mischief.
Vandalism.
What other laws are they breaking here?
Punks. I hope they find them and charge them with everything they can.
The banks are caught (not defending it, but pointing it out). If they start selling the houses, they will fail. If they leave them sit empty, the houses loose even more value and the rest of the neighborhood falls also.
That is why we are seeing things like MF Global not get prosecuted. The banksters have gone to their friends, the politicians, and explained that if the law starts getting enforced, they both will fall. One because most of what is on the balance sheet is gone, and the other because the voters will start demanding to know why they let it happen.
Let - the - banks - fail. It is called capitalism.
I hate to sound like a knuckle dragger but I would seriesly consider contributing to a fund that would make giant woodchippers available for just such parties.. just back it up to the back door of said targeted residences, let the Sharpie ‘rats’ in the front door and.. wellll.. ;-]
I reject totally your suggestion that, if the perps do the identical damage to an occupied home, but refrain from harming the occupants or threatening them, no serious crime has been committed.
If a murder happens in the forest, and no one is there to hear it or witness it, no crime has been committed?
Your personal moral and ethics obviously prevents you fron grasping that the difference, from the perp's perspective, is zero. He/she/it isn't capable of grasping the difference either.
Your view of a civilized society isn't a place that I want to share. Sorry, Skippy, that's the way it is.
I reject totally your suggestion that, if the perps do the identical damage to an occupied home, but refrain from harming the occupants or threatening them, no serious crime has been committed.
If a murder happens in the forest, and no one is there to hear it or witness it, no crime has been committed?
Your personal moral and ethics obviously prevents you fron grasping that the difference, from the perp's perspective, is zero. He/she/it isn't capable of grasping the difference either.
Your view of a civilized society isn't a place that I want to share. Sorry, Skippy, that's the way it is.
Based on most of history, we current “moderns” have not even the slightly idea of how incredibly feral humanity truly is... thus why the great minds of the world have always placed such special emphasis on the fragility of Civilization.
Civilization does not simply equal organized humans living near each other.
It is a philosophically defined state of behavior in its own right, and one that in history has rarely ever occured to 99% of all time humanitys’ livestyle
I agree. The fallout will be messy, but that is life.
Thing is they are connected. You don’t get to be that big without buying protection from the government. They don’t want to fail (who does?) and will use the state to prevent that.
Kind of like GM.
I tie it back to the original Chrysler bailout in 1977, it set the precedent and expectation that the government would bail out any company that was “too big to fail”, now the government was concerned about which companies win and lose in the marketplace.
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