'Sharpie Parties' Fuel Rampage on Foreclosed US Homes

CNBC ^ | 16 Aug 2012 | Reuters

[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.

snip

[publius911]

I agree with everything you said, and would add that this drifts into a related and relevant subject : the artificial extreme rise in the price of homes as a result of "get rich quick" and 'flip houses' scams treating homes as commodities to be gambled with, rather than a life necessity.

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%

[al_c]

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.

[redgolum]

Depending on how you look at it, all finance is a scam. Including you taking out a refi to fund something.

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.

[central_va]

Let - the - banks - fail. It is called capitalism.

[NormsRevenge]

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.. ;-]

[publius911]

You obviously can't grasp a foreclosed home is EMPTY and UNOCCUPIED.

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.

[publius911]

You obviously can't grasp a foreclosed home is EMPTY and UNOCCUPIED.

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.

[Individual Rights in NJ]

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

[redgolum]

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.

[dfwgator]

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.

[Melas]

You may not like that kind of grassroots justice, but there are consequences when thugs and looters invade a neighborhood.

I don't think anyone is denying that. However, it's become way too common for a FReeper to suggest that death is the appropriate punishment for just about anything. That's worth pointing out.