Everyday Erinyes #137

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

I don’t have a major issue today that most people are unaware of – at least, not one I haven’t talked about before. I did do an article in July about gentrification. However, that was in Cairo, IL, a small town where opportunity was limited, and it was specifically regarding public housing. This story is set in New York City, in Kings County (AKA Brooklyn), and it concerns a brownstone home (the same kind of home the fictional Nero Wolfe lived in) in the Crown Heights neighborhood, a home OWNED (and completely paid off) by a retired nurse, Marlene Saunders.

To back up some, NYC (or some entity thereof – I am not qualified to explain the convoluted entities required to keep New York running) has a “Third Party Transfer program,” which

designates sponsors to restore distressed vacant and occupied single-family homes in an effort to maintain affordable housing options to low-and-middle income households.

I suppose “distressed can have multiple meanings, depending on circumstances. In this case the city considered the property “distressed” on account of unpaid property taxes. But there was one problem. Saunders taxes were completely up to date. The money had been collected from her bank account, but it took a hundred and twenty days for it to be credited to her city property account. Oh, and there was also a “delinquent water bill,” which has since been paid, and which I find questionable.

Saunders first learned of the seizure from a Seizure Notice which came in her mail in August. She called, and was advised the seizure had already been accomplished via a court proceeding about which she knew nothing. Fortunately for her, there is a councilman who represents Northern Crown Heights and also sits as the chair of the Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings, and he came to her defense.

“Home-ownership is one of the most important ways a family is able to build and transfer wealth from one generation to the next,” Cornegy told the [Kings County Politics – a local news source]. “In that light, and with the ever-increasing cost of living in this city, preserving home ownership opportunities is critical in predominantly black and brown communities like ours.”

“As both the elected council member for this district and the Chair of the Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings, preserving these opportunities by fighting for homeowners is something I take very seriously,” he added.

The councilman and the news source looked over all the paperwork, and concluded

“that it appeared the city was trying to take their property for no clear reason.” Days later, they said they received a letter from an HPD spokesman stating, “Upon investigation, it appears the owner made a mistake in applying the necessary payment to the wrong property.”

“It is obvious this was a simple error and so we will reverse the transfer so that the owner can sustain ownership of the property,” it continued.

Ms. Saunders has her property back, but Councilman Cornegy suggests that the Saunders home represents just the tip of the iceberg. He and Kings County Politics are attempting to utilize this story to publicize the problem, since no one can solve a problem of which they are unaware. I’ll bet the Furies can do an excellent job of calling attention to this.

I do have one other story to bring to light this week – but there is, alas nothing new about it either. if I were going to give it a title, I would call it “A Tale of Two Murders” (hey, titles can’t be copyrighted, so I can’t get in trouble for stealing – er, borrowing one).

Even if you have been all caught up in the Kavanazi hearings and the latest craziness from the White House, you have probably heard of Mollie Tibbets. You would almost have had to be in a coma to have missed it. Mollie was a lovely and bright young woman, twenty years old, a student of psychology at the University of Iowa. She disappeared on the afternoon of July 18 while out for a run. Her body was found a month later, in a field. It was hidden under cornstalks. She had died from “multiple sharp force injuries.”  A suspect was identified, who turned out to be an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had worked on a nearby farm for almost five years.

Well, every Republican politician in the country and every anchor at Fox News lost their minds (yes, I realize that presumes they had minds -but it’s just an expression.) Mollie herself disappeared again – this time in the flood of rhetoric. It calmed down a little (but you know it’s still there, underneath) when Mollie’s father, Rob Tibbetts, wrote a blistering guest Op-Ed for the Des Moines Register, in which he said, among other things, that “[T]o knowingly foment discord among races is a disgrace to our flag.”

This week, almost two months to the day later, a lovely and bright twenty-two year old woman, a student of civil engineering at the University of Iowa, disappeared from a physical fitness activity. This time it was a round of golf (she was one heck of a golfer, having recently won the European Ladies’ Amateur Championship, representing Spain. Her name was Celia Barquin[-Arozamena] and, yes she was an immigrant – documented.

Somewhere around the ninth hole, she was attacked, assaulted, and stabbed multiple times in the heart. Staff found her body in a pond. A suspect was identified, who turned out to be a homeless man with a long criminal record, and, I presume from the name (and the silence), white (and a citizen.)

I’ll bet this is the first you’ve heard of it. My source article was the first I had heard of it, and I found it on a tip from CREDO, not through any of the news outlets from whom I daily receive newsletters. Of course, it did happen more recently than Mollie’s murder – but it will be interesting to be looking for stories and seeing what we find. It has been making front page headlines in Spain, though.

My source article asks the question, “What explains the disparity?” I’m sure that is rhetorical. I’m sure we all know the answer. And I’ll bet the Furies will be happy to get to work spreading this news … and asking that question.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.