Defending foreclosure victims is similar to defending prisoners in Guantanamo
Some critical facts. First, every American needs to know….really know…and understand that many..perhaps most of the prisoners that were and are being tortured just a few hundred miles from the sunny beaches of Miami are innocent men. Don’t understand that fact? Don’t believe that fact? Listen to how one source describes it:
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Many detainees locked up at Guantanamo were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants, a former Bush administration official said Thursday.
“There are still innocent people there,” “Some have been there six or seven years.”
Think that’s some kind of lefty propaganda or misinformation…well then consider the source…
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, a Republican who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, told The Associated Press.
But onto the story for today. Hardly fair by comparison, but it’s important to note and recognize the gross inequities that Americans face when confronting the justice system that rains oppression down upon them are shown quite dramatically in foreclosure courtrooms. Think the scales of justice truly are fair? Well, don’t rely on anecdotal trial court experiences, just take a survey of appellate court opinions that started chipping away the rights and standards in foreclosure cases and then, as the battles raged on, just obliterated them like sledgehammers to soft concrete.
Into this framework is the story of a foreclosure warrior, Josh Denbeaux…he’s a guy that can credibly make the comparison between prisoners in Guantanamo and prisoners of a justice system that has capitulated to the banks and corporate interests that own and control all of this country. America is not a democracy it is an oligarchy or a fascist corporate empire where titans of industry auction off “elected” leaders who draft laws that serve the interests of those who purchased the elected seats. Few among us are prepared to speak that bluntly, but that is the country we live in today. The travesty, the failing, the abdication of responsibility is the judicial branch fails to hold any of this in check.
But I digress. Again.
Move onto the star of this story. Please read it and share:
“Here’s the similarity [between foreclosure defense and detainee representation]: The lawyers have no authority,” Denbeaux tells me. “At Guantánamo, I thought I could speak to a lawyer. That’s what we need to do to settle a case. Foreclosures, same thing. The house is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the loan is three hundred thousand, so can’t we discuss doing something in the middle? The bank lawyer would say no. Why not? They’re not authorized to discuss anything.”
