How nice. An op ed by Joe Nocera in The New York Times today reveals that employees working for the Buffalo-area based Steven J. Baum law firm -- a firm doing foreclosures for the nation's big banks -- dressed up in Halloween costumes at an office party last year, costumes that made fun of people who were losing their homes.
Nice, huh?
A former employee of the firm -- the biggest such "foreclosure mill" in New York State working on behalf of the big banks to put people out of their homes -- sent Nocera some snapshots from last year's Halloween bash. They are, indeed, in the words of the employee, "appalling," and they can be seen on the Times' website.
He writes:
"In an e-mail, she said that she wanted me to see them because they showed an appalling lack of compassion toward the homeowners — invariably poor and down on their luck — that the Baum firm had brought foreclosure proceedings against. 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. I told her I wanted to post the photos on The Times’s Web site so that readers could see them. She agreed, but asked to remain anonymous because she said she fears retaliation."
You can see the photos on the Times' website, with Nocera's article.
These people should be ashamed! Better yet, they should be fired. (And of course, the banks should fire the law firms.)
Maybe then, the insensitive louts who think nothing of making fun of other peoples' tragedies will themselves face foreclosure on their homes. Then, next year, they won't have to wear costumes.
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