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    Foreclosure Mill's Halloween Party Mocks Homeless, Displaced

    A Buffalo, N.Y. law firm specializing in facilitating foreclosure proceedings for large banks received some of the worst PR imaginable over the weekend, when the New York Times ran office Halloween-party photos featuring the firm's staff seeming to mock the homeless and displaced.

    According to Times columnis Joe Nocera, the photos of the Steven J. Baum firm bash were actually from a Halloween party last year and were provided by a former employee.

    In one photo, a woman wears a sign around her neck that reads, "3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served."

    According to Nocera's anonymous source, that statement is meant to mock "the typical excuse of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure."

    Another picture shows a coffin with a picture of woman with her eyes cut out. A sign reads, "Rest in Peace. Crazy Susie." That's allegedly a reference to Susan Chana Lask, a lawyer who filed a class-action suit against Steven J. Baum. 

    According to the Times, the firm is already under investigation by the New York attorney general, and it recently agreeed to pay $2 million to resolve an investigation by the Department of Justice into whether it had "filed misleading pleadings, affidavits, and mortgage assignments in the state and federal courts of New York."

    Here are the photos:

     

     

    31 comments

    • Michelle Bruce  •  6 months ago
      The folks you crap on while living the life of Riley may one day be the person/people who's hands your fate is in.
    • sskysthelimit  •  6 months ago
      This tells you a lot about the firm. Who was the #$%$ that thought of the theme and who allowed staff to pull this off? Just a thought. How many of them (or family members) are a few steps from being homeless themselves? I bet they all sleep well at night knowing that they are "doing " their jobs. Sad. I hope they hear from crazy Suzy or some of the others depicted because that has to be illegal...
    • Snootch  •  6 months ago
      Wow an entire firm of douchebags. Hopefully they get razor blades in their candy.
    • hwj  •  6 months ago
      Someone should have dressed up as Uncle Sam with a cape, carrying a bag of money ,& handing it out to banks as "Bailout Superhero".
    • Samuelito  •  6 months ago
      Maybe they were practicing.... with the economy it wont be long....
    • pajaru  •  6 months ago
      Sounds like some lawyers will be out of work soon. Karma is real, and a real pain.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  6 months ago
      Speechless.

      Mans inhumanity to man knows no boundaries.
    • Showoff  •  6 months ago
      I hope the firm go under and see how they would like living in the streets....But the government will protect them.....
    • IDOCARE  •  6 months ago
      stupid,
    • VBeachcat  •  6 months ago
      make excuses for them, defend thier rights, Whatever..This is wrong on so many levels...
      • VBeachcat 6 months ago
        make excuses for them, defend thier rights, Whatever..This is wrong on so many levels...
    • Jonathan A  •  6 months ago
      This is tiring... For those defending the firm, and it's employees. It's all subjective. The point was that it is conventionally held that your actions, even in subjective context, are seen as inappropriate or appropriate, tasteful or distasteful. By this standard, even a half-wit should be able to discern that this firm and its employees, given the primary aspect of their practice is overseeing the execution of actions against homeowners, were reveling in and mocking the great misfortune of others.
      It does not matter if the homeowner is irresponsible, unlucky, or just plain ignorant, as to how they came to be in the firm's crosshairs. What people were finding offensive was the collective mentality of the firm, by virtue of the actions of the employees as a group, that the people they were enforcing these legal, and most often wholly devastating actions against, were deserving of collective mockery. Whether in private or not, it was most certainly, and objectively, in bad taste, and although I concede their right to do it, I most certainly do not condone it, and I will not defend their actions as the information was carried out into the public view.
      Let's try an example for the simple that this seems to be getting past;
      You have a law firm that defends criminals: murderers, rapists, child molesters, etc., and your firm's halloween party theme is to dress up like the victims of these criminals. The firm has a great party, and everyone seems to really enjoy getting all done up in costumes of the victims; shot, stabbed, mutilated, bloody, beat up, in various stages of violation, etc., you get get the picture (you should, anyway. I made it simple enough). If pictures got out of these people making fun of the victims of heinous crimes that they worked to protect the guilty who perpetrated them, what do you think the reaction should, would, or could most likely be, of the families, friends, and significant others of those victims? I'll even throw the simple a lifejacket here; You cannot dimiss this example as, "Oh, you're comparing apples to oranges,". No morons, although the details are different, the principle in play here is exactly the same.
      And if that means that you uncover and make public the hateful and mean-spirited side of some people? Well, I guess the only hope is that they see the impact their actions have, and take a little more time to gauge their behavior in the future. Who knows? It might even cause someone to do something that defends those who are being made fun of for their unfortunate situations. I am an optimist though...
      Thus endeth the lesson...
    • Belle  •  6 months ago
      Karma will one day pay you a nice little visit you better hope she's in a good mood.
    • JP  •  6 months ago
      A bunch of insensitive Douche bags, I hope those #@$&-holes never have friends or family in that predicament.
    • James Mccord  •  6 months ago
      Hummm whats to say "tasteless"
      • James C 6 months ago
        Hummm, obviously not you cause you're a dumb jackass.
    • None of Your Business  •  6 months ago
      Hey, I've got a GREAT idea for a costume party....what could possibly go wrong?
    • James  •  6 months ago
      We should dress them up as ICU patients, then beat them to an inch of their lives to add some realistic effect to their look.
    • StephanieG  •  6 months ago
      Anyone else wonder what the theme was this year? Maybe they picked something really tasteful like.... I don't know... Cancer patients? Burn victims? The elderly that can barely afford their medication in the current economy? If making fun of people suffering is their idea of a good time then should have countless ideas at their disposal.
    • robert  •  6 months ago
      Disgusting.
    • Jeff  •  6 months ago
      Weak party. They look stupid in their cubicles with pearly white teeth. They make 90% of the population angry but swear we hate them because they're privileged.
    • Server Error  •  6 months ago
      Death

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