What would you do? Face to face with a lawless businessman

tclouie's picture

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What would you do if you randomly encountered not only a confession to wrongdoing in the name of greed, but outright boasting about it? This epitomizes what we of the Occupy Movement are opposed to, although it is on a small scale and the offender technically is probably more in the 99% than the 1%.   I heard this open and shameless conversation on the Gold Line Saturday night:
"I own two buildings with six tenants. No, I don't live there, I don't want to be near them. Most of them don't like where they're at....One couple was married when they moved in and then they divorced, so I had to evict them. We went to court and the judge said, 'She has three kids and you can't just throw h...er out on the street, so I'll give her sixty days to move out.' I told the judge, 'Sixty days, are you kidding me?' I got her out in thirty. I went over and super-glued her locks every single night. Then she would ask me to call a locksmith, and I'd say 'Hell no!'"

This guy's audience was a group of lawyers in town for a legal insurance convention, and true to their shark-like nature, they were yucking it up and telling him what a great story that was. No concern, not even any questions (beyond a joking "Is there a super-glue clause in the lease?"), just admiration and approval.

He was openly and proudly confessing to a crime -- at the very, VERY least, violating a judicial order, possibly also harassment, discrimination and vandalism. His utter contempt for the people he exploits was obvious, for all the world to see. If I had a smart phone, I would have taken his picture, told him I would post it to landlordsfromhell.org or criminallandlords.net (fictional websites I wish existed), and told him f.u. if he threatened me. But I don't have one of those, so I didn't do any of that. I just sat in stony silence until I reached my stop.

Would you do or say anything in a similar situation, encountering open confessions of wrongdoing by strangers?
There will be no social progree until we stop exploiting and oppressing each other.