You may have noticed recently that a tenant decapitated an older gentleman, a nice guy, in Hartford, Connecticut, who was renting a room to him, and wanted to evict the tenant because he was not paying his rent.
The victim’s cousin Jim Banks told
the Hartford Courant King “was one of the good guys. One
that would never hurt a soul. One that would always reach out and
help others. He was pleasant as can be. Always seemed to be happy. He
was just a joy to be around.” - Buzzfeed News
They stayed here three weeks, then called the cops on me when I asked them to leave and said “We have rights” - their exact words.
I was outraged because I had done everything I could to help these young people and their two children – I’d given them a place to say, encouragement, trust, money, rides to the market and such, and was shocked to discover that they would take over my house, refuse to leave, and much more, even bring in a Pit-bull dog to stay.
I asked one of the cops who came if she had ever heard of such a thing – an elderly person allowing a young family to stay in his house, doing every single thing he could to help them in their hour of need, and then having them turn on him, making him a captive in his own house, and refusing to leave.
Her answer was - “It happens all the time” - said with a scowl, and obvious pain.
That’s why I have written this post. “It happens all the time,” so there are other elderly (I am 79) people out there who could be prevented from making the same mistake I made. A caution is timely, being that there are to be more homeless people around in the coming months, due to the ending of certain unemployment benefits, the ending of the moratorium on evictions, and the economic decline.
Yes, I didn’t get decapitated, but I went through hell, because I wasn’t aware of certain realities, some of which are as follows:
1. There are a lot of poor, desperate people around who are living on the edge and who will do desperate things.
2. We have had about two generations now of young people being born into the acceptance of Gingrich-Reagan-Ayn Rand-Milton Friedman-Alan Greenspan-Super Rich CEO's -Greed is Good “Republicans” and their goers-along and enablers. The young couple who took over my home did so because it was perfectly in line with all that. There were no scruples whatever, no shame, nothing like that – just sheer pursuit of one’s own advantage. I was elderly, vulnerable, helpful to others, decent - and their attitude wasn’t even “sorry about that.” Their attitude was nothing even close to “Sorry about that.” It was contempt and murderous hatred. They also thought that I was rich because I have a home, even though I actually am at about zero on the bottom line.
3. To the pure-in-heart, all things are pure. But in fact, one of every three people you see around you in the USA is a Trumpist. They are unshakably convinced that his malice and insanity are good. If you are decent, vulnerable and kind, it calls out a response in such people who are not like you that is, basically, murderous.
4. Finally – although I hope you can add more realities in the comments – There are many well-meaning Democrats who incautiously or naively advocate rent strikes and moratoria on evictions without due consideration for those of us who actually take in the desperate homeless.
