Foreclosure forces man to commit suicide

[Xenotime]

Source: Houston Chronicle

A 12-hour standoff ended this morning with a north Houston man lobbing Molotov cocktails at Houston Police before taking his own life rather than vacate a home he'd lost to foreclosure.

It would appear that Hahn had prepared for the standoff. He had nailed plywood over windows and doors and stuffed insulation into cracks. A cache of weapons and explosive devices were found in the home, along with a gas mask, chemical suit similar to those worn by Haz-Mat crew members.

Residents noted there had been a number of foreclosures in the neighborhood lately.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5244051.html

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This is really sad and unfortunately, we will probably see more of this.

[asthmaticeog]

1. Forces?

Ummmmmmm... okay, then. I would submit that he had other options, but then maybe that's just me.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Agreed

Texas has homestead laws.

[Horse with no Name]

20. Homestead laws exempts everyone EXCEPT the mortgage holder

so in this case, it isn't applicable.

[EV_Ares]

4. There should have been other ways or options and there have always

been foreclosures and there have been and always will be people who are not good at management of their finances. However, look at the corporations we are seeing that are not good as well due to their greed at mis-management of not only their money but their shareholders as well. Look at Merrill Lynch with a 8.5 billion dollar write-down.

My point is I think under this administrations rule, people see white collar crime and nothing being done about it. People see their homes being taken and their families lives disrupted so badly and feel helpless and in cases such as this they simply lose it because they or some of them feel they have been duped or lied to into taking bad loans. Nothing is being done to those who have the money and you read where they are talking about help for the companies that made these loans and and the poor are suffering and even the middle class (what is left of it) are suffering and being thrown out of their homes in many cases.

Not making any excuses just saying there are other compassionate ways to look at this too. I don't know how I would handle or react if I had to undergo what some of the people are having to go through in these hard times.

[asthmaticeog]

6. I'm fully aware of the corporate sector's greed and its contribution to the housing crisis, thanks.

None of the information you presented speaks to the OPs disingenuous and unjustified assertion that anyone's been "forced" to commit suicide.

[EV_Ares]

7. Excuse me and you have a good day as well. eom.

[peace13]

8. Your opening sentence says it all.

There should have been other ways and there always have been foreclosures. The bankruptcy bill which Congress recently passed that gives the banks total power. Go ahead and go bankrupt but you will pay every penny back. Have a medical emergency in the family? No problem here's the dough but eventually it will all catch up. 50% of the bankruptcies in the country involve a medical situation. Even the best middle class budgeter will not win that battle. I feel for this man. He obviously felt that he had nowhere to turn. Peace, Kim

[EV_Ares]

10. Thanks Peace and you added some important factors as well. The medical issues are

some of the biggest causes of bankruptcies in this country. How does a person prevent that if he is just a low wage earner or even a moderate one in cases. We do not walk in these peoples' shoes. We do know there has to be extreme desperation. The one poster mentioned a husband and wife and they took their 4 dogs with them as well. In our paper, it was mentioned about suicides by people losing everything. Very tragic.

[flashl]

25. Suicide by cop = forced suicide

Suicide-by-cop is a suicide method in which someone deliberately acts in a threatening way towards a law enforcement officer, with the goal of provoking a lethal response, such as being shot to death. Similar phrases include suicide-by-police, and officer- (or police-) assisted suicide. A veteran Canadian police officer researching the topic for his Master's and Ph.D. theses used the phrase "Victim-Precipitated Homicide". (Parent 2004)

[tammywammy]

26. This wasn't suicide by cop though

the man took his own life, the cops didn't shoot him.

[flashl]

27. Understand.

Comments made creates a sense that the term "forced suicide" may not be appropriate. It happens.

[Raejeanowl]

30. Compelled, Maybe

Tragic as this is, nothing forced him to reject the reality of it by obliterating himself and probably destroying the lives of others in the process.

Sorry if this sounds harsh; I'm the survivor of someone's suicide, and while I do have some compassion for those who mentally get to that extreme, the rest of us can just quit enabling it by endorsing it as EVER being appropriate, even back-handedly.

[Lasher]

3. What, another one?

It was just a few days ago that a couple killed themselves for the same reason, taking their 4 dogs with them.

[NC_Nurse]

5. Forces is the wrong word.

He had other choices, it's sad that he chose this one. Sounds like he tried to take a few police officers with him.
The gas mask and chemical suit are interesting too, perhaps this guy had more than one interesting personal issue....

[comtec]

12. Two things at work here...

one he's Texan
Two, there might be very strong personal reasons he put up such a fight.
Sadly we'll never know.
But in a very sad way the only way these massive foreclosure will be put on the news is if more of this kind of thing happens.

There needs to be more reason and thought put in these mass foreclosures.
I mean I doubt the bank has any buyers of families, why not set up an arrangement where the man lives there until a real family moves in or he can pay down the loan, assuming he can pay it.

dammit, agian logic...common sense... must remove these from my thought processes to understand moden business decisions...
:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::silly: OK.. better now.... I understand it all....*passes out*

[ShortnFiery]

9. And here FOX was sporting the subtitle: Foreclosures Increasing: Good for the Economy!

:puke: :(

[EV_Ares]

11. Man, wonder who does those things for them. I almost fell off the treadmill

at the gym laughing the other day when I unfortunately had to watch Fox on one of those subtitle things. Remember when the were running the subtitle on Mark Foley with a "D" by his name after his scandal?

[ShortnFiery]

15. Absolutely. What's Orwellian and effective is that FOX is unashamed, even proud

of their LIES. The bigger the lie, the better it sells. I thought to myself when I saw that subtitle above, "OMG! I suppose that foreclosures are delightful for those within the investor classes, but it's devastating for us "little people" who have to depend on wages to survive from month to month. :shrug:

I can say with assurance and in all sincerity: Goebbels has been rolling over in his grave screaming, "FOX you beautiful bastards!" No doubt in my mind: If The Third Reich only had FOX news hounds on the task back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, we'd all be speaking German and turning our "unsavory" neighbors, family and ex-friends into Fatherland Security Forces for lock-up in detention camps. :wow; :scared:

I only wish that I would have had my USB TV Tuner hooked up so that I could have snagged a "screen shot" of yesterdays BUNK. :(

[Javaman]

13. "a gas mask, chemical suit..."

So sadly, in the end, this guy believed he had only one choice and that it was to kill himself.

Okay, that aside.

Why the elaborate set up?

having read several books on the depression. Most people who had gotten to this point back then, would just simply end it all with a single bullet. Their body would usually be found by either friends or family or several days later when the government came by to bulldoze the house.

So now we are treated to the "stand off" mentality.

The worst part about all of this, is the guy felt he had no other options or choice.

back in the depression, people literally had nothing, zip, zero, nadda. Today, most people who lose their homes, mostly is due to major debt. borrowing on equity, running up huge credit card bills, buying much much more house than they could afford on an adjustable mortgage. Then:1929, nothing. Now:2007, debt.

We as a nation today, have built ourselves quite a house of fantasy haven't we?

I suspect more of this to come. Keep an eye on your neighbors.

[donsu]

14. foreclosure didn't cause him to kill himself, the cops did

they could have outwitted him

[Basileus Basileon]

16. Forces? No. He chose. nt

[ShortnFiery]

17. And the greedy corporate forces operating to gut the middle class and make the rich richer ...

plays no part in feelings of learned helplessness and hopelessness? Couple that with the psychological observation that up to 20% of our population can be clinically diagnosed as "depressed" at any one point in time ... The Perfect Storm for the realization of Plutocracy. :(

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. "Lengthy standoff ends in Spring with man's suicide"

That's the actual headline in the newspaper. It does not say that he was "forced" to commit suicide.

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. But the actual headline would not have made the point that the OP was trying to make

[slackmaster]

19. Not to mention his divorce, depression, or drug addiction problems

:eyes:

Another case of Suicide by Cop.

[JitterbugPerfume]

21. I think we will be seeingmore of this sort of thing

as the economy circles the drain and more and more people get desperate.

[tammywammy]

23. He had more problems than just the foreclosure

His recent divorce, drug addiction.

Foreclosure didn't force him to commit suicide, he did have other options.

[Jacobin]

24. No. He made a choice

No one forced him to kill himself. I deal with people all day long in bankruptcy. Sometimes they can keep their homes if they can catch up their payments. Sometimes they can't. When they can't they get another place to live.

Very inappropriate headline.

[Catherine Vincent]

28. They'll have a hard time selling this house now.

RIP

[Rex]

29. WTF?