It was just a simple mistake

Haven't posted in this blog for a while, but I just saw a news story that made my blood boil, and always does whenever I hear about it.

The simple story is a bank in Wellston, Ohio foreclosed on a woman's house, sold some of her items, gave away some and trashed others. The woman had to crawl in to her own house through a window because her key no longer worked. She asked the bank to fully refund her for her possessions, but the bank refused to fully reimburse her.

At this point in the story you might be wondering why I am mad... well I forgot to mention that the bank had the wrong address. They meant to go to the house across the street. In fact the woman and the bank had no business dealings, meaning her mortgage was not with that bank, she had no accounts at that bank, it was a mistake that could be completely pinned on the bank.

It is stories of mistaken address like this that enrage me. But it is not limited to incompetent banks. Recently law enforcement have been making this mistake, busting in to the wrong houses and arresting innocent citizens.

Now, many will say that these are simple mistakes. Well... yes they are mistakes, but they are mistakes that turn the victims lives upside down. These mistakes (in the case of the no knock police raids) can get innocent people shot and/or killed. I mean if a team of men with guns, dressed in black, busted down my door without identifying themselves, I would shoot at them if I had the opportunity. They would definitely shoot back. I would certainly be arrested and charged for assault against a police officer or murder. That or I would be dead.

Now one might be thinking that scenario is a little far out there... but do a simple google search and it will reveal that there are instances of police arresting innocent people, searching (trashing) their houses, shooting their pets, and even killing the homeowner when they try to defend themselves against a team of armed men unlawfully bursting into their house.

The mistakes the banks make are costly, the homeowners have legal bills to keep their house from being wrongfully foreclosed on. They have priceless memories that are lost in the mess if the bank does happen to "repossess" the house (that in the case I mentioned, was not even the banks house to repossess).

These kind of mistakes are unacceptable. The people responsible should be fired, and if they refuse to rectify the situation they should be put in prison. In the case of police raids, the ones responsible should always go to prison and never work in the public sector ever again. The victims should always be fully reimbursed (full retail value) for any items lost, damaged or destroyed.

What shall we do to rectify these societal problems? Dear Lord, we need to do a lot. The most important step being to spread the gospel.

I know some of my atheist friends are thinking I am smoking something to make this connection. But, these mistakes and the failure to punish those responsible comes from unbelievable corruption. These people are beyond redemption!... At least by their own human efforts. Christ is the only one who can change the hearts of people and that is where we need to start. After we finish with that we can discuss further solutions (if any are needed), but until then any solution we come up with will be abused by one group of people, or ignored by another.

Just my two cents