Prosecuting them for racketeering would require hauling the Lord Mayor into court as a party to the crime...

Well isn't this just classic post bubble PDX folklore...

Anarchist squatters "helping" a "victim" who walked away over $7k of mortgage debt...only in Portlandia!!!

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/06/occupy_portland_squatters_take.html

http://www.katu.com/news/local/Moving-day-for-squatters-but-where-will-they-go-next-160916635.html

http://www.katu.com/news/local/Woman-gets-bogus-eviction-letter-moves-out-squatters-move-in-160770565.html?tab=video&c=y

There is a difference between those down on their luck, and those down on our luck.

In other words, there are those going through a tough time and need us to pitch in some to help, and those angry about what you or I have have because they have been too darn lazy to ever pursue it.

These local anarchists are really down on our ability to thrive, and have a mind to make us as unhappy as them.

Joe Strummer and early bandmates of his pre-clash "occupied" empty London row houses. The London housing authority had boarded up so many buildings and underground real estate agency popped up to give the homeless a guide to which were the good ones to occupy and the best way to (discreetly) enter.

It started as a political statement. Why so many empty buildings when there are so many homeless? It's the classic paradox of any malfunctioning economy. Why so many under used people and assets in the face of so much need?

Probably these No Po "anarchists" (really? Do we have to tag them with that ancient slur?) are not good people and mistreated the home.

But there are an awful lot of empty houses out there. The lack of housing is causing jacked up rents and that is causing the rampant overbuilding of Apartment Bunkers. Something this blog seems not to like much.

So... solutions? Lock um all up?

There is PLENTY of housing available and vacant in PDX. Hell 80% of bank owned property in the Portland area is not on the market for sale!!!

http://www.portlandhousing.blogspot.com/2012/04/waiting-game-portlands-bank-owned.html

This group of cockroaches is particularly loathsome, and needs to be put away before they wreck somebody else's life. They are not making a political statement. They are simply freeloading.

Sadly, the politicians in Portland support these terds rather than actual taxpaying productive members of society.

Since the terd loving politicians keep getting elected, these d-bags will be allowed to continue their ways. An eviction every once in a while has shown to NOT be a deterrent.

This group of cockroaches is particularly loathsome, and needs to be put away before they wreck somebody else's life.

Similar to my thoughts as read about these slimebuckets over breakfast 1/2 hr ago. These clowns who show up at protests wearing the face covers, as one of the squatters was doing, give the real humans at the protests a bad name. They truly suck.

Max - News Flash!!

They call themselves "anarchists." They even use the tag with the "A" in the circle, the red, black, etc. But you know this. "Anarchist," as a word, is no more ancient than "Philanthropist." And as far as available real estate is concerned - you're correct. There's an empty $58 million mansion available by the name of Wapato Jail.

A classic example of a "malfunctioning economy" is one where the "gimme, gimme's" are too lazy to do manual labor to actually be in a position to attain what they need. If they are so anxious to squat, they should look into contacting the realty agencies to see if they can maintain the yards of the houses in exchange for an hourly wage. They they can squat in their own paid for living space like the rest of us.

The only thing more putrid than these jerks are the apologists who rush to their defense.

Portland's Achilles heal is its entitlement culture. It permeates so many poor decisions that drive our region's mediocrity in education, job creation and lack of anything world class (he have world class government bureaucracy and wasteful spending of taxpayer money in spades). Mediocrity = failure. Let these lazy entitlement slackers occupy Wapato Jail...we'll leave the light on for them!

The Balkanization of Amerika continues. The most sure fire way to dismantle a once united country is to wreck the economy and have everyone seek the government as the giant tit of last resort.

The occupy crowd are mostly young people that have given up trying to make a go of it and seek the giant tit in the sky.

The ironic part is they curse the tit while sucking hard upon it.

I don't think this has anything to do with the "Anarchists." Yes, people are organizing around homeowners who are facing foreclosure. People who, in the cases I've seen, are hard working but barely surviving, GOOD, people that have been denied multiple modification requests.

This appears to be some type of predatory fraud situation. Assuming this article is the full story, I do not think any self-respecting anarchist would squat under the cover of a letter bearing the emblem of "the devil" himself.

My point is that civil disobedience serves a function in society. see generally, The Civil Rights Movement. Those who fail to discern the message from the messenger do not facilitate social progress.

After all, "[w]hat is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"

I simply cannot fathom the mentality of portraying these freeloading criminals as somehow serving a noble or even reasonable cause. What kind of reality disconnect does it take to contradict empirical evidence and historical facts:

http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/139316973.html

http://www.kval.com/news/local/Police-say-squatters-tried-to-take-advantage-of-elderly-couple-139269673.html?c=y&tab=video

No connection between anarchists, occupiers and squatters? Seriously?

I think if the Portland police(with the politician's endorsement) don't promptly enforce the laws that there will be a backlash. It may not be pretty.

Dirtbags. I'm sure they have lots of good justification for their shoplifting too. And collecting foodstamps while hating the govt. I like the girl in the story who told the owner that it was still the banks fault. The banks fault that you trashed her house? Dirtbags.

I thought the Occupie folks hate corporate America?

So they broke into a house, and they hired an Internet Service Provider (corporate America), which clearly indicates that they had computers (corporate America). They also rode bicycles (corporate America), wore clothing (corporate America), and when ordered out, loaded some of their stuff into a van (corporate America).

Apparently, they hate corporate America only when it's convenient for them to do so.

Wheres the link between these folks and the Occupy movement?

Hell you have Trimet buying a million dollars worth of furniture and cutting bus service or a bunch of squatters taking over an abandoned house.

Which one is worse?

The choice is obvious to me.

Al M makes a good point. Government thievery from society is arguably a lot worse than the actions of these chuckleheads.

I lived in a squat in London while working several low paid jobs, (sandwich shop, newspaper kiosk vendor) for three months after my father died in 1984. It would have been utterly impossible to afford anything like rent on those wages, and it seemed like every low-paid worker in London lived with their parents or in a squat. Still remember it as the worst period of my life. I left to go back to the US a few weeks after my Egyptian boss politely offered me a promotion of sorts...a better-paid position as his salaried live-in girlfriend. A nauseatingly memorable send-off from a dreary hell, as it were. Debarking at JFK airport felt like a return to the garden of paradise.

Who knows, maybe some of these idiots have a future waiting for them for whenever they are ready to pull up stakes from their beds of despair and self-pity.