Thread: HOUSING: HISPANIC brokers linked to glut of local foreclos

HOUSING: Handful of brokers linked to glut of local foreclosures
21 real estate offices had huge rates of failure among buyers


By ZACH FOX - Staff Writer
Saturday, January 17, 2009 7:06 PM PST

San Diego County

A tiny number of real estate brokers are associated with an inordinately large number of foreclosures in North County, raising questions about how just a few salesmen could play a role in sending hundreds of families into foreclosure and causing millions of dollars in losses for lenders.

Nationwide, mammoth losses by such lenders have triggered a global financial panic, sparked the worst U.S. recession in decades, and led Congress to allocate $700 billion in taxpayer money to save the banking industry.

Certainly, no single real estate office or group of agents can be blamed for the economic meltdown.

However, great financial losses seem linked to the activities of a small number of professionals.

A North County Times investigation into thousands of foreclosure records, along with interviews with buyers, reveals a pattern that suggests some real estate agents specialized in clients ---- chiefly Latinos ---- who couldn't afford to buy homes, and helped them buy as many as possible.

Some of their customers say the agents posted fliers in low-income apartment buildings and held seminars that encouraged people to get rich by buying and selling multiple properties, usually with low or no down payments.

In North County, 6 percent of about 59,000 houses sold from Jan. 1, 2003 through Dec. 31, 2008 have slipped into foreclosure, according to county and industry data.

A typical real estate office, usually a broker and a group of affiliated agents, has seen from 2 to 4 percent of their buyers' homes go back to the lender.

But the NCT analysis found that 21 brokers have accumulated foreclosure rates of 25 to 60 percent, a figure that could go much higher because many buyers are late on mortgage payments but are not yet in foreclosure.

All of the agents in these offices had similar sales records: They appear to have specialized in finding Latino buyers, and most of the attached mortgages were from "subprime" lenders that specialized in lending to borrowers with weak credit scores.

Together, the offices represent about 2 percent of the sales activity in North County since Jan. 1, 2006.

Yet, since 2007, when the region's foreclosures began to surge, they accounted for 455 foreclosures ---- 11 percent of all foreclosures analyzed in the investigation.

Industry experts say it is nearly impossible that such high rates of failed loans could result from ordinary real estate deals.

Indeed, the probability of a broker randomly compiling such a foreclosure rate is about the same as winning the lottery.

Agents working for one real estate office in the high-foreclosure-rate group have been prosecuted and pleaded guilty to fraudulently inflating borrowers' incomes.

There is no indication the other offices or agents broke the law.

But for one industry expert, the numbers alone were shocking.

"They are doing something that is severely inappropriate in order to have this high a number of foreclosures," said Tim Sandos, president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. "It just doesn't pass the smell test."

Foreclosures rare, usually

In fact, most brokers in North County saw very few of their customers go into foreclosure.

And the analysis does not show that Latino borrowers have caused more foreclosures than other ethnic groups.

Rather, it shows that the few real estate agents with unusually high foreclosure rates represented primarily Latino buyers.

Analysts such as Sandos say that relatively low foreclosure rates are prevalent among Latinos and first-time, entry-level borrowers who participated in government-backed mortgage programs.

In its investigation, the NCT combed through more than 5,800 foreclosure listings in North County provided by ForeclosureRadar, a Northern California data firm, which were then cross-referenced with mortgage data from the county's recorder office and real estate listings.

The analysis matched North County foreclosures with 973 real estate brokers who represented the buyers.

All but 21 offices had rates of foreclosures that were within the range of what a statistician would find likely.

Those brokers amassed 1,313 sales in the three years. Through December, 455 of those properties were seized by banks.

That rate of failed loans is more than six times larger than the regional average, which these figures skewed higher.

Several brokers also carried mortgage brokerage licenses, meaning they could sell a house and originate the loan ---- a legal role under California law.

Ruling out effects of low income

To reduce the likelihood that foreclosure rates were inflated simply because the 21 brokers catered to low-income borrowers, the analysis compared their figures with homes sold only in North County's most foreclosure-prone neighborhood, Oceanside's "Back Gate" near Camp Pendleton.

With foreclosure rates between 25 and 60 percent, the 21 brokers strayed from even the Back Gate's above-average foreclosure rate, which is 15 percent, by three standard deviations, a statistical measure of probability.

Such large deviations from the average are almost impossible to achieve randomly, said Jim Lackritz, a statistics professor at San Diego State University.

And of those 21, three brokers shattered the standard of impossibility, veering off the average rate by 10 standard deviations.

"It's at that point where you have to use the Jim Carrey line from 'Dumb and Dumber': 'So you're saying there's a chance?' " Lackritz said. "Yeah, but not in your lifetime or mine."

Many of the agents working for the 21 brokers sold relatively few houses, with almost all going into foreclosure.

For example, one agent sold nine houses; seven were lost to foreclosure.

But two brokers and two agents sold on a larger scale, making their foreclosure records much more abnormal:

-- About 40 percent of all the sales closed at the Century 21 Eldorado office in San Marcos have been seized by banks in foreclosure.

Two brothers who headed the office, Alejandro and Emilio Lopez, were arrested and pleaded guilty to fraud a year ago. Both have been released on parole after serving five months, prison authorities said.

The Lopezes declined to comment through their parole officers.

-- Vista real estate broker Miguel Romero has headed two offices, whose agents combined for a foreclosure rate of 48 percent.

Romero and his agents have sold 126 houses, 60 of which have ended with foreclosures.

Romero declined to comment through a lawyer.

-- The largest foreclosure rate among agents with more than 40 sales belongs to Vista agent Eduardo Ramos at 60 percent, or 35 foreclosures out of 58 sales.

Three phone numbers listed for Ramos were disconnected.

-- Escondido agent Agustin Castro sold 43 houses over the last five years ---- 20 have been lost to foreclosure, a rate of six standard deviations off the average.

'Prequalified' customers

In a phone interview, Castro said he sold houses to consumers who entered his real estate office, and that he never had involvement with the loan origination process.

Typically, his customers would "already have a prequalification. They would bring it in, we show them the house and that's about it," Castro said. "I'm not going to ask the loan officer for his qualifications."

Eighteen of Castro's foreclosures had lender data available to the NCT.

All were sold to borrowers with Latino surnames.

Of those, half of the mortgages were issued by Meritage Mortgage or New Century Mortgage ---- two relatively small subprime lenders.

And 14 of the purchases were made with no money down.

"I think it's the cycle with the economy," he said. "Unfortunately, if that's reflected on me, there's not a whole lot I could do about it. I wish things were different."

Romero's officewide foreclosure rate of 48 percent was the most of any North County real estate office with at least 100 sales during the last five years.

Some borrowers said they felt deceived by Romero's sales pitch and didn't know the mortgage payments would be as high as they were.

One such client was Maria Manzano, who faces the possibility of losing the two houses she bought through Romero in hopes of investment gains.

"Emotionally, I"m not doing very well," she said. "I'm struggling with an attorney to file for bankruptcy, but I'm trying to hold onto the properties."

Buy more, get rich

Borrowers and real estate agents who used to work with at least two of the 21 high-foreclosure-rate offices said the salesmen would target low-income Latinos, posting fliers advocating homeownership in certain apartment complexes.

Then, at seminars, the agents would propose that buying multiple homes was the key to becoming rich.

Another person who said she attended Romero's seminars was Irma Sanchez of Encinitas. She didn't buy his pitch, but kept in touch with friends who did, she said.

Soon, they were facing foreclosure.

Real estate agents and brokers who do not originate loans themselves are largely insulated from the question of loan repayment.

It is illegal to encourage homeowners to lie about their incomes. And it is the job of lenders to establish whether a buyer is likely to repay their mortgage.

Yet, the state Department of Real Estate's code of conduct says brokers are "fiduciaries of their clients," a relationship generally understood to mean that brokers must act in the best financial interests of their clients.

The obligation has been widely ignored for years, said Jim Klinge, a real estate agent in Carlsbad.

"It's mandated," he said, "but it's a fleeting thought."

Klinge has posted a relatively low foreclosure rate at 2 percent, or one foreclosure out of 53 sales.

Sanchez said she helped borrowers submit more than 40 complaints of illegality or code-of-conduct violations against Romero with the department more than a year ago.

Not seeing any action, Sanchez filed complaints with the district attorney, she said.

Michael Groch, chief of the district attorney's economic crimes division, would neither confirm nor deny whether an investigation of Romero is under way.

Romero has not been arrested, and the Department of Real Estate does not confirm or deny the existence of consumer-submitted complaints.

Therefore, Romero's license on the department's Web site shows no violations or complaints.

"Most of the people I have contacted, they just don't believe in justice," Sanchez said. "Nobody helped them, and now most of them have lost their houses."

Tracing the similarities

The sales records of Romero, the Lopez brothers, Ramos and Castro ---- the four salesmen with ultrahigh foreclosure rates ---- had several similarities:

-- Essentially all the borrowers, 99 percent, had Latino surnames.

-- The majority of mortgages issued on the sales, 93 percent, carried no down payment.

-- The list of lenders on those mortgages reads like a graveyard of failed institutions, many of them exclusively subprime lenders: Washington Mutual, Argent Mortgage, Accredited Home Lenders and Fieldstone Mortgage.

Some, though not all, of the real estate agents sold multiple houses to the same person, with all of the purchases going to foreclosure in some cases.

Still, it is unclear how much involvement the real estate agents had in the loan origination process, where any misrepresentation of income ---- and therein, any fraud ---- would occur.

The NCT was unable to perform a search of who originated each loan because such data is not publicly available, and even most real estate insiders don't have access to it.

Law enforcement officials say that in cases of mortgage or real estate fraud that involve pumped-up prices or inflated incomes, the most common perpetrators of the fraud tend to be the loan officer or the appraiser.

Neither is listed on the documents publicly filed at the county recorder's office for each real estate sale.

Inexperience in some cases

Real estate agent Rico Telles, an independent agent based in Carlsbad, sold nine houses, seven of which have gone through foreclosure.

Telles said he was brand-new to the business in 2006 after working as a car salesman.

Since the housing bust, he said he went back to selling cars until a medical condition forced him off the lot.

Now he tries to keep up with the bills with a smattering of acting jobs.

Each foreclosure had its own reasons, Telles said in a phone interview.

"I'd always ask them, 'Is this what you want? Can you afford this?' " he said. "And they all said, 'Oh, yes.' I never made anyone buy anything."

Another agent said his inexperience in real estate contributed to his high foreclosure rate.

Elias Chavez worked with the convicted Lopez brothers out of the Century 21 office in San Marcos.

Chavez, who was not charged, said the office would provide clients and handle the entire loan process.

He sold 19 homes in two years, 14 of which have either gone through foreclosure or "short sale," meaning the bank agreed to sell the property for less than the mortgage.

In total, Chavez sold $9 million in real estate.

After leaving the office following an FBI investigation, Chavez said he learned more about mortgage origination and estimates that his employers, the Lopez brothers, made $30,000 per sale on mortgage commissions.

Combined with their split of commissions, Chavez said he thinks the office might have taken in as much as $600,000 from his sales.

He said he earned about $55,000.

"I wouldn't say it was my fault for these people losing their homes," he said in a phone interview. "I just think it was unfortunate I didn't know any better."

Staff writer Edward Sifuentes contributed to this report.

Contact staff writer Zach Fox at (760) 740-5412 or zfox@nctimes.com. Read his blog, "On the Realside," at bizblogs.nctimes.com.

NORTH COUNTY TIMES

It is illegal to encourage homeowners to lie about their incomes. And it is the job of lenders to establish whether a buyer is likely to repay their mortgage.

Oh please! The buyers didn't see their "inflated" incomes when they signed the papers?!? Of course they did! They got what they deserved!

And just who was victimizing these Latino buyers but other Latinos!!!

I'm sorry, but the advocates for these people can scream all they want about the Latino being victimized by....chiefly....white Americans but the biggest victimizers of these people are their "own kind" and that INCLUDES all of their so called "advocates" from La Raza on down the heap.

I'm still waiting for that asshat Baca to explain to the media why his district has such a high rate of foreclosures on mortgages coerced out of lenders by him and his little housing opportunity organization Hogar.....and why, when at least one Latino focused realtors' organization, tried to sit down with him and Hogar to discuss the risk to these people, Baca flatly REFUSED. But nooooo.....all of a sudden Baca has nothing to say and won't answer phone calls.

It is the same story in South Florida. I have been watching the foreclosures in both my condo complex which has over 900 units and a local city. A high percentage of them are Latinos and many had more than one property. You also had a similar thing in the Russian community. They used to advertise in the Russian publications that were obtained for free at local businesses. Some Russians and other eastern Europeans bought homes with 0 down payment and low interest at first and then that rate went up. They fell for that but not as much on the investment part. Some did lose their homes including one woman in my condo building.

Azwreath you are right on. Living in South Florida you see all kinds of scams by their own. The latest one here is the lottery scam about a winning ticket that they can't claim. The main reason they victimize their own is because they stick to their own and won't learn English. Immigrants in the past also had their own try to rip them off and they learned Englsih and ventured outside their own ethnic group. That way they could talk to others and learn about those scams.

HOUSING: How the North County Times did its foreclosure analysis

By ZACH FOX - Staff Writer
Saturday, January 17, 2009 11:41 PM PST


An investigation by the North County Times has identified a small group of real estate brokers whose buyers ended up in foreclosure at an extraordinarily high rate ---- so far above the regional average that it was nearly impossible, statistically, that so many deals could eventually sour at random.

The implication is that the brokers targeted buyers who, it turned out, either couldn't afford or chose not to make their mortgage payments.

Handful of brokers linked to glut of local foreclosures

The NCT's statistical analysis started with 5,800 foreclosure records provided by ForeclosureRadar, a Northern California data firm.

The records represent all single-family, detached houses that were seized by lenders in North County from Jan. 1, 2007 through Dec. 31, 2008.

The great surge in foreclosures began in 2007 after years of hovering near zero.

The records were then entered, one by one, into a real estate database that showed which broker's sales office sold the property to the buyer who went into foreclosure.

The database goes back about 10 years.

About 4,200 of those foreclosures had been sold through a broker's sales office.

In California, a real estate agent must work through a licensed broker, who signs off on each deal, so the term "sales office" can apply to any number of sales agents.

The newspaper examined the records of all brokers who had sold at least five houses that went into foreclosure.

Then the number of each broker's sales were compiled to arrive at a foreclosure rate.

Nearly all of the foreclosures were sold in 2003 or later, so the sales records were limited to the period from Jan. 1, 2003 to May 23, 2008.

Why did we compare more than five years of sales with just two years of foreclosure records?

Good question.

The answer is that the region's home sales generally have taken a few years to show up as foreclosures in the data.

When home values are rising, as they were for the decade before 2007, banks rarely seize homes from delinquent owners, because the owners can simply sell their properties ahead of foreclosure proceedings.

As values began to crumble, the reverse was true ---- owners let homes go back to lenders at accelerating rates.

After compiling total sales and the fraction seized by lenders, the NCT divided the two to determine a "foreclosure rate" for each broker.

To control for brokers with a high number of sales in foreclosure-prone areas, we used an average foreclosure rate of 15 percent, the rate in Oceanside's 92057 ZIP code, the most foreclosure-prone area in North County.

The regional rate is 6 percent.

Then the NCT used a computation known as standard deviation to determine the probability that an agent picked at random would have such a high rate.

In all, 21 brokers had foreclosure rates above three standard deviations from the average, a level that rules out bad luck among these brokers and their buyers.

Indeed, two offices and two real estate agents had foreclosure rates more than seven standard deviations from the regional mean, a level that is about as likely as winning the lottery.

Using the aforementioned data sets, the newspaper found that the 21 offices accounted for 2.2 percent of all sales from Jan. 1, 2006 through 2007 and 10.9 percent of all foreclosures from 2007 through 2008.

The North County Times consulted two local statistics professors, who verified the statistical calculations.

The newspaper also used Datamar, an El Cajon polling company, in classifying Latino surnames.

NORTH COUNTY TIMES

Combined with their split of commissions, Chavez said he thinks the office might have taken in as much as $600,000 from his sales.
He said he earned about $55,000.
"I wouldn't say it was my fault for these people losing their homes," he said in a phone interview. "I just think it was unfortunate I didn't know any better."

Crap! Claiming you did not know any better is absolute garbage. In Fla. there are so many disclosure laws and heaps of documents to be signed (acknowledging there may be radon, acknowledging the property is in a flood zone, acknowleging you are a foreign national and that 10% of the eventual sales price will be withheld to pay capital gains taxes, etc.) It is the real estate agent's primary responsbility to qualify the client and make sure they understand what they are signing.
In SW Fla. there was a huge influx of Germans, who loved to build McMansions on every lot they bought. They sold them to other Germans looking for a Fla. home, not understanding that the main value of the home was determined by the neighborhood. And then there were those that managed to sell homes they did not own to their countrymen, mostly from the old Soviet Union countries. And, in this context, you have to look at Bernie Madoff, who allegedly took advantage of everyone of his religious persuasion.

Vortex you see it the same way I do. People often prey upon their own race, ethnicity or religion.

COMMENTS ON THIS STORY

MarineWife07 January 17, 2009 7:13PM PST
The mortgage company I worked for would see brokers bringing in illegal aliens as clients with stolen identification. One in particular I remember was a women who had stolen the identity of a deceased woman who died 8 years ago. Luckily the credit report showed she was deceased. The broker said it was his clients social and we should accept the loan, we said no we wouldn't and would report him and the client to immigration. Lets just say we never got business from him again. The odasity for both the broker and the client to steal a deceased persons identity and try to pass it off in order to buy a $500k house. We found out the SS# had been in use for a couple years and the illegal worked at a dry cleaners. I will say this was not our first case of stolen identity and illegal alien's trying to cash in. My point is the brokers used the client and the client use the brokers to defraud the American public and those who, like the deceased woman, worked their entire life to get good credit. Dispicable.


ANGRY WHITE MAN January 17, 2009 7:34PM PST
Sounds like typical brown on brown crime to me. The activists would really be howling if Caucasians were involved. Since the NCT poured over the records I would really like to know what percentage of the 99% Latino home buyers were Illegal Aliens. Then we would get many questions answered.


ANGRY WHITE MAN January 17, 2009 7:35PM PST
ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE A VERY BIG PART OF THE MORTGAGE MELTDOWN. You will not find this reported on much though.


ANGRY WHITE MAN January 17, 2009 7:53PM PST
ESCONDIDO ---- Responding to comments from two Escondido officials who criticized the consulate's presence at a city-sponsored event, the top Mexican diplomat in San Diego on Tuesday responded by calling their statements irresponsible and misleading.Luis Cabrera, Mexico's consul-general for San Diego, said that his office had done nothing wrong in setting up a mobile unit at a May 21 Escondido Civic Faire event at Grant Middle School, where Mexican nationals could apply for an identification card known as a matricula consular.http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06 ... _21_05.txt


ANGRY WHITE MAN January 17, 2009 8:05PM PST
But there's one villain that has slipped notice: how illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis. It's no coincidence that the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure wave - Loudoun County, Va., California's Inland Empire, Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, and Las Vegas and Phoenix - also happen to be some of the nation's largest illegal alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime. A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure. Regional reports across the country have decried the subprime meltdown's impact on illegal-immigrant "victims." A July report showed that in seven of the 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates, Hispanics were at least one-third of the population; in two of those areas - Merced and Salinas-Monterey, Calif. - Hispanics comprised half the population. The National Council of La Raza and its Development Fund have received millions in federal funds to "counsel" their constituents on obtaining mortgages with little to no money down; the group almost succeeded in attaching a $10 million earmark for itself in one of the housing bills passed this spring.


Billy January 17, 2009 10:54PM PST
A tiny number of brokers and a few real estate agents - that's a laugh. Consider the massive amount of sub-prime mortgage failures in just a short period of time and tell me again "a tiny number." they all know what was happening - brokers, agents, escrow companies, bankers - they all know which mortgages would not hold up, yet the went ahead and did the deals. Now you tell me why. Follow the money to the thieves.


Luz January 17, 2009 11:23PM PST
I bet at least half of the real estate agents suspected that the market was a bubble that was bound to deflate at some point in the near future. I wonder if that's what Billy meant. A lot of people were counting on a rising market (or at least a stable market) to allow them to refi in two or three years, so real estate agents should've been warning people not to assume they'd be able to refi.


Robert1955 January 18, 2009 12:11AM PST
If banks are stupid enough to lend money to people who can't pay it back, that's their problem. At least it should be their problem. Unfortunately their stupidity is going to be paid for with tax dollars. That means your dollars and mine.


jvc January 18, 2009 1:36AM PST
So, we are a country inundated with flim flam men who gain their profits from exploitation?A Christian based country,indeed!


unlaxx January 18, 2009 4:22AM PST
A story on shady Real Estate agents is a start.

But the real story lies with Loan Underwriters and Loan Officers. Their job was to scrutinize loan applications for fraud.

I'd like to see THEM identified, not just the failed institutions where they worked.


Mojave Jim January 18, 2009 6:42AM PST
A still can't believe this real estate mess. It has caused me to lose all faith in this nation. We are just a bunch of greedy and stupid people and our leaders are the same way. Just look at California.........$41 billion in the hole and no one cares. Our new President is continuing the same failed policies as the old one.......spend.........spend......spend.

It appears most are "upside down" on mortgages, car loans, credit cards and government programs are also "upside down". Well, the chickens have come home to roost......2009 is going to be a bad year, specially in California.


Dave from Oceanside January 18, 2009 7:11AM PST
To: ANGRY WHITE MAN January 17, 2009 8:05PM PST

Barney Frank, the bum who helped orchestrate the mortgage meltdown made shure La Raza got hundreds of millions from the mortgage bailout that just passed.

On top of all this ILLEGALS VOTE IN OUR ELLECTIONS



Dave from Oceanside January 18, 2009 7:17AM PST
So Edward Sifuentes participated in this article.

I would bet he thought he could prove his “constituents “ were no more involved in this mess then anyone else and it backfired on him.



senior January 18, 2009 7:27AM PST
Thank you NCT for exposing this vicious, callous crime. I was forwarned about this exact scenario about 4 years ago by a 3rd generation Escondidan who coincidentally was of Mexican heritage. He told me exactly what would happen in about 2 to 3 years that foreclosures would be very high, that there were people making loans to 'my people' that I won't do. Unfortunately, unsuspecting people will lose their homes and absolutely nothing will happen to the criminals, the loan and real estate brokers. Great story though and I truly hope that these scumbag brokers and agents will get their due albeit the prospects of this happening are slim.


senior January 18, 2009 7:32AM PST
Hers's something else the NCT can check on. Go through all the Trustee's Sales and see what is the percentage of Hispanic surname owners versus the percentage of Hispanic residents in this area. I hope you will be as surprised as I was. And you though 'redlining' was illegal?


Educated Critic January 18, 2009 7:34AM PST
Unlaxx - you make a good point on the Loan Officers and Underwriters -- I personaly know two who received bonuses for the number of loans issued (non connected to subprime). There were bonuses for all 'trickling down' (recognize that phrase) from the highest to the lowest offices.............. Robert1955 - good point but somewhere the stupidity stopped and criminal began................ May I congratulate NCT staff writer, Ed Sifuentes, for contributing to a journalistic article -but, was he used simply as an interpreter?.......... Going to the article -Quote, ""Law enforcement officials say that in cases of mortgage or real estate fraud that involve pumped-up prices or inflated incomes, the most common perpetrators of the fraud tend to be the loan officer or the appraiser"" unquote. Now, IS THIS WHAT THE ARTICLE WAS ABOUT? I see Ed Sifuentes' hand on this statement with the 'victims' being all those poor 'latinos' who used fraud to buy houses they could not afford. Give us a break NCT!!!NCT, who are these 'law enforcement officials'? Does journalism allow you to just make such a declaration without attributing it? It is getting to the point where 'every' article written about 'latinos' in the NCT appears to come from a Mexican newspaper where there is no Journalism ethics involved. If I published or was an editor with NCT, I would hide my name from the journalism professional world...


ANGRY WHITE MAN January 18, 2009 8:50AM PST
In Orange County California The Orange County Register did a rather lengthily story on entire Hispanic neighborhoods that were wiped out last year due to the subprime mortgage mess where the borrowers were not able the pay their loans. The only real difference in stories was that the Orange County Register identified as a lot of the people losing their house as Illegal Aliens. When you see the phrase “That they just wanted the American Dreamâ€

The free market is only a theory. In practice laws must be enforced to protect society. If those laws aren't enforced society has no protection other than what it can do for itself. It's called vigilantism. But vigilantism is hard to do when the laws that are being broken or not enforced are mostly civil laws. Most of this is the result of politicians who changed the laws to benefit themselves and a group of people whose votes they were trying to get.