The practiced nature of the mobbing harassment reveals that mobbing is a methodology for the eviction of residents, a methodology to “turn over” housing and make properties available for “rehab” or rebuild. More difficult to establish is the pattern—the incidence—of its occurrence in cities like Albany, California. We can assume that mobbing is common and a matter of degree—for example, Trump’s hiring vagrants to urinate in buildings from which he wanted to evict tenants or landlords installing security cameras in hallways to spy on tenant activities on the lesser end of the continuum versus neighborhood watch captains who file false reports that can result in dangerous police actions or landlords who tear down walls to evict. The common use of vexatious action is supported by statements made to me by the Seattle mobbers including the declaration that “[T]he industry is built on [harassment].” The difficulty in establishing pattern or frequency is not only because of the failure of cities like Albany, California and Seattle, Washington to acknowledge the purposeful, development-related drive to clear properties of legal residents for speculation. It’s also because the goal of mobbing is to frighten—to terrorize victims not only out of their homes but out of reporting. And because mobbing is a predatory crime that targets those believed to be most vulnerable for reasons that include age, gender, and the isolation of the victim.
Yesterday, however, at Albany City Hall, I met a woman who has been renting a single-family dwelling not far from my own in Albany. She recently received a 90-day notice terminating her tenancy though her landlord has not divulged what will happen to the house after her departure.
She told me that she has been subject to neighbor harassment for nearly all of the six years for which she resided there. She said the neighbor defamed her and tried to make her sound crazy. She said the neighbor’s home experienced two fires over the years and that the smoke damage had affected her home. She said the neighbor accused her of harassment, defaming her to her landlord and the Albany Police. Finally, the neighbor sold her own home to a party the tenant believes to be a house-flipper. The departing tenant spoke of the disinterest of the block coordinator as well as another neighbor who, it turns out, is a real estate agent.
