How Eviction Resisters Are Using Stand-Your-Ground Laws To Challenge Fannie Mae

[Joe Shlabotnik]

In early February 2014, Moral Monday Georgia demonstrators gathered at the Capitol in Atlanta to urge the repeal of their state's Stand Your Ground statutes. On the same day, one foreclosure victim, three activists and their intrepid lawyer flipped the script by trying to make Stand Your Ground work in favor of housing justice.

In motions filed Monday in Dekalb County Magistrate Court, the group argues that when Mark Harris refused to leave his home as police attempted to evict him at gunpoint, he wasn't criminally trespassing - he was standing his ground.

Mawuli Davis, the lawyer representing Harris, and the members of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta who also were arrested during the eviction say they aim to challenge the double standard by which Stand Your Ground laws often have been applied.

He explains, "We oppose the Stand Your Ground law because it hurts people of color and poor people. But since it's on the books, we want to try to make it applicable to this situation and see if we can make American law really work for everyone. If it's supposed to apply to all Americans, let's see if it applies in this situation, where we have a big corporation hiding behind the law."

As for keeping his clients from going to jail, Davis will have to prove that the orders police gave were unlawful for the Stand Your Ground defense to stick. To this end, he must prove that Fannie Mae did not have a right to Harris' home. He may be able to accomplish this by demonstrating that the company did not negotiate in good faith, which Georgia law requires lenders to do.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/21675-how-eviction-resisters-are-using-stand-your-ground-laws-to-challenge-fannie-mae
I guess when you got nothing, you got nothin' left to lose. Hat tip for audacity.