The Landlord & the Tenant (Pro Publica)

[Nevilledog]

https://www.propublica.org/article/milwaukee-fire-brunner-belen-landlord-tenant

In West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb once dominated by a factory that long ago manufactured steam engines, ore crushers and kilns, a man living on West Hicks Street opens his back door to let the dog out and sees smoke.

It’s coming from the house next door, from the roof. He calls 911. “Seven, seven, five, zero,” he says. “The house is on fire.” He doesn’t see flames. But the smoke keeps pouring. Sunset is more than two hours away, but the smoke gets so thick it darkens the sky. It’s cold and wet. In the mud, in the side yard of the smoking house, there are two toy trucks and a stuffed animal.

Engine 1 and Engine 2 arrive within seconds of each other, then Engine 3.

7750 West Hicks Street, West Allis, Wisconsin Credit: West Allis Police Department
There are two stories to the house. The top story is covered in stucco, the bottom in brick veneer. Angelica Belen lives in the house with her four children, the oldest 5, the youngest a toddler. In between are twin boys, 4 years old, one with cerebral palsy, the other with autism and epilepsy. Belen is 24. She’s a renter. The landlord, when she moved in, was Todd Brunner. Known around Milwaukee as the foreclosure king, Brunner collects properties others have lost to banks. He’s a familiar figure to building-code inspectors for his long list of violations.

Neighbors gather, drawn by the smoke and sirens. A battalion chief, the commander on scene, sees people watching from a nearby porch. He yells to them, asking if anyone is inside the smoking house. Their car is gone, no one is home, a man answers. The chief returns to his command car, gets on the radio and gives the all clear. The house is vacant, he says.

*snip*

[shrike3]

1. Good God ...

[Leith]

2. That was horrific

A decades-long clusterfuck of half-assed wellness checks, building inspections, letting criminals get away with their shit, so on and on and on...

[leftieNanner]

3. Incredible. Read the entire article

[yonder]

4. What a long, sad, maddening but worthwhile read.

This is yet another account of victims unable to escape their unfortunate inherted circumstances either directly or indirectly through protective agencies and the courts, while others who have learned to game the same systems, suffer little consequence.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and ProPublica illustrated very well those two unequal systems of justice in this great piece of investigative journalism.

Come Thursday, many of us will be giving extra thanks for our own personal blessings. Angelica Belen and countless others just like her, deserve as much and more of that same positive energy.

Thanks for this timely post, Nevilledog.

Edit to add: Please find the time to read.

[Nevilledog]

6. ...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. The scales of justice have a terrible imbalance

After the sentencing, Milwaukee police Detective Elisabeth Wallich gets a phone call. A fellow detective gives her the news. Together, they investigated Brunner for more than six years. When she hears Brunner’s getting no time, she’s devastated. “All of this work went for nothing,” she’ll say later. “We often said, ‘If I were a criminal, I’d be a white-collar criminal, because nothing ever happens to them.’”