I looked at the indictment last night and noticed it included the names of the grand jurors. I dropped my head into my hands, knowing this was inevitable.

There’s all kinds of laws like this that are super old, and really harmful in modern life. Like name changes having to be published in the paper, and home ownership being public information. Sorry trans people, if you want to legally change your name, you have to be out to everyone! And don’t even think about buying a house if there’s someone you don’t want knowing where you live, like an abusive family member or ex!

They’re left over from times when information was harder to come by, and they absolutely need to be changed, but our governments are bad at legislating for modern problems

One of the most basic functions of government is to keep records of who owns what property. That’s land, and businesses, and spendy things that have titles (like cars and boats). There’s a public interest in that information remaining public that far exceeds any interest in perceived anonymity.

These laws are old, but they stay on the books because you don’t get to hide. You don’t get to disappear.

If you think the responsibility for domestic violence is on the victim and their ability to stay hidden, that’s just plain fucked up.

In that case our government has failed to do this. Who owns your mortgage? It was repackaged into a mortgage backed security with thousands of owners. Who owns that commercial property that has been sitting idle for thirty years? Owned by nested shell companies.

Another reason why mortgaged backed securities should be criminalized.

…and the county recorder and the secretary of state has ALL of that information in searchable databases. But thanks for the entertaining straw man attempt.

Very well. Please pick a property not paid off on your block and tell me every single owner, including people who own a millionth of a percent of it via 401ks. I want names, precents, legal terms that they are operating under, and purchase date(s). I will except CSV format only.

A mortgage backed security is a structured debt derivative contract which is backed by the cash flow of the loan, via the issuing bank. It doesn’t actually grant any ownership rights to the underlying asset itself.