RAW TRANSCRIPT:

FLETCHER: Here is the one thing that I will tell you that I am offended about is how we are so lenient on unethical real estate agents? This ties in to an article that I cut over the night, “Lesson learned, city of Ferguson to be more lenient on crime.” I’m not kidding. The whole Michael Brown shooting, cop, officer, racism—this is the lesson that city of Ferguson learned to be more lenient on crime. City of Missouri wants to show the nation that it’s learned its lesson from the tragic Michael Brown shooting. The city solution, be more lenient on crime.

Basically what this says, if the cop haven’t gotten there so fast, Michael Brown would have went to the convenient store, he would have got that box of Swiss or sweets, he would have just disappear, he would have got away, the cop wouldn’t have the altercation. There wouldn’t have been the shootout and Michael Brown would still be alive. We wouldn’t have to go through all of this media frenzy. We wouldn’t have go through the loathing, all of these could have been prevented if cops were just less lenient, less responsive to crime.

City officials say, “To improve the trust within the community and increase transparency, Ferguson city leaders proposing a sweeping change to their criminal justice system that will be more lenient in response to crimes and lessen the financial impact on how low income areas. What about the business owners in this case?

Here we are, again we’re trying to appease to the unethicals, to the criminals, to the people who have no morals. What about the business owner, what about the law abiding citizen? He pays his taxes, why should he be negatively punished just because they don’t want to “put up with the controversy”.

SLOPER: Ryan, how quick, if they take, how quick is that town going to go, I mean just downhill out of control? I mean, it’s going to turn into a ghost town. I mean, no business is going to be there, real estate prices are probably already dropped 15 percent overnight, just on the announcement of this. I mean nobody is going to move there, businesses aren’t going to be opened. I mean, you’re basically setting up a crime’s spree all over the town and it’s considered acceptable because they feel like being compelled to do something.

FLETCHER: You’re too hard on these people. We need to be more compassionate. They have a side to this story. We need to understand it. They don’t have any money, we can’t be more strict, we can’t punish them, we can’t find them. It will only make the problem worst. It’s just funny to me how this works. Now, the sad part is, it’s the same thing happens in real estate.
Reported by Inman the other day, not on [unclear 0:09:07], they were the original author of this article, but they all know is Association of Realtors will soon be second State association to publish violations of the realtor code of ethics in a members only section of the website, but offenders will remain unnamed. What do you mean unnamed? It’s part of the campaign to boost professionalism in the real estate industry.

This is the last month, California Association of Realtors began publishing the names and photos of members found who violated the code and part of its website available to members, but not the general public, 160,000 member. Trade Group said it hoped to educate member and shine the light on why people misbehave in this industry. They all know is just an association board approved to measure to publish violations of the realtor code of ethics and standard and practice, but will not include the identifying name, information as California did.

Now, here is what is really being said. We’re going to publish the incidents in which people violate the code of ethics but we’re not going to publish their name. We’re not going to make them available to the public and we’re going to put them on a secure “members only” website, which nobody ever visits and that can’t ever remember the password.

How many passwords do you have already? How many times and when was the last time you visited your local association website? Unless you say that you do on chance go to that website, you get there and it’s asking for your username and password. It goes back to, how much time do you have in a day? Are you going to sit there and say, “Forgot username, forgot password; wait for the emails to come, go back, validate it to go in, to see people who are nameless and faceless?” No!

Why can’t we put more emphasis on protecting the public as an industry, a post to more emphasis on protecting the self-esteem of the unethicals, the immoral agents? This is no different than Ferguson. Here is what the spokesperson for the Illinois Association of Realtor says, “It is hoped that an ongoing program of education and awareness will all to believe more effective than a public shaming.” Ohh, these people—we don’t want to shame these people publicly, what will happen? The emphasis on education rather than public shaming is also the reason why the trade group has chosen not to publish the violations publicly.

My question is how is the public supposed to protect itself if it doesn’t know who these people are? If they can’t go to some sort of database and say, “Oh, is John Smith on this registry?” just like they do on registered sex offenders…then how are they supposed to protect themselves?  And so the take by the Illinois Association of Realtors, just like that of Ferguson is, “Hey, we have to be more lenient.” We need to understand their side of the story. Maybe they have bills.  Maybe they need that commission check. A few corners rounded here, a few white lies. It’s no big deal.

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