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Sustaining today\u2019s waves of spectacular violence is a web of everyday violence, the violence of the normal. This week\u2019s example of that is deed theft. In Brooklyn last Wednesday four people were arrested at a protest against deed theft \u201cafter gathering outside a brownstone in support of a woman who is fighting attempts to evict her from the home<\/a>.\u201d The woman in question is Carmella Charrington, and her family has owned their home, that building, for decades. But like so many other families of color, and in New York especially Black families, ownership does not convey dignity, security or intergenerational wealth. For too many Black families, home ownership means living with a target on their backs.<\/p>\n One of the four arrested demonstrators was New York City Council member Chi Oss\u00e9. The protest occurred Wednesday, April 22. On Friday, April 24, New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani created the Office of Deed Theft Prevention<\/a>. Mayor Mamdani began his remarks with a reminder that none of this is new<\/a>: \u201cIn 1644, a man named Paulo d’Angola was deeded land on the corner of Bleecker and Thompson, in what would later become Greenwich Village. He and 10 others were the first enslaved people brought to New York. And after 20 years of bondage, they had won their liberation. Property held a promise of dignity, stability and opportunity. Property was the physical proof of freedom. After the English took over New York City in 1664, they seized the land that belonged to him and his fellow freedmen. Centuries have passed, but still, d’Angola’s story is no relic of history. It is one deeply familiar to too many in this city. I am talking about deed theft. Deed theft not only disproportionately robs Black and Brown New Yorkers of their homes, it also robs them of the stability that a home provides.\u201d<\/p>\n This story of theft is no relic of history. It is the normal. Last year, the Furman Center noted<\/a>, \u201cIn 2024, the New York City Sheriff\u2019s office reported at least 3,500 deed theft complaints alone over the previous decade. That number is likely an undercount because not all victims of deed theft report the issue to the police.\u201d The New York Times<\/em> has reported repeatedly on the plague of deed theft. 2015: Real Estate Shell Companies Scheme to Defraud Owners Out of Their Homes<\/a>. 2019: Why Black Homeowners in Brooklyn Are Being Victimized by Fraud<\/a>. 2022: He Runs a New York Real Estate Empire. Did He Steal It<\/a>? Yes, he did steal it, from Black communities, households, families.<\/p>\n While the Office of Deed Theft Prevention is welcome, the question of the accepted prevalence of this form of violence against Black communities remains. The problem was documented for years and often, and yet \u201csomehow\u201d continued to grow.<\/p>\n