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Police Failures, Financial Predators & A Basketball Story You Won’t Forget!
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True crime fans, social justice warriors, and anyone who’s ever questioned the system—this episode is for you. We break down the Karen Read case, a high-profile murder trial that rocked Boston and exposed deep police corruption. Bruce Anthony dives into the courtroom drama, the shocking verdict, and the public’s explosive reaction. But that’s not all—discover how predatory lending and loan sharking are still ruining lives, as Bruce connects the dots between financial injustice and everyday struggles. Plus, you’ll laugh out loud at his unforgettable basketball story, proving that real life is stranger (and funnier) than fiction. With the Karen Read case, true crime, police corruption, predatory lending, financial justice, and more, this episode is your go-to for insight, outrage, and entertainment. #karenread #lending #lendingsolutions #karenreadtrial #PoliceCorruption #FinancialJustice #unsolicitedperspectives
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Thank you for tuning into Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Let's continue the conversation in the comments and remember, stay engaged, stay informed, and always keep an open mind. See you in the next episode!
#podcast #mentalhealth #relationships #currentevents #popculture #fyp #trending #SocialCommentary
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives 🎙️🔥💥
02:17 SHOCKING Murder Case: Was Karen Reed Framed? 🚨👮♀️⚖️
04:00 The Case Against Karen: What Really Happened That Night? 🔍❄️💔
04:42 Plot Twist: Defense Claims Police Cover-Up! 😱🚔🤔
05:34 The Verdict That Shocked Everyone 🏛️⚖️💫
16:35 Shockwaves & Outrage: The Internet Reacts to the Verdict 🌊😱🔥
17:16 Confessions of a Would-Be Detective: My Real Talk on Cops & Credibility 🚔🕵️♂️💭
21:30 From Underground to Mainstream: The Evolution of Gambling 🎲🕰️💵
25:14 Financial Predators: How They Target the Vulnerable 🎯💸😔
32:41 Predators in Pinstripes: The Dark Side of Lending Unmasked 🦈💸🚨
33:41 Major Leadership Changes Expose Shocking Truth 🔄💼💣
36:57 How a Free T-Shirt Cost Me $1,500: My College Credit Card Horror Story 👕💳😬
39:11 Loan Sharks vs. Legal Crooks: Who’s Really After Your Wallet? 🦈⚖️💰
46:59 Epic Basketball Story: The Day My Eye Almost Fell Out! 🏀👁️😅
57:38 Don't Leave Yet! Subscribe & Join the Family 🔔❤️🙌
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Unsolicited Perspectives' and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
murder, mayhem, and messiness. With a few sprinkled in jokes, we gonna get into it. Let's get it!
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome. First of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony, here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. stay Join the conversation and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcasts and YouTube exclusive content.
00:00:36
Speaker
Rate, review, like, comment, share. Share with your friends, share with your family, hell, even share with your enemies. On today's episode, I'll be talking about the Karen Reed case, loan sharking, and a story from back in the day.
00:00:53
Speaker
But that's enough of the intro.
00:01:04
Speaker
You know, I saw a funny meme. And I want to, I'm going to share this meme. I'm going to share what the meme was, but I want to preface this by saying, I respect cops.
00:01:16
Speaker
I truly, truly do. I respect cops. that It is a tough job. I remember talking to a firefighter and saying, hey, I respect your jobs way more than I respect cops because you know you're going into danger all the time.
00:01:30
Speaker
And he corrected. He was like, yeah, no, fire is somewhat predictable. It's more predictable than human beings are. So you could do a routine, simple traffic stop and it could end your life.
00:01:45
Speaker
Where we pretty much know what fires, like what we're walking into with fires. And I was like, oh, you know, that makes a very valid point. So the meme was, That nobody ever questions the fire department, meaning that, you know, police are there to serve and protect and firefighters are there to put out fires and and save lives.
00:02:09
Speaker
Nobody ever questions the fire department. Never. But we're constantly questioning police. Why am I bringing all this up?
The Karen Reed Case: Legal Battle and Acquittal
00:02:17
Speaker
Something came across my timeline, and this was the Karen Reed case. Now, for most of you out there, you might already know about this Karen Reed case because it was a high-profile case.
00:02:28
Speaker
I, on the other hand, was not paying attention to this high-profile case. So I just became aware of it, and I was watching it, and it looked like something from Law & Order.
00:02:40
Speaker
So for those people who don't know about the Karen Reed case, ah the Karen Reed is a Massachusetts resident and a former financial analyst. She was at the center of a high profile criminal case involving the 2022 death of a boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe.
00:02:57
Speaker
The case drew national attention due to the dramatic allegations, conflicting narratives and criticism of the police investigation. So just as I give you this brief synopsis of what was going on, doesn't that sound like the plot from a law and order SVU unit?
00:03:16
Speaker
Not even, maybe not even Law & SVU. Maybe the original Law & Order. This looks like ripped from headlines. I wouldn't be surprised if, because I haven't watched it in the last few years, if Law & SVU hasn't showcased this case on their show because this was crazy. So what are the facts of the case? So John O'Keefe was 46.
00:03:39
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He was found fatally injured in the snow outside of the home of a retired police sergeant, Brian Albert, during a severe winter weather ah on January 29th of 2022. The medical examiner determined O'Keefe died from blunt force trauma to the head with hyperthermia as a contributing factor.
00:04:00
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What were the charges against Karen Reed? She was charged with second degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
00:04:10
Speaker
What was the prosecution's case? The prosecutors alleged that Reed intoxicated and upset over the deterioration relationship with O'Keefe reversed her SUV into him while dropping him off at a party at Albert's house.
00:04:25
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then left him to die in snow. They argued that Reed's actions were intentional or reckless, citing their troubled relationship evidence such as broken taillight fragments and O'Keefe's injuries.
00:04:38
Speaker
Okay, so what was the defense's case? I say defensive. yeah Defense case. Reed's defense contended that she was being framed as part of a cover-up by members of law enforcement to protect their colleagues.
00:04:53
Speaker
O'Keefe was assaulted inside the house and then placed outside rather than being struck by Reed's vehicle. The investigation was flawed with alleged conflicts of interest, mishandling of evidence, and false and deceptive testimony from the police.
00:05:08
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That's what the defense was saying. A retired forensic pathologist testified that O'Keeffe's injuries were inconsistent with being hit by a heavy vehicle. She had two trials, okay? The first trial and then a mistrial after a hung jury.
00:05:24
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Then they tried her again a year later, which spanned over two months with extensive expert testimony, but no eyewitnesses or video evidence. Jury deliberations lasted four days. The verdict came back June 2025.
00:05:39
Speaker
five Karen Reed was acquitted of second degree murder, manslaughter, and all charges related to O'Keefe's death. she She was convicted only of operating under the influence of alcohol and sentenced to one year probation, probation avoiding jail time.
00:05:56
Speaker
So when I give you all that information and I said, this looks like a plot from law and order. It does. So you got a woman dating a police officer.
00:06:10
Speaker
And they're saying, the prosecution was saying that they were having some issues and she was so distraught and intoxicated that she dropped him off. She drove him to his friend's house, a retired police sergeant, so that they was going to party or whatever, probably going watch a game or something like that.
00:06:31
Speaker
Right? Drove him to is his partner's house, dropped him off, got mad, ran him over with the car, and then just dipped out, right?
00:06:43
Speaker
And he died not only from forced blood trauma to the head, but also hyperthermia, which means that he was out there for a while. That's what the prosecution said.
00:06:55
Speaker
The defense said, no, homie, the evidence is not important to him being right? buy a car. The evidence is pointing to the fact that they beat his ass up in the house and then dumped him outside and just tried to frame her.
00:07:11
Speaker
And then on top of that, they had some faulty evidence, some faulty testimony, some bias as part of the investigation, and it looked like it was a police cover-up. Now, I'm not Matlock.
00:07:26
Speaker
God, I'm dating myself. I'm not Matlock. I ain't no Perry Mason. But if one of my partners is coming over to my heart house, he's supposed to be there at a certain time.
00:07:41
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And he don't show up, I'm going to call or text, right? If a man is hit by a car so violently outside of your home,
00:07:54
Speaker
should be a sound. How is he going to fall? How is he going to get hit, lay out there, not only die from blunt force trauma to the head, but also hyperthermia, which means that he was out there for a while.
00:08:07
Speaker
Did nobody hear him getting hit by a car? Didn't nobody peep out the window to see if his car was coming or something like that? Nobody? Yeah, this sounded a little fishy to me.
00:08:19
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And the jury thought so too. So the defense and some of the jurors highlighted inconsistencies in the police testimony and evidence handling, fueling public debate over the integrity of the investigation.
00:08:32
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Key points from the jurors. Lack of direct evidence of a collision. Jurors repeatedly stated that based on the evidence presented that they could not conclude it, a collision had taken place. One juror told ABC News, I think with the evidence presented, a collision didn't occur.
00:08:48
Speaker
And that's all I'm letting myself consider. Another juror, Paula Pedro, said we couldn't establish that there was a collision or that she was accountable for John's death. The Commonwealth and the investigators failed to fulfill their duties to demonstrate that to us. so sometimes people think cases are a slam dunk case.
00:09:09
Speaker
But here's the thing that I think a lot of people don't pay attention to they're they hear reactions from juries or when they think that a person is um is just definitely guilty and a jury acquits.
00:09:25
Speaker
It's got to be beyond a reasonable doubt. That means it's up to the police and the prosecution that whatever holes the defense can poke in their case to be able to have an answer for that or else that leaves reasonable doubt.
00:09:41
Speaker
If you tell me, hey, look, they didn't really prove that There was a collision. He didn't really prove that he died from getting hit by the car.
00:09:54
Speaker
That's reasonable doubt. You got faulty testimony. You got evidence. Problems with the evidence. What do I mean by that? So jurors scrutinized the prosecution's claim that damage to Reed's taillight matched O'Keefe's injuries.
00:10:10
Speaker
Pedro explained, we couldn't make the damage ah on the taillight, the original taillight, compatible with the injuries of
Critique of Police Practices and Credibility Issues
00:10:17
Speaker
his, John O'Keefe's body. Another juror noted that the taillight was still visibly lit in the video footage after the alleged incident, which did not align with the prosecution scenario.
00:10:30
Speaker
And then there was expert terror testimony. The defense presented expert witnesses, including a former chief metal examiner and a biomechanist, who testified that O'Keefe's injuries were not consistent with being struck by a vehicle.
00:10:43
Speaker
The testimony casts further doubt on the prosecution's narrative. Then there was just the flawed and incomplete investigation. Jurors criticized the police investigation as sloppy and full of too many flaws.
00:10:56
Speaker
They cited gaps in the evidence, ambiguous DNA findings, and inconsistencies in investigation process as reasons that they could not have convicted. Pedro said, there were too many holes that we couldn't fill, and there is nothing that put her on the scene, and in our opinion, besides just her dropping John off.
00:11:15
Speaker
And the burden of proof and reasonable doubt just worked. Just worked. convincing to the jury. The jury verdict was grounded in the principle of reasonable doubt.
00:11:26
Speaker
As one juror put it, the answers were not in the courtroom. They charged the wrong person with murder, and that's why they lost. The defense strategy emphasized that the prosecution never proved a collision occurred, which jurors accepted as defense argument.
00:11:43
Speaker
And then there were sloppy and unprofessional practices by the police department. Jurors and legal experts described the investigation as sloppy, pointing to questionable evidence collecting methods such as police using disposable cups to collect blood.
00:11:58
Speaker
Hold on.
00:12:01
Speaker
i don't know if y'all heard me correctly. They said police used disposable cups to collect blood. I've seen enough CSI, Lord Order, SBU.
00:12:18
Speaker
to know when you're collecting blood, there's a certain procedure and medical instruments used to collect blood on the scene of a crime. Not disposable cups.
00:12:30
Speaker
This was sloppy. That in and of itself would make me be like, look, I'm not convicting her. They collected blood samples from the disposable cups. What they had, the red solo cups that they was using when they was drinking, watching the football game. And then they said, here,
00:12:43
Speaker
You can collect the blood with these cups. That's some of the dumbest ish I think I've ever heard in my entire life. Wow. And there was just the juror also the jury also said there was just an unprofessional behavior by the investigators, including a lead detective sending crude and biased messages about Karen Reed.
00:13:02
Speaker
They eroded the trust and their integrity of the evidence. The credibility of the law enforcement team was undermined by these investigative flaws and by the lead investigators' documented bias. As one legal analyst noted, the credibility of the law enforcement team faltered primarily due to the problematic investigation.
00:13:21
Speaker
So I go back to my original point. Nobody ever questions the fire department, right? Like not really. Firefighters go and save lives put out fires.
00:13:35
Speaker
It's pretty simple for us. When it comes to the police, and once again, i have friends who are police, okay? I've had family members that's been police or been in law enforcement.
00:13:52
Speaker
I'm not anti-police. I'm anti-corrupted police. And it seems like from this investigation, and i and ah I've watched enough TV shows, watched enough First 48, and read enough documents to realize the pressure that these investigators and detectives are on to solve these crimes as quickly as possible. And and also,
00:14:19
Speaker
There's hubris and ego associated with, I'm right. It takes a hell of a person to come up with a conclusion, realize that they're wrong at some point, or even acknowledge that they're wrong and then change course.
00:14:37
Speaker
Most people don't want admit they're wrong. And so this happens with cops and they get a bug up their butt for one particular suspect.
00:14:48
Speaker
And they're going to make the case fit even when it doesn't fit. And in this case, the facts of the case, they just didn't fit Karen Reed.
00:15:00
Speaker
And she got off. And why was it such a big deal? Because of the corruption the police department. And this was the Boston police. All right. Boston police. We know that the Boston FBI has had some shaky stuff going all the way to white Whitey Bolger. But hello like if you want to get credibility back in what you do, as far as law enforcement is concerned, this blue wall has to end.
00:15:29
Speaker
You have got to confront each other knowing that a few bad apples spoils the bunch. and get those bad apples out of there. I'm getting tired of people saying there's a few bad apples.
00:15:42
Speaker
few bad apples spoils the bunch. And you don't have credibility. How is this police department going to go out there and be able to conduct investigations and solve crimes after a case like this, where the theory from the defense was they beat him down in the house and dropped him outside and tried to pin the murder on Karen Reed.
00:16:06
Speaker
that's That's what the defense case is. And you know what? That makes way more sense than her driving him to his people's house, who are cops, okay?
00:16:19
Speaker
They're cops. They're all cops. So she's driving him to a cop's house. She gets so mad that she runs him over and injects.
00:16:31
Speaker
That is ridiculous. Okay. So what's been the public reaction in the
Reflections on Personal Aspirations and Experiences
00:16:37
Speaker
aftermath? The case attracted significant public support for Reed and widespread criticism of the investigation, with some believing that she was targeted to protect police colleagues.
00:16:47
Speaker
Mm-hmm. ah Reed and her attorneys have maintained her innocence and called for further andre investigation in O'Keefe's actual cause of death. The verdict has left some questions unresolved and the case remains a subject of public scrutiny and media coverage.
00:17:05
Speaker
And i can't help but stress it again. Credibility.
00:17:14
Speaker
Little known fact about me. I wanted to be a detective when I was a little kid. I wanted to be a cop. I knew as I got older that my anger was such, and I really don't like people getting picked on.
00:17:28
Speaker
And I really hate to see bad things happen to good people, that there was going to be only so much that I would be able to see before I turned vigilante or anti-hero or turn into the Punisher.
00:17:42
Speaker
Right? Like I know me and I knew this wouldn't be a good mix, but I wanted to be a detective because I'd seen, you know, you grew up in the eighties and the nineties and cops were cool, like lethal weapon, right? Like I wanted to be lethal weapon.
00:17:58
Speaker
You know, I wanted to be the the equalizer. He wasn't a cop, but he solved crimes and helped people. That's what I wanted to be. That's what I wanted to do. So I wanted to be a detective until I had personal experiences with the police.
00:18:14
Speaker
And not all of them have been bad. I'm not gonna say that. But some of them have been really bad. Some of them have been very bad. Some of them have been situations where people were given a badge and that badge made them feel powerful and they responded in a certain way. Not maintaining command, which is what police officers are supposed to do.
00:18:39
Speaker
Not that. But people that were probably picked on in school, now they got a little bit of power. And now they're going to flaunt that power.
00:18:51
Speaker
And I've had those experiences a few times. A few bad apples spoils the bunch. You can't say it's just a few bad apples anytime you talk about integrity in the police department.
00:19:05
Speaker
because it puts it on the entire police department. So now Boston has some cleaning up to do. They do. Because from everything that I've learned about this case, they definitely didn't prove that she was the murderer. Now, could she have been? Sure.
00:19:25
Speaker
She definitely could have been. But, you it's more likely that they beat him down, killed him. It's probably a fight. in the house, somebody hit him too hard.
00:19:39
Speaker
He fell, hit his head on something, died. And so them being, the the man of the house being a retired police sergeant probably had done numerous investigations through the years, said, this is what we're going to do. And we're going to put it on his, his old lady.
00:19:58
Speaker
Cause that's probably what a, retired police ah sergeant would say, you know, from Boston. And he would say his old lady, that that seems about right.
00:20:09
Speaker
You want credibility back? You want us to respect the badge because the badge doesn't automatically give you respect. Respect isn't given, respect is earned.
00:20:21
Speaker
And respect can be lost. So you have to earn it back. And congratulations to Karen Reed for beating the case. and You know i always like to see people beat cases where it looks like, you know, they being railroaded. So shout out to Karen and get back out there and get in that financial world.
00:20:38
Speaker
I would sue the police department. You got off, sue the police department because how are they going to try and collect blood and disposable cups? Yo, that is crazy to me.
00:20:49
Speaker
That is absolutely crazy. But I'm not done with talking about crime. I said murder. and mayhem. And we're going to talk about loan sharking next.
From Illegality to Legality: Lotteries and Alcohol
00:21:10
Speaker
You know, the government always persecutes certain establishments, certain actions.
00:21:23
Speaker
And then after a certain period of time, the government adopts those actions and make it legal. Let me give you a history. There used to be a thing called Spanish lottery and running numbers.
00:21:38
Speaker
It was a big thing, beginning of the 20th century. in 19th century, what it was essentially the lottery, right? One of the examples were is that horse races would end.
00:21:51
Speaker
This be certain grouping of numbers, three numbers, people in the neighborhoods would place a penny and nickel, dime, whatever, as a bet, play the numbers. If that number hit, they got to pay out lottery.
00:22:06
Speaker
It was illegal. it was People got rich. Madame St. Clair from Harlem later got taken over by Bumpy Johnson. The Italians ran it. Jewish people ran it. um And Spanish people in Spanish Harlem and the Bronx going to Chicago. like numbers always The numbers have always been a thing.
00:22:27
Speaker
You know the numbers as Mega Millions and Powerball. Same thing. What used to be illegal and still is if it isn't authorized by the government is now absolutely legal.
00:22:43
Speaker
And the government is making money off of it. Prohibition is another prime example. Now, alcohol was legal before prohibition. Prohibition made a lot of poor people rich and also put those liquor companies out of business.
00:23:00
Speaker
Liquor companies couldn't deal with this. Then prohibition was repealed. All those people that were making the money off of prohibition were pushed out. The liquor companies and beer companies took at control.
00:23:17
Speaker
Plain and simple, right? Said, we're losing too much money. People love alcohol alcohol. People are not going to stop drinking alcohol. We're going to go ahead and bring this back.
00:23:30
Speaker
You know where else you see it? Marijuana. Marijuana been illegal all my life until recently. It's still not technically legal. It's decriminalized.
00:23:41
Speaker
But you see it's a booming business for these dispensaries and grow farms and all types of stuff.
00:23:49
Speaker
Mexicans were smuggling marijuana. Jamaicans were smuggling marijuana. Other people from Canada smuggling marijuana into the U.S. for decades decades now they realize after 70 80 90 years they can't stop people from smoking marijuana and there's also some health benefits so there's some money in it for them so what did they do well we're going to decriminalize it and people can get rich but who's getting rich
00:24:23
Speaker
Not your man, not your plug from back in the day in the 90s that you had to go into, you know, sketchy area and go get you a dime bag. Or if you was really doing it, a quarter or some weed. Hope it was good.
00:24:37
Speaker
Hope that you ain't get robbed. Now you can go into a store now because it's all controlled by the government. Where am I going with all of this? Because I started off by saying loan sharking. Loan sharking is a thing.
00:24:51
Speaker
Predatory. Business practices is a thing. And there's something happening that you might not be aware of that I'm going to hip you to. And you might come to the conclusion, it doesn't affect me. i don't care about it. Or these people are stupid for falling for this.
00:25:09
Speaker
But there's a bigger issue at hand. So what am I talking about?
The CFPB and Predatory Financial Practices
00:25:13
Speaker
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB, has dropped a significant number of enforcement actions, at least 18 lawsuits against financial firms previously accused of predatory abuse or deceptive practices.
00:25:30
Speaker
These cases targeted companies involved in subprime auto lending, student loan servicing, and other financial services. The move was prompted strong criticism from consumer advocates who argue that it leaves millions of Americans, including vulnerable populations like students, military families, and working-class borrowers, exposed to financial exploitation.
00:25:58
Speaker
What does this all mean? So, like I said, the CFPB dismissed 18 enforcement lawsuits, including major cases against some prime auto lenders like Credit Acceptance Corporation and student loan services, such as the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, PHEAA. Okay.
00:26:20
Speaker
These actions were part of a broader rollback, with reports indicating that up to 38 enforcement actions were halted or banned. The Credit Acceptance Corporation was described as predatory, routinely suing borrowers for large sums and initiating hundreds of legal proceedings against individuals each month.
00:26:41
Speaker
The PHEAA was accused of illegally collecting debts from borrowers who had already discharged these debts in bankruptcy, targeting some of the poorest Americans.
00:26:52
Speaker
Other drop cases involved companies like Capital One, Rocket Homes, and Solo Funds, which were accused of cheating customers out of billions, misrepresenting loan costs, and making false threats to collect money not owed.
00:27:07
Speaker
So, talked about loan sharking. I'll make the connection later, but I just want to frame these companies and frame what's happening here. So there is an organization, okay?
00:27:23
Speaker
And this organization is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Their job is to make sure that they go after companies who are purposely predatory in their financial actions.
00:27:41
Speaker
In other words, giving ridiculous loans at ridiculous interest rates and then trying to collect an illegal matters or skating the law.
00:27:54
Speaker
If I've already declared a bankruptcy, this is part of my debt. You can't still try to collect on the money. They're throwing threats out there.
00:28:06
Speaker
They're suing everybody to get this money back. And I know what people are going to say. You borrowed the money, pay the money back. That's not what's going on here, right? Yes, you borrow money, you pay it back.
00:28:18
Speaker
I'm a big proponent of pay what you owe. However, if I borrow money from you and you set terms that are absolutely ridiculous because you know that I have no other means of getting money or Or I borrow money from you. And it after I borrowed money from you, you changed the terms of the agreement, which has happened with these companies.
00:28:43
Speaker
That's not right. That's not fair. And then when I come to you say, hold up, man, that wasn't what I agreed to when I borrowed this money. Well, that's the agreement now. No. Screw you. I ain't paying you back your money.
00:28:53
Speaker
All right. Well, I'll tell you what, since you ain't going pay me back my money, I'm going to ruin your life every way possible. Well, that's all right. I'm just going to for bankruptcy because the reason why I borrowed this money was to get me out of some debt.
00:29:05
Speaker
But all you're trying to do is screw me over more. So I'm just going file for bankruptcy. It don't matter if you file for bankruptcy. I'm still going to collect that money. how are you to collect the money when I put it in my debt as part of my bankruptcy? You can't collect after that.
00:29:20
Speaker
I'm going to do it anyway. going take you to court and sue you. Well, mean, I don't have no money in the first place. I can't even go to court and hire a lawyer. I'm going to get my money. This is what they're doing. I'm going to make the connection to Lone Shark in a minute.
00:29:33
Speaker
So why is this a big deal? Critics argue that abandoning these cases removes critical safeguards for consumers, allowing financial predators to operate with impunity and exposing working families,
00:29:48
Speaker
military members, and older Americans to further harm. Notice who they're targeting. They're targeting the most vulnerable. Some of y'all out there got some bread.
00:30:00
Speaker
Congratulations. Not everybody is in your predicament. I know an acquaintance of mine once said, if I lose money, I can go out there and make more. Great for you.
00:30:11
Speaker
That's not always the case for everybody. When they lose money, they can't just make more. They can't just replace it like they didn't lose money. Sometimes people run into hard times.
00:30:21
Speaker
I could tell you personally, my divorce was extremely expensive and I Got into debt. Wasn't something that I wanted.
00:30:32
Speaker
Just so happens that I paid for a wedding and a divorce within a full year. So, I mean, that kind of is what did it. But yeah, no, I was in real debt.
00:30:43
Speaker
I got a loan from my father to help me pay my taxes because I was paying taxes on a joint situation when I was no longer joint.
00:30:56
Speaker
I was paying taxes, married taxes, when I was now separated. Because I had to, because, know, the tax situation, we ain't going to get into my particular situation, but I had to. I had to borrow a little bit of bread. I paid my dad back, though.
00:31:07
Speaker
And I went in to him saying, hey, let's work out an agreement. Here's a contract. Here's interest rate yous I'm like go charge you interest, son. I said, dad, this I'm a grown man. You know, interest.
00:31:19
Speaker
on the loan that you're giving me because this was money that could have sat in your savings account that you would have gained interest on. Just because I'm in a situation doesn't mean that you need to miss out on He was like, okay, son, look, I respect you, but I'm saying you don't have to do it. I said, I want to do this.
00:31:35
Speaker
And we had a con, we drew up a car. I created a contract. It was agreeable to both of us and ah paid my dad back, right? Now, what these companies are doing That's not my father.
00:31:52
Speaker
It's somebody else. It's a company. Because I can't go to my father, right? I can't go to anybody else. I got to go to these lenders. And I need a loan.
00:32:04
Speaker
And they say, sure, we'll give you a loan because I need it, right? got it I got to pay my taxes. So I need it. They say, we're going to charge you 35% interest. Woo! That's pretty steep.
00:32:16
Speaker
But I ain't got no choice because I got to take this loan. Then they come back, well, interest rates have changed. We got to charge you 50% interest. What? That's not what we agreed to.
00:32:27
Speaker
Yeah, well, things have changed now, so it's 50%. Well, no, I'm going to pay the 35%. Well, if you only pay the 35%, your payments are going to be short or lacking. That means there'll be late and there'll be more fees tacked on top of that.
00:32:40
Speaker
And oh, by the way, every payment that you make is only paying the interest, is now not on the principal. There needs to be an organization, hence that there is, to attack these companies.
00:32:54
Speaker
But the organization's being directed, nah, don't even go after these companies. Let it ride. Let it ride. Let it ride attacking the most vulnerable, right?
00:33:06
Speaker
Working families, military members, older Americans. That's who it's attacking. The CFPB's enforcement actions historically return nearly $20 billion dollars to consumers. so These rollbacks threaten those protections and financial recoveries.
00:33:27
Speaker
Why are they deciding to drop these cases? What could possibly be the benefit for this organization dropping the cases? Well, the mass dismissals of cases followed the appointment of Trump-aligned leadership at the CFPB, including active director Russell Vaught, who issued a stop-work order on enforcement activity.
00:33:54
Speaker
The agency has also experienced mass firings, office closures, and significant contract cancellations undermining its ah ability to function as a consumer,
00:34:07
Speaker
Let me repeat that. As a consumer watchdog. Since the leadership change, the CFPB's daily processing of consumer complaints has dropped by 80% with thousands of complaints about fraud and scams going unanswered.
00:34:27
Speaker
The agency's retreat from enforcement is seen as a violation of its congressional mandate to protect consumers from financial abuse.
00:34:38
Speaker
Did you hear what I said? Their congressional mandate is to protect consumers from financial abuse. Trump-appointed people are scaling back the enforcement. Why? Why would they do something like that?
00:34:52
Speaker
Why? Well, didn't Trump get sued for multiple scams like this? Didn't he have Trump University? Right? Weren't there other scams that he was found guilty of?
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, he was found guilty on a lot of this stuff. So instead of doing the congressional mandate, they're going to slow roll everything and allow these companies to be predatory and go against the very people that voted for him.
00:35:25
Speaker
And most people don't have any idea this is going on because we're worried about the big stuff. We're worried about tariffs, trade wars, war in Ukraine, war in Gaza, now war in Iran and is in between Iran and Israel.
00:35:43
Speaker
Big things that we should be worried about. This affects the working man, the working woman, families, the military members, older people, the most vulnerable in our society.
00:35:59
Speaker
Okay. Now, I said something about loan sharking, right? And at the start, I said, the government typically looks at something that's illegal, says, oh, this is profitable, then makes it illegal, then makes it legal, and then runs with it.
00:36:26
Speaker
These companies are loan sharking. That's all it is. how ah How are they parallel? Both loan sharks and these financial firms in the dropped CFPB cases target individuals who are financially vulnerable, such as those with poor credit, low income, or urgent cash needs.
00:36:48
Speaker
These groups often lack access to mainstream credit, making them susceptible to abuse or Lending. Okay. So let me give you another story.
00:36:59
Speaker
I was in college, freshman year, first year in college. One of the first weekends, right? I'm working at the University of Maryland, walking on the mall.
00:37:10
Speaker
They have all these different platforms out there for fraternities and different groups and everybody's out there mingling. I'm trying to figure out, catch the vibe.
00:37:20
Speaker
You know, am I going be a part of the social community or I'm just going focus on grades? Of course, I was going be a part of the social community. I enjoyed no groups, but you know, I was in and out of some things. Anyway, this person walks up to me and says, do you want a free t-shirt?
00:37:35
Speaker
Hell yeah, i want a free t-shirt. All you got to do is fill out this application. I'm 18 years old. Though I did score pretty high on my SATs and I do consider myself pretty intelligent, all I heard was free t-shirt, fill out this application.
00:37:50
Speaker
Well, in about six weeks, checking my mail, what comes in the mail for me is a credit card. Had no idea applied for a credit card.
00:38:01
Speaker
Wasn't that much, was only $500.
00:38:04
Speaker
But I had no credit experience. was in a class that I taught, and I don't know that my parents knew that I had a credit card at this particular time.
00:38:14
Speaker
Or else they would have pulled me aside and explained what a credit card is. In my mind, free money. I'll pay it, but I don't got to pay it right away. i maxed out that card within a month.
00:38:28
Speaker
One month, $500 in 1998, you think will go really far, but doesn't go that far.
Personal Experience with Predatory Lending
00:38:34
Speaker
Didn't check the interest rate. It was one of those student credit cards that have high interest rates.
00:38:41
Speaker
Credit card companies were preying on college kids. I eventually paid off that credit card.
00:38:50
Speaker
Balance was like $1,500. So that's what it eventually took for me to pay off that credit card. So they give me $500, they get an extra $1,000. That's a winning combination.
00:39:03
Speaker
Preying on the financially vulnerable.
00:39:10
Speaker
Another way that these companies and loan sharking are similar are excessive high interest rates. Loan sharks are notorious for charging exorbitant and often illegal interest rates, they're always illegal, sometimes hundreds of percentage points annually.
00:39:29
Speaker
Similarly, many of these predatory lenders and drop and these drop cases impose high interest rates and hidden fees, making it nearly impossible for borrowers to escape the debt.
00:39:40
Speaker
This is the American way to be in debt. You can't do nothing in this country without credit. And when you think about it, credit is the enemy.
00:39:53
Speaker
you're going to let mean You're going to lend me money or say I have access to this type of money that I have to pay back per an interest rate unless I pay off the balance each month.
00:40:06
Speaker
Which means that even if I pay off the balance each month, there's going to be a month where something happens and I'm going have to charge more than what I normally would charge. I'm not to be able to pay it off. Interest rates starting to kick in. And when it's a high interest rate, it can be gruesome.
00:40:24
Speaker
Same thing with a loan shark. Loan sharks start off with the high interest rates. These predatory companies, high interest rates. these this These are the connections here. All right. Deceptive and abusive loan terms.
00:40:38
Speaker
Loan charts frequently mislead borrowers by the true cost of loans, hiding terms, or changing conditions after the fact. These dropped enforcement cases involve firms accused of similar deceptive tactics, such as misrepresenting loan costs,
00:40:57
Speaker
packing loans with unnecessary products, or failing to disclose crucial information. Let me tell you another story. yeah I got a bunch of stories. The first computer I had in college was the computer that my parents gave me, boom, no big deal.
00:41:13
Speaker
I needed ah better computer the second year in college, or I felt like I needed a better computer the second year at college. I wanted a fancier computer. So I went to Best Buy.
00:41:24
Speaker
I'm not throwing Best Buy under the bus, but i went to Best Buy and Best Buy had these deals. Whereas you would get these computers by signing up from, from, for some little software.
00:41:36
Speaker
Right? So you sign up for a little software. Typically they were like one of the internet companies or something like that. You sign up for one of the little softwares, you get a major discount on the computer, like half the price.
00:41:48
Speaker
So if instead of the computer being $800, get $400. Here's the problem. The problem is when that software bill comes in first couple of months, it's a trial, right?
00:42:01
Speaker
But it's not a trial because you agreed to pay this software for three years. yes and It's probably in the fine print. It was more than likely in the fine print, but you're not reading it.
00:42:12
Speaker
All you're reading is half off. I paid for a service that I never used. And the first three months was reasonable. Then the bad boy full price kicked in.
00:42:24
Speaker
And we're talking $60 a month. Now, multiply 60 by 30 months. So I say this first six months was a trial. Multiply 60 by 30 months. What is that?
00:42:37
Speaker
What is that, ladies and gentlemen? What is that? That's $1,800.
00:42:42
Speaker
800 computer 1800 more dollars on top of the 400 already spent predatory what's another example of loan sharking and these predatory companies aggressive and abusive collection practices traditional loan sharks are infamous for using threats intimidation or violence to collect debts while most Most regulated financial firms do not use physical violence.
00:43:11
Speaker
Many predatory lenders have been accused of relentless, aggressive, and sometimes unlawful collection tactics, such as repeated lawsuits, harassment, or false threats to collect on debts not owed.
00:43:24
Speaker
There's also a lack of transparency. Loan sharks operate outside the law with no form of contracts or regulatory oversight. Predatory lenders, while often technically legal, frequently skirt the edges of regulation, exploiting loopholes or operation or operating in jurisdictions with weak enforcement.
00:43:46
Speaker
The drop of the f ah the CFPB cases highlight how regulatory treatment can allow such practices to proliferate. So by not going after these companies,
00:44:00
Speaker
More companies are going to be like, oh, they ain't coming after us. Let's get them, which is going to harm more people. So both loan sharking and predatory lending can trap borrowers in cycles of debt, stripping them of assets, equity, and financial stability.
00:44:17
Speaker
Borrowers may be forced to take out new loans to repay all ones depending on their financial distress.
00:44:26
Speaker
Look, it's the same thing. And now Trump and the administration are saying, don't even go after these companies. Leave them alone. Let's drop all these cases that we have.
00:44:38
Speaker
There are still AGs, attorney generals. The attorney general for New York is still going after these companies. But guess what? That only helps the plaintiffs that are New York residents.
00:44:52
Speaker
And who does this help? It helps people like the grifter in chief and people like him. grift people out of billions of dollars.
00:45:05
Speaker
And I know you're saying, well, you don't have to borrow the money. Sometimes you got to borrow the money. Be thankful if you can't identify with this scenario. That means that you are privileged in the fact that you don't, you're never put in this type of situation where you need to borrow money.
00:45:23
Speaker
Be thankful. You might be lucky that you never, ever, ever have to deal with something like this. You're privileged. Acknowledge that and just realize there some people that are not in the same boat.
00:45:36
Speaker
And these people are being predators. They're companies that looking to do this to hurt people. And the administration is saying, go ahead, do what you got to do.
00:45:52
Speaker
What do you think about that? Don't you think that that's wrong? Don't you think that that's mad shady yo? Yeah, i had to go back from 1970s. That's mad shady yo.
00:46:04
Speaker
don't know. I'm just giving you the information. Do what that you will. But I can tell you that this organization has been put in place specifically
00:46:17
Speaker
And really helping a lot of service members because they are underpaid, taking out these loans just to function in life. There was a crackdown not too long ago where these lending companies couldn't do this.
00:46:33
Speaker
And this administration is saying that they can come back.
00:46:38
Speaker
Hey, man, you got to have credibility sometimes. And when you do something like this, shows me you have a real strong lack of credibility and accountability.
00:46:58
Speaker
Okay, story time. ah really I rarely get embarrassed. All my life, me getting embarrassed wasn't really a thing because I don't really take myself too seriously.
00:47:11
Speaker
But there was one time In a basketball game, I was absolutely embarrassed.
A High School Basketball Anecdote
00:47:18
Speaker
So I'm a sophomore and we're playing a game that we really need to win because we need to make it to the playoffs.
00:47:27
Speaker
And all I want to do is play in the playoffs, you know. I'm like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Not really. But I just want to win.
00:47:38
Speaker
And I want a chance at the championship. And one thing that I always regret from high school is is never winning the state championship. But in this particular game, we're playing a a rival team that's way, way, way out the way. Like it's three, four hours away.
00:47:56
Speaker
And they're not very good. But then again, we're not very good because half our team flunked off. all Almost all of our upperclassmen and our main starting player flunked off the team.
00:48:08
Speaker
So we're not that good and we're battling to make it to the playoffs. I'm in the game and I've told a story, I've told you guys that I'm real particular by my eyes. I have this weird, I must have seen something as a a kid in a movie or a TV show.
00:48:27
Speaker
An unreasonable fear I have is my eyes popping out of my head. and I don't know why I have this fear. I have this fear. It probably comes from the torture video from the Jacksons in the Victory album where my man puts his hand in the eyeball. I don't know. OK, but I have a thing with eyeballs and I'm scared to death that one day my eyeball is going fall out of my head with dangling on the little string and I got to put it back.
00:48:51
Speaker
You know i have nightmares about this. This is a real unrealistic fear. So I'm playing in this basketball game and the game is tight. The game is tight and I'm playing pretty, I'm playing pretty decently, not great, but you know, pretty decently, right?
00:49:06
Speaker
And I go in for a rebound and our center was a senior and he didn't flunk off the team. Literally is the strongest person in the world. Now he wasn't, but to me, he was. He was one of the strongest people in the world.
00:49:21
Speaker
And we both go for the rebound and his arms flail back and his hand or arms hits me in the face. I fall to the ground. Why?
00:49:31
Speaker
He hit me directly in the eye. But not only do I fall down to the ground, I grab my eye because to me, my eyeball about to pop out of my head.
00:49:43
Speaker
And I run all the way down to the other end of the court, holding my eye. Nothing's wrong with my eye. But in my mind, my eye is about to come out of it out of my head.
00:49:57
Speaker
So I run all the way down to the other end of the court. but There's no play on the other end of the court. The play is still on the court that I ran from. I just run in pain all the way down to the other end of the court.
00:50:09
Speaker
They sub me out. I sit on the bench, the trainer's like, what's going on? I get hit in the eye, my eye's about to fall out. that' so That's literally verbatim what I said.
00:50:20
Speaker
I got hit in the eye, my eye's about to fall out. He said, well, open your eyes, let me see. I said, I can't because if I open my eyes, my eyes are gonna fall out my head.
00:50:31
Speaker
He said, Bruce, your eyes are not gonna fall out your head, open your eyes. So they're sitting down on the brent on the bench. The assistant coach, because my head coach is coaching the game, and he's frustrated with me. He's like, Bruce, your eyeball's not gonna fall out your head.
00:50:45
Speaker
No, it's going to fall out my head as soon as I open up my eye. It's going fall out. and It's just going to dangling from the string. Are y'all going able to put it back in? Because I don't know if y'all going to be able to put it back in. And let me tell you something.
00:50:55
Speaker
I can't live being one-eyed Bruce. That's not going to be a thing that I'm going to be able to deal with. I have a little bit of an ego and I don't want to be one-eyed Bruce. There was a guy that was in my high school. He had a glass eye.
00:51:08
Speaker
You think that we didn't joke on him about that glass eye? Now he whooped a couple of people's ass. And so we joked on him behind his back because we were afraid of him. If I really, i knew how to box. so i was just going to get in his blind spots if I really had to fight him.
00:51:23
Speaker
But anyway, eventually, After 10 to 15 minutes, the game is still going on, right? 10 to 15 minutes, they they finally get me to open my eyes.
00:51:34
Speaker
And they're like, Bruce, can you see? I was like, yeah, you know it's a little blurry. And it was like, because you got water and sweat in your eyes, let's flush your eyes out and see if your eye swells up. My eye doesn't swell up.
00:51:46
Speaker
This happened in the first half ah it probably the second quarter, right? So it happened in the first half of the game. I'm sitting on the bench till really the fourth quarter because I'm nursing my eye.
00:51:58
Speaker
Mind you, it's a game that we need to win. We need to win this game to bank it to the playoffs. If we lose a game, I think we had one more game, but it's it's not quite do or die, but it's do or die. If we win the game, we're guaranteed to be in the playoffs. If we lose the game, we have to win another game to get into the playoffs, okay?
00:52:20
Speaker
Fourth quarter comes around. I'm like, coach, I'm ready. He was like, I don't think you ready after the way you was acting. I was like, look, coach, put me in the game. We need to be in the game. We're down. We were down in the game. was like, put me in the game, coach. Put in the game.
00:52:34
Speaker
He says, okay, Panky, get in there.
00:52:39
Speaker
Cut.
00:52:43
Speaker
He says, okay, Bruce, get in there. So I get in there. We're down. I throw up a three-pointer. I was a shooter. So I throw up a three-pointer. It doesn't go in, but it feels good.
00:52:55
Speaker
Y'all out there who have never played basketball, there's a feeling that you get when you're shooting the basketball. It feels good. And although I missed it, it felt good.
00:53:08
Speaker
And i was like, oh, I'm going to hit the next one. So I come down, next play the game, they pass me the ball. I throw up a three, goes in. Cut the lead down a little bit. Then there was a fast break and I pull up NBA range.
00:53:23
Speaker
Get the pass on the fast break, pull up for three, drill it. This is all in the fourth quarter. And this is all with like under two minutes remaining. I hit three three-pointers in the last minute. it was in the newspaper.
00:53:38
Speaker
It was a big deal. One of the three pointers I hit, I grabbed a defensive rebound off a free throw. I dribbled the length of the court and pulled up Steph Curry. Now, y'all may think I'm exaggerating.
00:53:50
Speaker
I'm not. This is a true story. My eye almost fell out of my head. And in the fourth quarter, I'm knocking down three pointers to put us back in the game. Now, we ended up losing the game.
00:54:03
Speaker
So I was distraught. So not only is my eye about to pop out my head, we lose the game. So I'm in the locker room. The coach is talking.
00:54:14
Speaker
I put my head in my shirt and I start balling. Because I know the season's over with. Like, I know the season's over. We got another game, but I know the season's over with.
00:54:28
Speaker
Okay? I know it is. And I didn't want the season to end like this. This is my sophomore year. To me, only got two more years to win a state championship. And I wanted to win four straight state championships. And I'm down two years already.
00:54:41
Speaker
So I'm crying.
00:54:45
Speaker
My boy, my best friend at the time was like, hey, man, he played on JV team. He's like, hey, man, did you have to run the length of the court? I like, what you talking about? When you got hit in the face, I was like, hey, man, don't know what you know, but my eye was about to fall out of my head. I put my eye back in my head and made those three pointers to bring us close. I mean, we still lost.
00:55:05
Speaker
So those three pointers don't mean nothing, but I still did it. We were riding the bus and he's like, hey, man, what's that white stuff on your chin and neck? as I was like, I don't know. I started brushing it off.
00:55:16
Speaker
It was dried snot. He said, not only did you run down the whole length of the cord, but you got dried snot on your cheek and neck. How did that even happen? i was like, it must have happened when I was crying. You was crying.
00:55:27
Speaker
Why were you crying? I was crying because we lost the game. We done lost a bunch of games. You crying over this one? was like, man, we not going to make it to the playoffs. You still got a shot. That wouldn't mean that you need to cry on these snot.
00:55:38
Speaker
And at that, dried snot all on your cheek and your neck. Ayo, Bruce got dried snot on his cheek and his neck after running down the court. Hey, I ran down the court to protect my eyeball.
00:55:51
Speaker
I don't know what running down the full length of the court to protect my eyeball did. But, you know, for me in that moment, I needed to run the full length of the court to protect my eyeball. And guess what? My eyeballs are still here. Now, I can't say anything about that dried snot, which is disgusting.
00:56:07
Speaker
How did snot get on my cheek and neck? Like, I possible. It wasn't like I was wiping my nose and then putting it on my cheek and neck like it's cologne.
00:56:20
Speaker
How the hell did that happen? Well, my dad picks me up because it's like a three-hour ride from where we were playing. My dad picks me up. It's like past midnight. He's like, how'd the game go?
00:56:31
Speaker
I said, we lost. He's like, I'm sorry to hear that, son. Drive home, I go to bed. I get a knock on the door next thing in the morning. and He was like, why didn't you tell me?
00:56:42
Speaker
Tell you what? You told me y'all lost. We did lose. Yeah, but you didn't tell me what you did at the end of the game. I was like, what? He's like, son, it's here in the newspaper. You hitting all these three pointers to bring the game close and y'all just didn't pull it out.
00:56:58
Speaker
But this is incredible. I was like, I don't care, dad. We lost. are Well, you know, you did well, so you should be proud about that. And I was like, I'm not proud. We lost.
00:57:09
Speaker
Then my dad saw the videotape because he wanted to see the game. He wanted to see his son knocking down all these three pointers. But he couldn't get past the second quarter because he said, no, that's not my son running the full length of the court.
00:57:26
Speaker
What happened, son? I said, my eyeball was about to pop out of my head.
00:57:31
Speaker
And that's my story. Oh, my goodness. But on that note, ladies gentlemen, I want to thank you for listening.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:57:41
Speaker
I want to thank you for watching.
00:57:43
Speaker
And until next time, as always,
00:57:48
Speaker
I'll holla. Woo. That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on unsolicited perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like comment and share our podcast, wherever you're listening or watching it to it, pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock will will enjoy it also. So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise.
00:58:15
Speaker
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00:58:49
Speaker
And if you really feel generous and want to help us out, you can donate on our donations page. Donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can share.
00:59:01
Speaker
clearly listened to and that you can clearly see. So any donation would be appreciative. Most importantly, I want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening and watching and supporting us. And I'll catch you next time.
00:59:15
Speaker
Audi 5000. Peace.