The day after the annual Bank of America shareholders meeting around a dozen of us Atlanta folks stuck around to participate in a national urban summit to address the unprecedented housing crisis. Occupy Our Homes, Atlanta(OOHA), which AFSC has put a lot of time and energy supporting, was a front and center group at the Congress. The event was organized by the Unity Coalition which is a grouping of several national coalitions including Right to the City, and Jobs With Justice.
OOHA had an opportunity to present their home defense/community building model to hundreds of folks, and more importantly OOha had the chance to learn from folks that have been engaged in this work for many years. Conversations about how to bring the creative, bold, fearless occupy tactic together with good old fashion community organizing went late into the night. Though the housing crisis is a nightmare, it's clear that from the ashes of it there's great potential to change our communities approach to housing, to lift housing up as a human right, to build the communities we want to live in.
This past Wednesday Bank of America held their annual shareholders meeting at their headquarters in Charlotte NC. People from all over the country came to Charlotte to bring their grievances to the largest bank in the world, a bank that is responsible for knowingly pushing bad loans that have cost millions of people their homes. Homes are the only thing BofA has painted a target one;
*They’ve drained seniors of their retirement and savings by selling crap mortgages disguised as highly rated investments to unions and pension funds.
*They’ve diverted millions of dollars that would have been spent on building schools and education by scamming local municipalities out of fees and mismanaging their money.
*They popularized the term “robo-signing”-a practice that involves forging court documents in order to illegally foreclose on properties they had no claim to.
*They knowingly pushed African Americans and other minorities into risky sub-prime loans, while giving white non-minorities of the exact same financial status stable prime loans.
*An overwhelming 40% of their loans have been shown to have income overstated by the lender, trapping people in loans they knew couldn’t be repaid.
*They implemented systems to charge bogus overdraft fees to their checking account customers, and even take advantage of the unemployed by charging massive fees to people trying to access their benefits. This is all after receiving billions of dollars in tax-payer funded bailouts and debt guarantees from the federal government.
*Bank of America paid $0 in taxes last year, and even received a $1billion refund-- money they turned around and used to pay out over $35billion in bonuses to their executives.
So there's no mystery as to why so many can so far to turn BofA's shareholders meeting into an opportunity to share with the world the many ways in which BofA disrespects our communities. Three separate marches converged at BofA's headquarters just before the scheduled shareholders meeting. Each feeder march focused on a different issue, one on corporate greed, one on housing, and one one the environment(BofA has sunk billions into the coal industry).
One at the shareholders meeting, around 1,000 people took the streets and refused to leave. Homeowners in the foreclosure and eviction process at the hands of BofA spoke out, as did many others effected by BofA practices.
Over 100 activists and folks being negatively impacted by BofA made it inside the shareholders meeting. It was reported the Brian Moyniham was visibly shaken by the ruckus caused in the shareholders meeting, in fact folks said his voice was cracking and eyes wear watering, that he had no idea how to respond to the overwhelming opposition expressed in the shareholders meeting.
Right as the shareholders meeting began several homeowners being foreclosed on by BofA attempted to enter the meeting and when private security refused to allow them in police where called in. The four were arrested for refusing to leave the area.
It wasn't only BofA's financial stock that took a hit this week,their moral stock took a dive as the BofA shareholders meeting made over 1,000 media hits, most of which painted BofA in a pretty negative light, which they have certainly earned.
Occupy Atlanta and community allies organized a rally outside of Sheriff Thomas Browns office at 4415 Memorial Drive today.
Over 100 people showed up with signs and carrying some of the wreckage that Sheriff Brown and his officers left in Chris Frazer's lawn less than a week ago. The furniture was place in front the entrance to the Sheriff's department with the idea of bring the housing crisis right to the Sheriff's doorstep.
The Sheriff's office locked the door and refused to respond to community concerns. Chris Frazer, Carmen Pittman, and Pastor Johnson all spoke to the crowd outside of the Sheriffs department demanding that Sheriff Brown apologize and let Chris Frazer back in her home.
After the demonstration Dekalb Sheriff Officers pulled over one of the lead organizers for no reason,threatened anyone who attempted to film the scene, impounded the vehicle, and cuffed an activists that refused to stop recorded Sheriff Browns officers as they obstructed the law. Later that activist was taken to Grady hospital for injuries and released from custody.
Chris’ house was foreclosed on fraudulently by Investors One Corporation in October 2011, and she a case currently in federal court disputing the foreclosure. In March, activists with Occupy Atlanta set up camp on her lawn and committed to stay to defend Chris’ home from eviction.
Using what sheriff Thomas Brown himself referred to as “intelligence,” Dekalb County law enforcement waited until activists were not present at the home, and the neighbors would be asleep, to serve an unprecedented eviction after hours, putting 4 generations including her 85 year old mother, and 3 year old grandson out on the curb. They refused to allow Chris to shower or for her mother to get dressed; they told Chris to behave as if it were a fire drill. They even rounded up her dogs and took them to the pound. The police blockaded the neighborhood and wouldn’t allow anyone to help secure the family’s valuable personal belongings from the side of the road, and they stole many of Chris’s valuables.
Once again, it is clear that the government and our law enforcement officials are being used to serve and protect the interest of the 1% and not of ordinary people or even the laws that they have put in place. Occupy Atlanta and community allies are more committed than ever to the fight for Chris Frazer’s home, and the thousands of other homeowners just like her who are being disrespected every day.
We cannot afford to allow Sheriff Thomas Brown to disrespect are communities in this fashion. We demand that he lets the family back into the place they've called home for the past 18 yrs. We will be meeting outside of his office Monday evening, 4-6pm, carrying signs and banners asking why he would choose to leave a family homeless at 3 in the morning at gun point and allowed her valuables to be stolen.
There are a lot of unexpected charges adding up now dealing with the
eviction. Chris is scrambling to find a place for her family to stay,
a storage unit for all of their belongings, and even has to pay to get
the dogs out of the pound. Please donate to help in anyway you can.
https://www.wepay.com/x2tg0qn/donations/193827
The scene early this morning at 3662 Wellhaun Road in Decatur
resembled that
of a major drug bust with officers sneaking around in
the middle of the
night. Instead of a bust however, officers knocked
on the door of 62 year old
Christine Frazer’s house at 3 AM to serve
her with an eviction notice. Chris’
house was foreclosed on
fraudulently by Investors One Corporation in October
2011, and she has
been fighting it in federal court ever since. In January,
activists
with Occupy Atlanta set up camp on her lawn and committed to stay
to
defend Chris’ home from eviction.
Using what the sheriff himself
referred to as “intelligence” Dekalb
County law enforcement waited until
activists were not present at the
home, and the neighbors would be asleep to
serve an illegal eviction
after hours, putting 4 generations including her 83
year old mother,
and 3 year old grandson out on the curb. They even rounded
up her dogs
and took them to the pound. To add insult to injury, the
police
blocked off the street and wouldn’t allow anyone to help secure
the
family’s valuable personal belongings from the side of the road.
Once
again, it is clear that the government and our law enforcement
officials are
being used to serve and protect the interest of the 1%
and not of ordinary
people or even the laws that they have put in
place. Occupy Atlanta is more
committed than ever to the fight for
Chris Frazer’s home, and the thousands
of other homeowners just like
her who are being disrespected every
day.
Sherriff Thomas Brown and the Dekalb County political system
showed
their true colors today, and made it known where their loyalties
lie.
Today at 1 pm, Occupy Atlanta, John Evans, President of Dekalb
County
NAACP, and other community members will be holding a press
conference
in front of Chris Frazer’s home to put these officials on blast
and
let them know that we will not stand for this type of shady
behavior.
Watch this powerful video to see Christine's story.
There
are a lot of unexpected charges adding up now dealing with the
eviction.
Chris is scrambling to find a place for her family to stay,
a storage unit
for all of their belongings, and even has to pay to get
the dogs out of the
pound. Please donate to help in anyway you can.
Bank of America has made a habit of kicking folks out
of their homes illegally. Since most people have no place else to go, today Atlanta community members decided to move in to the Bank. There was one simple demand. MAKE A
DEAL TO KEEP PAMELA FLORES IN HER HOME!!
WHO IS PAMELA
Bank of America is at it again! The
“Too-Crooked-To-Fail” megabank-- notorious for ripping off everyone from
investors andinsurers, to
homeowners and the unemployed-- is after Vine City resident, Pamela Flores’
home.
BoA is attempting to foreclose on Pamela’s home,
claiming that she missed payments during the trial period of a loan
modification shereceived through the
“Making Homes Affordable” program. The thing is, Pamela never missed a payment
and has the records to prove it. Instead of investigating her case and
admitting their error, the bank is moving forward with plans to foreclose.
BUT WAIT.... THERE’S MORE!
Trying to steal
Pamela’s home is hardly Bank of America’s first offense. Their crimes are vast,
and their greed is immeasurable. They’ve drained seniors of their retirement
and savings by selling crap mortgages disguised as highly rated investments to
unions and pension funds. They’ve diverted millions of dollars that would have
been spent on building schools and education by scamming local municipalities
out of fees and mismanaging their money. They popularized the term
“robo-signing”-a practice that involves forging court documents in order to
illegally foreclose on properties they had no claim to. Bank of America is also
racist. They knowingly pushed African Americans and other minorities into risky
sub-prime loans, while giving white non-minorities of the exact same financial
status stable prime loans. An overwhelming 40% of their loans have been shown
to have income overstated by the lender, trapping people in loans they knew
couldn’t be repaid. They implemented systems to charge bogus overdraft fees to
their checking account customers, and even take advantage of the unemployed by
charging massive fees to people trying to access their benefits. This is all
after receiving billions of dollars in tax-payer funded bailouts and debt
guarantees from the federal government. Bank of America paid $0 in taxes last
year, and even received a $1billion refund-- money they turned around and used
to pay out over $35billion in bonuses to their executives.
WHAT CAN YOU DO??
First of all, close your
account with Bank of America!! Once you’ve done that, give CEO Brian Moynihan a call. Let him know how
you feel about their practices, and that you want him to “make a deal to
keep Pamela Flores in her home at 245 Griffin Street in Atlanta!”
Brian Moynihan, Chairman
and CEO of Bank of America
Conversations about how to bring the creative, bold, fearless occupy tactic together with good old fashion community organizing went late into the night. Though the housing crisis is a nightmare, it's clear that from the ashes of it there's great potential to change our communities approach to housing, to lift housing up as a human right, to build the communities we want to live in.
