Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Occupy movement targets foreclosed homes
From The Hindu
The Occupy movement in the United States took its first step
towards civil disobedience on Tuesday when it occupied homes foreclosed by banks
in a bid to prevent families from being evicted.
In what it described as “a national day of action” Occupiers in
Brooklyn, New York, said that their action was aimed at highlighting fraudulent
lending practices and “illegal evictions by banks,” according to reports.
Besides New York, the aptly named “Occupy Our Homes” marches
targeted near-foreclosed and vacant homes in Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San
Francisco, Minneapolis, and Portland.
While the movement, which began in mid-September, was greeted with
harsh crackdowns by police entailing the frequent use of pepper spray and mass
arrests, there have been no reports of police action against the home occupiers
thus far.
The latest phase in the movement underscores the economic havoc
wreaked by continuing foreclosures in a post-recession U.S. economy that is
tottering and enervated.
According to real estate site RealtryTrac “foreclosure activity
recently hit a seven-month high, reported last month, [and] there were
foreclosure filings on 230,678 properties across the country in October... an
increase of seven per cent from the previous month.”
The website for the newly-created sub-group of the Occupy movement
is www.occupyourhomes.org, in which it
argues that the basic motivation for the focus on real estate was that, “Not
only do we have thousands of people without homes, we have thousands of homes
without people. Boarded-up houses are sitting empty – increasing crime, lowering
the value of other homes in the neighbourhood, erasing the wealth that lifts
families into the middle class.”
The group added that in 2008 it had discovered that “bankers and
speculators had been gambling with our most valuable asset, our homes – betting
against us and destroying trillions of dollars of our wealth.”
Arguing that the Occupy Wall Street movement and homeowners around
the country were coming together to say, “Enough is enough," the home occupiers
said that the 99 per cent standing up to Wall Street were demanding that they
negotiate with homeowners instead of fraudulently foreclosing on them
Labels: foreclosed homes, Occupy protests
Friday, November 18, 2011
Occupy protesters forcibly evicted
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg really knows how to go for the jugular. Similar to President Barack Obama's covert strike against Osama bin Laden, Mr. Bloomberg sent police officers in riot gear into the very epicentre of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, at 1 a.m. on Tuesday and forcibly evicted every peaceful protester there.
In an action that some branded as an attempt to wipe Occupy movement off the map, Mr. Bloomberg cited health and safety reasons for the eviction, which also saw police deploy large bulldozers to clear out the protesters' belongings from the park.
According to eyewitness accounts, police ripped up protesters' tents and deployed tear gas, pepper spray and a sound cannon. Media reported that some protesters assembled at the middle of the park, and raised slogans, “Whose park? Our park!”
Similar action
The clearing of Zuccotti Park comes close on the heels of similar developments in Oakland, California, which has seen the most violent police action to date, against Occupy protesters.
On Monday, the police entered the Occupy Oakland camp at Frank Ogawa plaza and, again citing health and safety reasons, tore down protesters' tents and forcibly removed them, arresting at least 20 in the process.
At a news conference in New York, Mr. Bloomberg however said, “The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day.” He added that ever since the Occupy movement began, that law had not been complied with because the protesters had made the park unavailable to anyone else.
“I have become increasingly concerned... that the occupation was coming to pose a health and fire safety hazard to the protesters and to the surrounding community,” said Mr. Bloomberg, noting the park's owners had on Monday requested the city's assistance in enforcing the so-called “no sleeping and camping” rules.
Leaving little doubt as to his role, Mr. Bloomberg said , “But make no mistake the final decision to act was mine.”
Return possible
Yet early on Tuesday morning, wire services quoted the National Lawyers Guild saying it had obtained a court injunction that allowed the protesters to return with tents to the park. “The guild says the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters,” reports noted.
Mr. Michael Bloomberg said the city was aware of the court order but had not yet seen it, and that the City of New York planned “to go court immediately”.
Labels: forcible eviction, Occupy protests, Zuccotti Park
Subscribe to Comments [Atom]
