Occupy Our Homes Gains Support Near A Foreclosed House In Brooklyn
BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Until three days ago, Teresa Bolton didn't consider herself part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Bolton is 55 and lives in East New York, Brooklyn, an hour's train ride from the skyscrapers of Manhattan's financial district, where the movement was born. But when occupiers appeared on her block this week, as part of a new national campaign to help homeless families move into vacant houses and resist foreclosure-related evictions, she opened her door.
"Occupy Wall Street came to me. I didn't go seek it out," she said, standing on her porch, wearing a navy turban and a pink sweatshirt, large silver hoops dangling from her ears. "I always wanted to be involved in something positive that was beneficial to everyone."
The street was relatively quiet on Friday afternoon. The exception: a few neighbors milling about on the sidewalk and a steady stream of white 20-somethings filing in and out of a house down the street. The neighborhood is home to mostly poor African Americans and Caribbean immigrants; Occupy Wall Street protesters are overwhelmingly white. On Friday, those activists were the only white people spotted in the neighborhood, besides the police officers stationed nearby. The house had a large banner stretched across it that read, "BANKS STEAL HOMES," and a sign perched on the roof declaring, "FORECLOSE ON BANKS NOT PEOPLE, OCCUPY WALL ST."
On Tuesday, the street had been packed with hundreds of protesters, community organizers and neighbors who joined a marching tour of foreclosed homes in the area. Out here, there are plenty: East New York has the highest foreclosure rate in the city. The march ended at the house with the banners, where a homeless family of four plans to live. For now, more than a dozen occupiers are staying there, along with the father, Alfredo Carrasquillo, as they make renovations and address lingering security concerns.
How and if the authorities respond to the squatters will partly determine the future of Occupy Our Homes, a national campaign aimed at the nation's foreclosure crisis. So far, police in East New York have observed but not attempted to enter the premises.
Since activists first erected tents in Zuccotti Park, many have questioned the protesters' unwillingness to settle on one demand. In the last month, as Occupy camps across the country have been cleared, the skepticism has escalated: Without public camps, will the movement end? This week, some protesters answered with Occupy Our Homes. The new campaign, which some say may be the future of the Occupy protests, takes the movement far from its financial district roots.
Since 2006, more than 4 million American homes have been taken over by banks, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based real estate data firm. A map of East New York foreclosures on RealtyTrac's website looks like it came down with chicken pox. A recent report spells out the danger this holds for neighborhoods: More vacancies lead to declining property values and tax revenues, crime rises, and a vicious cycle ensues.
After just three days in the neighborhood and despite little warning, East New Yorkers appear to have embraced Occupy Our Homes' presence. Many storefront windows hold supportive signs: "Foreclose on banks, not on people."
Bolton didn't have much warning about Tuesday's march -- just a knock on her door Monday afternoon. But as the crowd passed by, Bolton said, she invited groups of occupiers into her home for tea and coffee until the beverages ran out. At one point, Bolton noted, it became too much and she locked her door, refusing to let anyone else into her bright blue kitchen. "I was overwhelmed, I'm not going to lie," she said. But that night, when the crowd dispersed, she sat down and wrote a poem about Occupy Wall Street -- and she called it "our movement."
"It's a positive thing, to see a family in a home," she said.
Down the street, Carrasquillo sat in the yard of the occupied house, by a Christmas tree topped with an "Occupied Real Estate" flag, chatting with a crowd of occupiers and a videographer from the Yes Men, a loose-knit association of activists. A couple of neighbors dropped by.
"What made you do this?" asked Dannett Burnett, who lives across the street.
"I know it's crazy, right?" Carrasquillo said, laughing.
"It's not crazy, it's right," she said.
Burnett moved into East New York in 1974, when another plague of vacancy swept the neighborhood. At that time, she said, white families were fleeing faster than African Americans and Caribbean immigrants were moving in.
The occupied home and its immediate neighbor are attached and technically part of a single building. But there are large differences.
At the occupied house, the front door is secured by a steel link chain hooked through the window.
Next door, a brass lock seals the door. Velveteen red bows and nearly three-foot tall candy canes that light up at night have been placed at consistent and precise intervals around the postage-stamp-sized yard. The black metal mailbox, the fence, even the house's white front door all look freshly painted.
On Monday, people associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement knocked on the neighboring door -- where James, who declined to give his last name, lives -- and explained their plans to move a homeless family into the vacant house. The group spoke with James' wife, who told him about the plan.
"I'll be honest," said James, 44, who has lived on the street for six years. "My first thought was, OK, are the police going to come here, shoot up the place and drag people out the door? Bullets don't know addresses."
But there are also five vacant houses on the block, James said. That night, he thought about the number of people who have lost jobs, homes and their sense of security since the financial downturn began.
"Basically, I am always going to be in support of anything that is for people," he said. "I agree with this concept. It is better to foreclose on banks than it is to foreclose on people."
James remains concerned that the police may pay an unexpected and messy visit next door, putting his wife, four children, and grandchild in danger. But he also hopes that the idea of occupying foreclosed homes will catch on around the country.
Just before noon on Friday inside Lechonera Restaurante 2, a Dominican restaurant down the road, the lunch crowd is busy with plates of stewed pork, rice and beans, and heavily seasoned fish. While no one appears to be talking about the nearby occupation or its broader goals at Lechonera, an Occupy sign hangs in the front window. On top of the toilet in the restaurant's only bathroom, a copy of the Occupy Wall Street Journal waited for a reader. The publication is produced by people associated with the movement.
"A man came by on Monday, if I remember correctly, and he told me what they were doing," said Evcely Olivera in Spanish. She has owned and operated Lechonera for seven years in this spot. "He asked if they could hang a sign in the window, and I said yes, of course. I like the general idea."
Olivera said that although she is familiar with Occupy Wall Street, she does not speak enough English to follow all its activities and organizing efforts. Still, she likes that someone has come to the neighborhood and said something about all the wasted, vacant houses taken from families who never had much money.
Back at Bolton's house, her husband, Doyle Coleman, stood on the porch painting the front of their home. The two of them weren't concerned that the occupiers are mostly white or that someone would be living down the street from them without a lease and not paying rent.
"People come into this country every day from all over the world, so what's the matter with an American citizen occupying anything in the United States?" she asked.
"Well said," Coleman responded, nodding.
The couple have been renovating their home as they could afford it. The floors and stairs are currently stripped down to the bare wood. "No credit cards, no contractors, no debt," Coleman said, dipping his paintbrush and delicately touching up the frame of the house.
Inside, above the computer, hangs a framed photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King. Bolton thinks there's a strong parallel between the Occupy movement and the civil rights movement.
She was born not long after Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. When Bolton was a small child, after the law was lifted -- but when racism in the South was still a powerful force -- she rode the bus with her mother and wanted to sit upfront, but her mother, worried about her daughter's safety, insisted they sit in the back. Bolton sees the occupation down the street as a similar gesture of defiance.
"The difference now," she said, "is nobody is telling them, 'Get out.' People here are saying, 'Stay right here. Stay here. Stay put.'"
USA Today reports on the ambitious-nutty plan:
A group of protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement plans to elect 876 "delegates" from around the country and hold a national "general assembly" in Philadelphia over the Fourth of July as part of ongoing protests over corporate excess and economic inequality.The group, dubbed the 99% Declaration Working Group, said Wednesday delegates would be selected during a secure online election in early June from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
In a nod to their First Amendment rights, delegates will meet in Philadelphia to draft and ratify a "petition for a redress of grievances," convening during the week of July 2 and holding a news conference in front of Independence Hall on the Fourth of July.
The UC Davis hints that they would like the case -- stemming from the pepper-spray incident -- to be resolved quickly. From the Los Angeles Times:
"Our goal in this lawsuit is to ensure the university makes a clear commitment to protect free speech on campus and prevent this from ever happening again," said Michael Risher, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, which is representing the students. The case was filed in U.S. District Court's Eastern District of California and is expected to be heard in a Sacramento court.UC Davis spokesman Barry Schiller released a statement that said the campus attorneys and students' lawyers have been talking.
"We hope those conversations continue," he said, but declined to comment any further.
The Cape Cod Times reports:
A foreclosure auction Tuesday morning attracted more than just potential bidders. Before auctioneers began selling off the home at 5 Alijo Drive in West Yarmouth, a group of Occupy Cape Cod protesters rallied against proceedings on the property.It was the first of several planned foreclosure auction protests for the loose-knit group.
"We were loud and boisterous and things couldn’t have gone better," said protester John Hopkins, 63, of Truro.
The service will be held tomorrow. The activists put out a press release detailing the event. It reads:
Thursday, feb 23rd at 12pm, there will be an interfaith prayer/contemplation service in the courtyard at the at&t building at 675 west peachtree st.All people of faith and/or conscience are welcomed to join. Our hope is to give witness, contemplate, and ask for inspirational guidance on addressing the growing cancer of poverty in Atlanta.
AT&T's decision to lay off 740 hard working employees during a time of amazing profits for the company is really just a symbol for what's happening all over our city, all over the world. Those that already have so much wealth continue to squeeze the rest of us for that which they don't even need; more wealth.
Thursday's service will be lead by folks from different faith backgrounds, on AT&T's property, and all are welcomed in this space.
ACLU sent out a press release on the filing:
SACRAMENTO--Today nineteen students and alumni filed a federal lawsuit against UC Davis over the University’s treatment of protesters during a November 18 demonstration in which campus police were caught on video dousing seated protesters with pepper spray. The lawsuit seeks to determine why the University violated the demonstrators’ state and federal constitutional rights and seeks to result in better policies that will prevent repetition of such response to a non-violent protest. The lawsuit charges that Administration officials and the campus police department failed to properly train and supervise officers, resulting in series of constitutional violations against the demonstrators. The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU of Northern California and cooperating attorneys.On November 18, students gathered in the quad on the UC Davis campus to demonstrate against ongoing tuition hikes, as well as against recent brutal treatment of demonstrators at UC Berkeley. UC Davis campus police arrived in riot gear, and officers threatened students, who were seated on the quad in a circle, and ordered them to disperse. When students remained seated to continue their demonstration, a UC Davis police officer repeatedly sprayed the line of protesters with pepper spray at point-blank range, while scores of other officers looked on. Another officer sprayed the demonstrators from behind. The seated students posed no physical threat to the officers. Pepper spray has excruciating effects that can last for days.
The lawsuit notes that the University’s response to seated student protesters amounts to unacceptable and excessive force that violates state and federal constitutional protections, including the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“This was my first demonstration. So many of my friends can barely make ends meet and then another tuition hike was proposed. We had no idea there would be police in riot gear or that we would be pepper-sprayed because we were making our voices heard,” said David Buscho, one of the plaintiffs. Buscho, a Mechanical Engineering student, was in searing pain and had trouble breathing after being pepper-sprayed directly in the face.
“The University needs to respect students’ rights to make our voices heard, especially when we’re protesting University policies that impact our studies,” said Fatima Sbeih, a student plaintiff who joined the demonstration on the quad after returning from afternoon prayer. Sbeih was pepper-sprayed as well. She had previously been a volunteer paramedic and afterwards helped tend to other demonstrators who were in pain.
“Using military-grade pepper spray and police violence against non-violent student protesters violates the constitution, and it’s just wrong,” said Michael Risher, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. “When the cost of speech is a shot of blinding, burning pepper spray in the face, speech is not free.”
“The University needs better policies on how it deals with protests and protesters. Students deserve to know what went wrong and how this could be allowed to happen. They want to make sure it never happens again,” said Mark E. Merin, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs.Documents subsequently received from the University of California indicate that the pepper spray used was military grade and, based on manufacturer instructions should be used from a minimum of six feet away – much farther than the close range at which the students were sprayed.
The suit was filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of California. The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial, injunctive relief and damages. In addition to Risher and Merin, attorneys working on the suit are Alan Schlosser, Linda Lye and Novella Coleman for the ACLU-NC, as well as Meredith Wallis.
| @ OccupyDCAction : Come support an awesome international healthcare action with some fellow #occupydc'ers! Meet at 11:45 at the Archives Metro. Don't miss it! |
Local NPR affiliate has the latest on their actions.
Via the group's Facebook page:
JP Morgan Chase is the leading mortgage bank putting Louisville families out of their homes, and onto the streets. It's time to tell the 1% : No more foreclosures!Join Occupy Louisville and Women In Transition as we deliver Chase Bank their overdue eviction notice on Saturday, Feb 25 at 1 pm, corner of Baxter, Bardstown and Highland Ave!
Read one activist/journalist's account of why she joined Occupy London.
Activists lost a legal fight on Wednesday to stay camped outside St Paul's Cathedral in London after three judges rejected their appeal application, heralding the end of their four-month protest.
Their defeat in the Court of Appeal is likely to see the City of London Corporation, on whose land the activists have been camping, call in the bailiffs to remove dozens of tents and evict protesters inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protest.
"It's not a surprise," Dan Ashman, one of the protesters, told Reuters after the ruling. "Authorities are untouchable."
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Charges have been dropped against a freelance journalist who was arrested while covering the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City.The National Press Photographers Association says the charges against Douglas Higginbotham were dismissed on Friday.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau knew about police use of batons to forcibly quell Occupy protesters, but raised no objections:
Birgeneau, who was traveling in Asia on the day students first set up tents as part of the Occupy movement, received an e-mail from Provost George Breslauer soon after the first of two police confrontations with protesters on Nov. 9."Police used batons to gain access to the tents," Breslauer wrote, describing a scene in which 300 to 400 students had locked arms to prevent police from moving in. "This is likely to continue for days, I suspect."
Birgeneau responded a few hours later.
"This is really unfortunate," the chancellor wrote. "However, our policies are absolutely clear. Obviously this group wanted exactly such a confrontation."
Read more here.
Occupy West Palm Beach plans to fight for their occupation of a vacant former city hall building tonight at a city commission meeting. Mayor Jeri Muoio has given OWPB a planned eviction date of February 29, but not, they say, a good reason for the protest encampment to leave public property.
The camp began in October 2011 and has moved twice at the request of the City. Now located at the old City Hall building on Olive Ave. at Banyan Street, the "Occupiers" have made a home of the vacant public property. The City built a new City Hall in 2009 costing the taxpayers over $101 million and has since left the former City Hall vacant....the site is now used for "freedom of speech activities" such as workshops on fraudulent home foreclosures, film screenings, discussion of legislative issues and political education."Our Occupy camp has been a point of contact for many facing foreclosures and unemployment," said Alison Bannon, one of the Occupiers. "Many people who have stayed here have been victims of bank fraud and high unemployment. To shut down this camp is to try and ignore the real hardships being faced by the Mayor's constituents."
...As of now, the campers say they plan to stay. And many claim there is no where else to go.
"Where would the Mayor like us to go?" asked on-site Occupier Brien Huley. "Into the back alleys of Tamarind Avenue so she can pretend that there is not a serious problem with income inequality in this city? This camp is a sign of the times. The reality is people are struggling under an economic system that benefits the 1% and burdens the rest of us."
The activists are fighting hundreds of layoffs planned at AT&T. They have joined forces with union workers and other allies in forming a tent city outside the communication giant's southeastern headquarters. Today, the activists say, many workers will be getting layoff notices in a meeting at AT&T.
The activists plan on showing support for the workers:
Today AT&T workers have been summoned to a meeting at AT&T’s Atlanta headquarters, located at 675 West Peachtree St. It is there, in this meeting, where they will be given notice of their official layoff date. Being told you are being laid off is almost always devastating, but in these economic times it can be downright terrifying. With unemployment, foreclosures, and homelessness at record rates, being jobless in this city is no easy feat. To add insult to injury, AT&T had record profits last year, pulling in over $127 million in revenue, and compensated their CEO, Randall Stephenson, over $27 million.Last week, Occupy Atlanta set up an encampment in front of the building at 675 West Peachtree St to demand AT&T put a stop to these layoffs. We are committed to staying put until all the layoffs are rescinded, and/or all 740 workers will have wage/benefit protection if they are moved to new positions. AT&T has claimed that these workers will be given new job offers, but according to many of the workers, this is news to them. Those who are aware of the new offers, are being asked to take positions with considerably less pay and benefits.
This is exactly how wealth consolidation works. What’s happening at AT&T is symbolic of what has been happening all over the country for decades. The 1% wants to lower the standard of living for the average American worker, all so that they can pocket some extra cash. We can no longer allow them to squeeze every penny they can out of the 99%. The 99% creates the wealth; it is made on our backs. It’s time these big wigs stop getting handouts they don’t need while everyone else suffers.
To read more about their plans, go here.
Huff Post reported on Occupy Atlanta's partnership with local unions over this issue last week.
Yesterday, hundreds of activists highlighted prison conditions. They rallied at the California prison. Reuters reports:
Speakers rallying at the San Quentin State Prison said the state's sentencing laws are too strict. They called for an end to solitary confinement and the death penalty and said children should not be tried as adults."I myself experienced more than 14 months of solitary confinement," said Sarah Shourd, 33, an American who was imprisoned in Iran after being arrested while hiking near the Iraq border in 2009.
"And after only two months my mind began to slip," she said.
She was joined at the peaceful protest by Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who spent more than two years in prison in Iran after being arrested with Shourd, and by former Black Panthers who spoke of a history of problems at the San Quentin prison.
To read the full story, go here.
The activist who goes by VizFoSho on Pastebin writes an essay lamenting the loss of focus among their fellow Occupy Oakland organizers. They write:
Occupy Oakland has lost focus, and we need to regain that focus. When Occupy Oakland first started, it was a beautiful thing. We had community support. The camp fed thousands of people. We decreased the crime rate in the area. We got shit done. This is no longer the case. We have squandered what community support we had. It is now more important for us to say "Fuck The Police" every Saturday instead of saying "Fuck The Banks", "Fuck Your Bullshit Laws", or "Fuck The Government". Occupy Oakland needs to regain the beauty that it once had. Fuck 'em but don't focus on them. It's not productive. What are you accomplishing? Drawing the spotlight to a Police Department that we all already know is fucked up? Ask the citizens of Oakland. They know that Oakland Police Department is fucked up. They have known this for years. This is nothing new. Get around it. Get over it. The Oakland Police are nothing but a distraction and a tool of the real problem, which is the Government behind the Police Department. By pitting us against them, they are distracting us from achieving our goals.
The author outlines a series of proposals to get Occupy Oakland on track. To read them, go here.
The activists report the library was devastated during a police eviction/raid. Instead of complaining about it, they launched a virtual reading room and our soliciting input:
The OccupyBaltimore library is currently an on-line library only. Our books were evicted from McKeldin Square.A few books have been salvaged and an on-site library is ready to go again once we have a (semi) permanent spot for it. Our library is not going away. Books can be evicted but knowledge can not. To every reader a book. We intend to meet the information needs of all ages, all levels of reading skills, and, in short, all of those who seek knowledge.
This is our virtual library/knowledge management page. Welcome. Please share any books, links, articles that you think are relevant to our movement.
We offer this list of resources for information about OccupyBaltimore, the OccupyMovement, and the issues that relate to the movement as a whole. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for information to include on our site. Information is Power.
To find out more about this project, go here.
U.C. Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi survived a no-confidence vote Friday. The motion was called in the aftermath of the now-infamous pepper-spray incident, in which campus police doused a group of seated and passive Occupy protesters with the stinging chemical agent.
According to the Sacramento Bee:
The motion received 312 yes votes and 697 no votes, out of 2,693 eligible voters - current and retired faculty.
Read more here.
| @ OccupyKSt : Join us Sunday at 4 pm for a launch party for the newest issue of the Occupied Washington Times! Location TBA. #occupydc |
A national occupy conference is set for this weekend in Olympia Washington. Details are here.
| @ OccupyChicago : JOIN US! 7PM! RT @PhilipDeVon1 #solidarity march for #greece at 7pm at Jackson/Lasalle! #OChi will march to the consulate for a rally #OWS |
For details, click here.
AP reports that the Tennessee legislature is now considering a bill that would make camping-as-protest a crime:
A proposal aimed at stopping Occupy Nashville protesters from staying overnight on the Capitol complex comes before both chambers of the Legislature Thursday.The measure up in the House and Senate would make it a misdemeanor to lay down "bedding for the purpose of sleeping."
The proposal refers to items associated with camping, "including tents, portable toilets, sleeping bags, tarps, propane heaters, cooking equipment and generators."
Under the legislation, violators would be fined as much as $2,500 and face up to nearly a year in jail.
Gawker reports the activists may be targeting Calvin Klein:
Occupy Wall Street plans to arrive at the Calvin Klein show at West 39th St. tomorrow at 2pm, after a long march from lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. There, they hope to convince 99 attendees of the first of Calvin Klein's two shows to wear dripping red eye makeup, highlighting the plight of the 99 percent in appropriately fashion-y fashion. The red eyes are meant to show solidarity with those students drenched in pepper spray at UC Davis last year, Occupy Wall Street organizer Justin Stone-Diaz told me in a phone interview today.
First Posted: 12/11/11 11:12 AM ET Updated: 12/12/11 01:42 AM ET