California Republican Darrell Issa may think twice before coming to Brooklyn again.
The Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee faced a wave of protesters at a field hearing on foreclosure abuse held Monday at Borough Hall in Brooklyn, a video from Raw Story shows (h/t ThinkProgress).
Issa has favored an enforcement route that would focus on investigating loans originating from government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, instead of pursuing private-sector lenders accused of fraud, according to Think Progress.
Apparently, Issa's stance isn't popular among activists from Occupy Wall Street, United New York, New York Communities for Change and the Working Families Party who attended the hearing, NY Daily News reports.
"Stop fighting for Wall Street and fight for the people that elected you!" one man can be heard yelling on the raw story video.
"It is not right for homeowners to lose their house, and children are homeless on the street,” another woman shouted.
Issa's public hearing comes a little more than a month after the government reached a $26 billion settlement with five banks accused of illegal foreclosure practices. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, CitiGroup and Ally Financial will pay varying chunks of the controversial settlement and the money will be used to aid homeowners affected by foreclosure at the height of the crisis.
Many of the same banks in the deal had representatives at the Issa hearing, but there was only one person there representing homeowners, according to AlterNet.
Issa reportedly continued to make jokes about the protests throughout the hearing, while implying that homeowners were partly to blame for banks' reliance on robo-signing -- a practice of rushing through home loans that banks used heavily in the lead up to the foreclosure crisis.
Still, Issa at least seemed tolerant of the protesters' right to have a voice.
"I will ask that please from here on, understand that exactly the protesters' sentiment is why we're here today," he said according to Capital New York. Adding, "this is Democracy at work."