from YES! Magazine:
Can the #Occupy Movement Be a Turning Point?
As the Wall Street occupation continues, Boston residents are sitting in to save their homes—and providing a lesson in how to sustain the powerful spark of the #Occupy movement.by Doyle Canning
posted Oct 03, 2011
Presley Obasohan is fighting foreclosure on his home by Bank of America. Mr. Obasohan lives in Dorchester, Mass.—the most diverse neighborhood in Boston—where building values have sunk to half or less of mortgage loan debt. Presley is trying to save his home for his daughters. He has petitioned; he has pled. He has waited on hold and stood in line. But on Friday, Presely decided enough was enough and he joined the Right to the City Alliance in a mass action of civil disobedience.
Along with 23 other Boston residents, he was proudly arrested for siting in at the Boston headquarters of Bank of America.
“I blocked the doors at Bank of America so that my neighbors, and me, can stay in our homes,” Presely told the press. “So many people have been thrown out of their homes or lost their jobs needlessly because of mistakes made by Wall Street banks. Yet it’s the banks who are now rewarded with billions in tax refunds. It's time to fight back!”
Why Bank of America? As of March 2011, Bank of America had more homes in foreclosure than any other bank in Boston, with two-thirds of these in “majority minority” neighborhoods. Sixty-one percent of Bank of America’s subprime mortgages were concentrated in these same neighborhoods, revealing a pattern of pushing bad loans on people of color and the poor. ..........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/can-the-occupy-movement-be-a-turning-point