Huge angry mobs converged outside bank employees’ houses on Sunday afternoon to demand banks stop lobbying against Wall Street reform.
Huge angry mobs converged outside bank employees’ houses on Sunday afternoon to demand banks stop lobbying against Wall Street reform.
“Bank of America: bad for America!” shouted community leaders outside the house of Bank of America general counsel Gregory Baer.
The Chicago-based grassroots organization National People’s Action, in coordination with the SEIU, bused more than 700 workers from 20 states to Baer’s neighborhood, one of the wealthiest corners of Washington. The action kicks off several days of protests targeting K Street for lobbyists’ role in financial reform.
Baer himself apparently tried to blend in with the crowd until a neighbor outed him. The mob booed loudly as he walked into his house. “I don’t have time for you,” he said, according to Trenda Kennedy of Springfield, Ill. who used a bullhorn to tell the crowd about her trouble getting a mortgage modification from Baer’s bank.
Kennedy told HuffPost she’d been making reduced monthly payments thanks to a trial modification via the Home Affordable Modification Program. She said that when the bank turned her down for a permanent mod, she was told she still owed all the money she’d been paying during the trial. She said she’s been notified of several sheriff’s sale dates but has somehow managed to keep her home.
“Every time I’m inches away from losing my house, by some miracle it’s been pushed off,” said Kennedy, who is a member of Illinois People’s Action.
Passersby and dogwalkers smiled at the sight of people gathered all over Baer’s lawn and blocking the road. Baer’s neighbor from across the street won little sympathy when he angrily yelled at protesters for waking up his two-year-old daughter. Kennedy was one of several people who used a bullhorn to tell personal bank horror stories.
Baer, formerly a senior official at the Treasury department, is a lawyer for the bank’s regulator and public policy legal group. Bank of America declined to comment.
I’ve been speaking of my fears for my country in generalized terms for several months now. I expect those reading here understand my fears.
Perhaps the story relayed here is the beginning of more direct citizen and victim involvement. I don’t mind if it gets ugly. Actually I see no way it can avoid getting ugly. What has been done by these nebulous villains is already ugly, so a “pretty” solution is probably impossible.
I just hope it doesn’t become violent.