*Uh-oh!* 300 foreclosure protestors show up at Morgan Stanley CEO's front door (Westchester Co. NY)

[underpants]

Foreclosure Protesters Target Executives' Homes

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100441670

In the superexclusive neighborhoods in Westchester County, N.Y., things don't get very loud or crazy too often. Which is why it definitely got the neighbors' attention on Sunday when a housing group brought in 50 van-loads and two tour buses full of upset homeowners.

Targeting Executives

About 300 homeowners with bullhorns marched past a police cruiser, up the driveway and to the front door of the house where Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack lives.

"John! Where are you, John?" one protester called up to the castle-like stone walls of the house. Bruce Marks is the housing advocate behind what he calls a "predators tour."

"This guy, he has a net worth of over $400 million," Marks says. "Look at his house. He gets lost in his own house. It's so outrageous."

Marks, who is with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, is singling out big Wall Street executives personally to try to pressure them to do more to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

"While Americans are losing their homes by the millions, he's living in the lap of luxury here in his beautiful house, isolated — and he thought he was safe," Marks says. "Well, it's Sunday, and it's family day, and we're bringing our families to his family."

The protesters also went to a hedge-fund manager's house, where they dumped a couch and a bunch of old furniture.


Bruce Marks (left), of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, is taking the fight to the homes of bank industry executives in New York and Connecticut. With him is Nicholas Fresolone, a corrections officer from New Jersey, who has so far been unable to persuade his bank to lower the interest rate on his mortgage.


https://www.naca.com/index_main.jsp

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Good!!! It is about time the reality of the struggle was brought home to these millionaires...

LITERALLY!!

[Moostache]

34. A good start...

now its time to start an organized campaign to build the 21st century equivalent of Hoovervilles on every road and entry way into these "exclusive" neighborhoods!

Call them Bush Bungalows and put them along every single road, bridge, thoroughfare and street that leads into these modern day moated castles. It is time to put the REAL product of masters of the universe (human misery and loss, and in particular stealing EVERYTHING - from money to property to jobs to hope itself - from the poorest and most disadavantaged and most vulnerable of our society) on plain view for everyone to see. When I see stories still about Thain and Fuld and the rest of the top-0.01% criminal cadre I juist want to vomit....these reptiles have no humanity in them to be able to take that kind of money AND throw 1000s of FAMILIES into chaos by losing their life savings and their livelihoods because of these men's stupidity and greed and overdeveloped sense of entitlement and need to "keep up with the Joneses" in the industry..

(SERIOUSLY how in the hell could ANYONE convince me that step one of the TARP should NOT have been confiscating every last cent of the $488 BILLION paid to Fuld to essentially take Lehman Brothers from a 130+ year company to dissolution and bankruptcy in 15 years uis worth anything more than scorn, ridicule and a long, empty life of regret anyway???

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. Bankers are such scum nt

[corpseratemedia]

3. take'n it to the crooks

their fortresses aren't so immune from the people they robbed

[underpants]

6. The police cruiser-did Mack know they were coming or is that a regular thing?

Maybe they had to register for the protest :shrug:

I hope that this guy doesn't have around the clock public employee protection

for crying out loud there are Blackwater mercs who have to make mortgage payments too!!!

[KillCapitalism]

4. These people didn't properly prepare.

Where are their torches & pitchforks?

[Sirveri]

28. screw that, rifles and shotguns.

[xiamiam]

5. off to the greatest..there will be more of this...acorn is now organizing as well...

hard to justify the punitive consequences for homeowners while banks sell the houses at huge losses instead of reduce the principle..

[underpants]

7. Oooh GOOD. I would love to see Acorn back in the national spotlight

LOVE IT

[underpants]

9. ACORN's Homesteading Campaign

Week of February 2nd – Large Community Meetings to Build Support for the "Homesteading" Campaign

ACORN will host large community meetings with elected officials and allies to build on the growing grassroots community support for a foreclosure moratorium and comprehensive solution to the crisis. Families that are planning to homestead will be announced and will join their neighbors and others in planning for the first homestead kickoffs in their city.

Week of February 9th – Events in 5-10 Cities with Families Who Announce Plans to Homestead

In 5 to 10 cities, ACORN families will hold press conferences in their homes to announce plans to homestead. In most cases, families who are or have been foreclosed on will announce they are staying in their homes, and in other cases, families may be moving back to their foreclosed homes. These will be large community rallies at the homes, with neighbors, elected officials and allies.

In February and March, the Ranks of Homesteading Families Will Grow

Over the following weeks, ACORN homesteading will continue to grow in both the initial cities and in new cities. We believe that as word gets out about this effort, many families faced with foreclosure will contact us to find out how to join this movement, both to save their own homes and to win a foreclosure moratorium along with a comprehensive solution to the crisis.

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews=22492&tx_ttnews=12340&cHash=6a471cce30

[underpants]

10. LBN thread on it- 100 show up in DC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3732921&mesg_id=3732921

[rosesaylavee]

8. This is how it's done.

That's the kind of pressure they understand. They are exposed and we know where they live.

:kick:

[grasswire]

11. I've been trying to think of a way to embarrass my landlady...

...who has not paid on her mortgage on my home since September and it has gone to foreclosure. She took the rent money and did not pay the mortgage. She owns multiple properties. I may get in touch with the other victims of her poor planning -- I found all of the addresses of her properties through the county clerk.

[Donnachaidh]

13. Make sure you call the local TV if you do it.

Get it covered on the local news.

[Doremus]

15. Contact all those other tenants and polish the pitchforks!

Seriously, I would definitely contact the other tenants and let them know what's happening in case they don't already know they might be losing their homes soon.

Organize a day or several where you protest en-masse in front of the landlord's own home. Call the media and shine as much attention on her as you can. Good luck!

[underpants]

16. Look for ACORN or Home Inc. in your area

if not contact your local community development office they might be able to give you a good lead.

don't worry about embarassing her- get your money back. If YOU had a problem with her performance you at least would be required to put each month's rent in escrot usually at the city/county you live in. It is a two way street. Get your money back.

[grasswire]

23. yes, that is true

If we wanted to withhold rent to force repairs, we would have to put it in an escrow account and provide documentation of that.

[guruoo]

20. Are you sure your landlord is not also a victim of predatory lending?

I mean, just because she's a landlord...
:shrug:

[grasswire]

22. please

She owns multiple properties, some of which are also in default. If I didn't know her history as a landlord, I might be more sympathetic. We were without heat in half of this house for almost two years because she would not fix the furnace, and we suffered the effects of a sewer hookup problem for six months until we finally asked the city to intervene. Many things that were promised to be finished and fixed have not been completed, despite the fact that we pay for a quality property.

If she has that kind of loan on any of her properties, it is her own damn fault. She's 61 years old; hardly a newbie. I suspect she sucked equity out of the properties, as well, from county records available.

In California, it is a felony for a landlord to collect rent and not apply it to the mortgage payment. Not here, though.

She had the chutzpah to raise the rent while she wasn't PAYING the mortgage!!

[guruoo]

24. It's a fair question. Experienced borrowers have been scammed too.

[Evoman]

25. Can you buy the house?

Hell...once it forecloses, maybe you can get it at a cheaper price then your already paying.

[melm00se]

32. Once the house goes into

foreclosure you may be notified by the lender to forward future rent payments to them.

Please make sure that you do.

Also, if it does go into foreclosure, contact the lender and see if you can buy it. It'll cost them several thousand $$s to evict you and you can knock that off the purchase price.

[Donnachaidh]

12. awesome to see, especially as there are some that think Americans

won't protest. So much for THAT theory, huh?

Just the beginning. Start buying those pitchforks folks. :evilgrin:

[underpants]

18. .

see post #9

[anonymous171]

14. Good. These kinds of things will only get larger until something is done. nt

[TripleKatPad]

17. Jeeves, release the hounds!

I wonder how many times that was bellowed in the neighborhood that day?

[FatDave]

19. Only 300?

A good start, I suppose, but I'd rather see thousands. Enough to surround the house 30 or 40 people deep.

Also, I'd like to see these things organized anonymously. No sense in a good organization being tarnished when one of these turns ugly.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. Cue Nelson Eddy singing Stouthearted Men...

"Give me some men who are stouthearted men, who will fight for the right they adore"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v55F8ocQ--I

[BrightKnight]

26. A law requiring forbearance for up to 6 month after a job loss

might be in everyone's interest. Just capitalize the interest. Most people do not remain unemployed indefinitely.

[underpants]

29. Marking down the value to 97% (or something like that) has been proposed too

Two of the key factors into all of this are not discussed much
1.we live a bubble economy. Like it or not. After the tech bubble burst housing was the next logical choice, well other than the green bubble which IS next (and sustainable).

2. The Federal budget that rolled over from Clinton to Bush drastically cut normal funding to localities-they are correcting this with the A.R.R.A by the way. The excuseniks claim that Clinton (and Congress) left it to be settled by the next POTUS but Bush/Cheney don't like that sort of thing so they let it pass. Localities have services that they have to provide and without the normal funding from the Feds (not a majority of the costs) they had two choices; increase the property tax rate or increase assessed value. Politicians don't tend to do very well when they "raise taxes" regarless of the what-how-for what aspect. So they jacked up assessed value-this has the added bonus of the myth of net worth. Revenues continued near where they needed to be but increases in other costs (mostly healthcare) for localities over rode their attempts to keep their heads above water.

the other aspect that is discussed is the fool-hardy way that these "Masters of the Universe" sold each other ridiculously unsubstantiated securities based on the sale of bad products (and bad decisions by the customers-home buyers).

[eridani]

27. Torches, pitchforks and guillotines, pleez n/t

[midnight]

30. Homeowners who were deceived by ponzi bankers want a bailout.

[AyanRand Is Dead]

31. Were the police called in?

You know, to protect the Wall Street crooks from the normal citizens that got ripped off.

[underpants]

33. That was my question above

was this police cruiser there because the protest had to register?
or
is this an ongoing thing?

I HOPE it is the former even though the process of registering protests helps to retard such protests
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=267287

[horseshoecrab]

35. Bruce Marks and NACA

I just have to say to anyone who's in danger of losing their home: NACA is for real and so is Bruce Marks.

NACA literally does have the best rescue package as well as the best first time homebuyers package in the entire industry. The package includes NO MONEY DOWN. Right now their first time buyer rate is 4.75% As far as I know, the rescue rates are even lower.

The rescue package requires only that you're in danger of losing your home. They do not charge for their services. Bruce is trained in the world of finance and he has used that training for the good!

If you're a first time buyer, you can buy with no money down and no private mortgage insurance. (NACA asks that you pay them $50 a month for 5 years instead of the PMI, and asks that you assist them in their activities, such as this demonstration, but that is not required.)

I'm here to tell you that Bruce Marks and NACA, which he founded, are absolutely for real and are trustworthy! They will work with you and they will get you there.

NACA is a great secret that most people are unaware of! I urge DUers to check them out!

https://www.naca.com/index_main.jsp

GO BRUCE and GO NACA!!!


horseshoecrab

[underpants]

37. Very cool thanks

:hi:

[maryf]

36. Should be 3,000...

Thirty thousand, or more, but its something! thanks for this.