Underwater homeowners and hundreds of allies barricaded the front door of the Department of Justice building Monday afternoon to protest the "too big to jail banks" who have shirked punishment despite having destroyed "homes, savings and livelihoods."
Organized by Occupy our Homes, Home Defenders League, Campaign for a Fair Settlement, along with a number of community and faith leaders, the group held a sit-in outside the government building.
"Banks stole our homes so we're moving in to the #DeptofJustice," the protesters announced on Twitter. The protest included the positioning of two couches before the doors of the DOJ.
"Today we have taken over Eric Holder's house. We're sick of the banks taking over our house."
"Today we have taken over Eric Holder's house. We're sick of the banks taking over our house."
As some protesters surrounded the building, others chanted: "Board up banks, not our homes!"
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"Five years after Wall Street crashed the economy," said the coalition in a statement announcing the action, "not one banker has been prosecuted for the reckless and fraudulent practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, threw our cities and schools into crisis, and left families and communities ravaged by a foreclosure crisis and epidemic of underwater mortgages."
The groups said it was time for the Obama administration to make Wall Street pay back those whose homes were stolen by fraudulent foreclosure practices and called for immediate action from Congress, including fulfillment of the following demands:
- Prosecution of Wall Street bankers for stealing homes, savings and livelihoods;
- An end to the foreclosure crisis;
- A reset of mortgages to their current value (“principal reduction”);
- And a plan to restore and rebuild wealth stolen from communities of color hardest hit.
You can watch the action unfold live in the video below.
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