By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk
“Chicago police arrested 21 people protesting against economic inequality on Tuesday at two rallies, charging them with trespassing,” Reuters reports.
Let’s take a look.
1. Uploaded by TheWallwriter on Oct 11, 2011:
“This is a video of an Action organized by Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) to protest the Mortgage Bankers Association of Chicago.
“Operating on the assumption that mortgage bankers are in part responsible for the current mortgage crisis that is affecting the lives and threatening the homes of thousands of Americans, SOUL organized a group to claim space in the Hyatt so that their demands might be heard.
“This group set up a home complete with television and roof over their heads in order to underscore the fundamental nature of their protest: a widespread threat to where people live based on overvalued mortgages and a depressed housing market.”
–
“Beneath a makeshift shelter of canvas and bamboo outside the Hyatt Regency Chicago on Tuesday, rabbis and community organizers sought to reclaim the ancient Jewish celebration of Sukkot by calling on the real estate finance industry to help families hold on to their homes,” Manya Brachear reports for the Tribune.
“Activists said the demonstration, which they insisted was not a protest, served to remind participants at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual meeting that they have a moral responsibility to protect struggling homeowners caught off guard by the nation’s housing crisis.
“Organizers invited bankers to dine with them underneath the awning Jews call a ‘sukkah’ and hear heartfelt testimonies from those touched by the rapid decline in residential real estate.
“The location of the demonstration also underscored activists’ concern that bankers and other businesses aren’t upholding the Jewish value of repairing the world. In June, many of the same religious leaders declared a number of Hyatt hotels ‘not kosher’ for the company’s mistreatment of workers and called for a boycott until conditions improved.”
See also: Item 4.
2. Uploaded by jensabella21 on Oct 11, 201:
“Five women arrested after dumping trash inside a downtown Bank of America branch on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Trash was collected from abandoned and foreclosed properties on Chicago’s West Side. More info here.”
–
“[P]rotesters from Occupy Chicago joined forces on Tuesday with members of Action Now, a group concerned with vacant lots in the city’s South and West Side neighborhoods,” the New York Times reports.
“The combined groups piled at least a dozen garbage bags on the sidewalk in front of the Bank of America building in the Chicago Loop, along with couches and other trash that they said had been pulled from a foreclosed property. Five women, ranging in age from 56 to 80, were arrested there after they went inside the bank lobby and scattered trash.”
See also:
* Bank of America Aims To Change Image With Ads
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on October 12, 2011