"Jews for Racial and Economic Justice joined with Organize-4-Occupation, Union Theological Seminary, Occupy Faith, and Catholic Workers to shut down the Brooklyn Home Foreclosure Court - with song. Video isn't allowed in the court room - here we are on our way to shut the court down."
More than 100 Occupy Wall Street-affiliated protesters invaded a courtroom inside the Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday afternoon in an effort to stop the foreclosure auctions.Police arrested a total of 37 people, who received summonses for disorderly conduct.
The reason for their gathering centered on their belief that foreclosures are unfair to homeowners.
“We are calling for a moratorium on all foreclosures until some accountable and equitable process is developed,” said Walter Hergt, a protest planner with Organizing for Occupation, to the Brooklyn Paper. “The fact is that the banks were bailed out...we find that to be unacceptable.”
Occupiers felt that their efforts were successful even though they weren't able to prevent all of the foreclosures. More such actions are planned in the future.
“Listen Auctioneer: all the people here, we’re asking you to hold all the sales right now,” they sang. “We’re going to survive but we don’t know how!”
They were not entirely successful — many foreclosure auctions did proceed despite the ruckus. A few, however, were called off after the arrests interfered with the proceedings.
