Foreclosure Related Crisis Has Created a New Culture of Protest and Heckling

November 5th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure Crisis

The foreclosure related crisis has led to a new culture of protest and heckling. On Tuesday 21st October the Mortgage Bankers held their annual convention that was marred by the attempt to abduct Karl Rove.

Karl Rove is a former advisor of President Bush and strategist for the Republican Party. He was openly attacked on the stage during a convention hearing. The protestor tried to place handcuffs on him in a show of arresting him “for treason”. No injury happened and there were no arrests but the drama on the stage was only one of the many outbursts of frustration and anger arising from the foreclosure crisis.

Another conference held a day earlier was similarly interrupted by demonstrators who were strongly demanding a hold on foreclosures. The protestors shouted at the participants making use of bullhorns from outside the venue of the meeting.

The convention had been planned well before the foreclosure meltdown, the bailout plan of $700 billion and the recriminations that followed. But the ferocity of the protests and rude behaviour has led many old timers nostalgic about the decorum of industrial gatherings in yester years.

Gregory B Lucas is a mortgage broker. He commented, “We had streakers during the 1990’s but that was a joyful, happy thing.” Lucas has been attending such conferences for the last two decades. He recalls one instance when drunken bankers had entertained the crowd to a naked dance.

A spokeswoman of the Mortgage Bankers, Cheryl Crispen said that she did not feel sorry about having come to San Francisco. In this liberal freethinking city it is but natural that there should be open anger against the financial lapses of the Bush administration. However she clarified, “It was unfortunate that they chose this venue to protest whatever they chose to protest. We believe in free speech, but we believe there is a right time and place for it.”

There were 2,500 participants – a number down by 20%. Crispen explained that this indicates what is going on in the industry. The names of some other forums are also leading – “Eliminating Foreclosure”, “High Speed Legislation” and “How Congress is Responding to the Mortgage Industry.”

In the crowd there were some optimists like Lalit Maliwal who thought that this was the ideal situation for outsourcing. He added, “Everyone is hurting, but I think it seems a little harder than it is.”