Bank Of America Sends Internal Email Exposing Where The "Occupy" Movement Is Hurting It Most

[Huey P. Long]

Bank Of America Sends Internal Email Exposing Where The "Occupy" Movement Is Hurting It Most
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2011 - 11:19

While the general media may be ignoring the latest peculiar twist on the "Occupy" theme, or in this case the "occupyourhomes.org", Bank of America is taking it quote seriously. As a reminder, "Tuesday, December 6th is the National Day of Action to stop and reverse foreclosures. The Occupy Homes movement is holding actions around the country in support of homeowners and people fighting to have a home. Find an event near you and join in our day of action tomorrow!. There are actions happening in over 20 cities nationwide. Events are taking place in Brooklyn, Buffalo and Rochester New York; Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Petaluma, Sacramento, Paradise and Contra Costa California; Lake Worth, Florida; Atlanta, Fayetteville, and DeKalb Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Bloomington, Indiana; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Detroit and Southgate Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington." And if you have not heard about today's protest on the conventional media that is understandable: as BAC says internally, this event "could impact our industry." Here are the specific warnings to BAC "field services" agents: i) Your safety is our primary concern, so do not engage with the protesters; ii) While in neighborhoods, please take notice of vacant BAC Field Services managed homes and ensure they are secured; iii) Remind all parties of the bank’s media policy and report any media incidents. Aside from the superficial implications, what is more important is that the big banks are showing precisely what the weakest links in the system are, and what makes them the most nervous: it is not protesters living in tents in a major metropolitan city: it is protesters disrupting the lifeblood of the broken banking system - the home selling/repossession pathway. Expect many more such protests now that Bank of America has tipped its hand.

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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bank-america-sends-internal-email-exposing-where-occupy-movement-hurting-it-most

[izquierdista]

1. Fine with me

Occupying parks is too much like camping out. Occupying foreclosed homes sounds much better, even if you have to be a little creative to get the utilities turned on...

[davidwparker]

48. +1

[randome]

2. This is nothing but a standard corporate memo.

Nothing special. No hidden meanings. Ultimately a throw-away piece of email garbage.

[sabrina 1]

6. Why did they bother if it's a 'throw away piece of garbabe'?

And who cares about them anyhow? OWS has already forced some banks to renegotiate some loans, something the Government should have done, when the Banks were defrauding homeowners.

If it doesn't matter, then they won't mind leaving people alone in their homes I'm sure. And then acting like the 'people' these corps claim to be and start working on keeping people IN their homes, instead of forcing millions more onto the streets.

I bet they care enough that there will be robo cops attacking the protesters though. That is how we know they care.

[randome]

10. The idea that private enterprise is more efficient than government...

...is a myth. They generate tons of useless memos and warnings on a daily basis.

The higher ups will act in the interests of their shareholders to keep properties from being damaged. That doesn't mean they are afraid of us.

[ieoeja]

13. Yup. I probably delete 90% of my "work related" emails unread. n/t

[sabrina 1]

15. Well, according to Republican strategists, they are, to use his

words 'terrified' of OWS. So terrified they are spending money to try to discredit them. So terrified they arrested people who legally went to close their accounts. And so terrified they are sending out their robo cops to brutalize the protesters hoping it will scare them away.

I think criminals are always scared once someone demonstrates that they know who they are and what they have done.

They are NOT afraid of Congress, eg. They have nothing to fear from them. But they always knew they would have to fear the people if they ever decided to take control of their country again. So far, they got away with the 'biggest bank heist in history' and might have continued to do so, had the people not decided to start doing something about it when their government chose to look the other way.

[randome]

16. They are not scared.

That was just what's-his-name's marketing technique to garner attention for himself.

The cops are local, the banking arrests were made because people were disruptive inside the bank.

If OWS is going to 'take control', it needs to be more aggressive than getting thrown out of public parks.

[sabrina 1]

21. The cops are not local. In Oakland, eg, there were 16 different

depts and some who were unidentiable. Do you think OWS has not been studying this?

Berkeley's cops, eg, were training with Bahrain's cops, BAHRAIN, a DICTATORSHIP, just weeks before attacking the students there.

OWS is two months old and has accomplished more than Congress in ten years FOR THE PEOPLE. They have saved people from foreclosure, eg, when Congress turned a blind eye to the victims of the corruption of their buddies on Wall Street. They shut down the Ports to teach those Multi-National Corps trying to take away the livelihoods of American workers, and are about to do it again, when Congress allowed them to steal jobs and hire cheap labor IN OUR OWN COUNTRY. Now they know, keep doing it and the American people will fight you until you learn which country you are in, and Congress may be willing to sell out the people, but don't count on the people accepting that anymore.

Watch where this movement goes. I am so impressed, not just with what they have exposed already about our 'cops' who work for Global Multi National Corps which we are now certain of, but about our Representatives, and most of all, that we the people have NO ONE working for us, so, we have to do it ourselves.

It will take years, just like the Civil Rights movement, but that's fine, we are all in it for the long haul. This is our country and we will no longer watch a bunch of Wall Street criminals and their employees in Congress sell it out to the highest bidder.

[chervilant]

36. Gosh...

You seem to have missed the whole point of #Occupy. Non-violent protest and Satyagraha are most effective.

Aggression is a puerile response, predominantly promoted by fear-mongers and hate-mongers. Strange to see a DUer supporting "aggression" for the #Occupy participants...

[greiner3]

46. "it needs to be more aggressive than getting thrown out of public parks."

I sincerely hope you do not mean something like 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' Cops use the phrase 'Taking control of the situation,' That meme brings to mine mace, pepper spray, batons in the gut, mass arrests, deadly force, etc... Me thinks the poster doth protest too much.'

[quakerboy]

25. Bologna

The Higher ups will act in their own personal interests, and if that happens to benefit the share holders, they will accept that as a cost of business.

As to the other, part, you are right. Business is just as inefficient as government. They do have the questionable advantage of being effectively fully authoritarian.

[snooper2]

47. You ever work at a company with more than 25 employees

:P

[NewJeffCT]

33. agreed - this sort of thing is pretty common

they probably send out similar emails regarding anything that could put employees in potential danger - i.e., walking to the company parking lot at night, fire drills/evacuation procedures, etc.

It's good that they have taken notice of OWS, but there is nothing special here.

[Huey P. Long]

3. Find an Event near you

Occupy Our HomesNational Day of Action - Attend an Event
On December 6th (and beyond) homeowners, former homeowners, and people who are fighting for a place to live will stand up to Wall Street greed. They are being joined by the Occupy Wall Street movement and allies in their communities.

Please join us at an Occupy Our Homes event in your community. Events are still being added, so check back if you don't see one near you. If you would like to host your own event, please email [email protected].

Find an Event near you

http://act.engagementlab.org/event/occupyhomes_D6/search/

[sabrina 1]

4. There should have been a moratorium on foreclosures

once the massive fraud was disclosed. But Congress has done nothing for the American people. Only for the banks.

Homeowners were pushed out of their homes, most without any legal representation and as we are finding out, many fraudulently. It is shameful and revealing that the American people have NO ONE on their side now. The police are being used to protect the Banksters and we need outside intervention to protect the people from their own police departments.

This movement has fully exposed this government.

Now the people are taking matters into their own hands.

Occupy Our Homes is also taking over vacant commercial buildings, an idea that started in Spain and is being done in Britain and now here also.

If the government won't help, then people have to help each other.

[russspeakeasy]

22. Well said. Thanks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. One of the demands actually

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. I'm kicking. I'm recommending.

I'm happy dancing.

[Rex]

7. Hey BoA! You are going DOWN MFr!

Hear that sound? No, not the ocean...that sound is all the customers fleeing your coffers with their money! Keep it up! We all knew it was Us vs Them. Now you lose.

[Zorra]

8. occupy nt

[sarcasmo]

9. Any time a corporation is scared is fine by me.

[Taverner]

11. Occupyourhomes is a step in the right direction

Reminds me of the Unemployed People's Councils in the Great Depression - they stopped a number of foreclosures

[Huey P. Long]

12. I just hope they aren't knitting in there! (clutches pearls) -eom

[Huey P. Long]

14. .

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. kick

[meow2u3]

18. Good! Keep hitting'em where it hurts, OWS!

I just love it when the banksters whine about their crimes being exposed for the entire world to see. :kick:

[PuraVidaDreamin]

19. This is beyond a standard memo!

We've got these crooks on the run- thing is... we can't give
them a moment to rest

[Huey P. Long]

20. .

[Huey P. Long]

23. one more dot, .

[JEB]

24. Please continue

to expose the shameful actions of the banks to the media for all the citizens to see. The more people know the more the tide will turn in favor of the 99%.

[TheMadMonk]

26. 1) nothing unreasonable in that. 2) My sympathies extend in both directions...

...with respect to crappy home loans.

I will absolutely acknowledge that predatory lending practices did "rope" a lot of people into impossible loans.

However, I know far, far too many idiots who NEVER pay more than the miniumum and then default without a thought because their personal circumstances are temporarily a little tight. Who then turn about and cry foul when the law is applied against them.

Yes a whole lot of people are in trouble because of circumstances beyond their control, but a whole lot more are where they are ONLY because the rest of the world simply failed to cooperate with the sales hype and their own wishful thinking.

[Magoo48]

29. Instead of vetting prospective buyers, the crooks herded them.

A warm, dry place to live is a human right. Imo

[TheMadMonk]

44. True enough. However, a good many of those "herded", willingly...

...signed onto the fraud, knowing in advance they had no chance in hell of servicing the loan beyond the low interest introduction period.

Bank lending practices most definitely made the crash possible. However, what made it INEVITABLE was far too many people attempting to take personal advantage of those practices. It was their herding (entirely separate from their being herded by the brokers) behaviour which drove property prices into the stratosphere.

The brokers working to sell loans on behalf of the banks may have encouraged borrowers to commit fraud on their applications, even pre-filled those forms with fraudulent data, but in the end the borrowers had to put their own names to the fraud, expecting to sell the property and "make good" before their paper fraud caught up with them and bit them on the arse.


One thing a lot of people fail to appreciate is that many regulations exist more to keep people from cutting their own throats, NOT to keep "faceless giants" on the straight and narrow. Although they do have that effect as well.

Much of what happened, happened because the removal of regulations simply allowed the banks (and the people behind them) to correctly bet that collectively people are selfish, greedy and not particularly smart. Its a bet very few people ever go broke making. Can't cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break.

Lack of regulation made it possible, but it was the collective greed of millions of individuals which made it actually happen.

[Huey P. Long]

45. Um, derivitives. THAT is the cause of the meltdown. Derivitives.-eom

[TheMadMonk]

49. Turned a crash into a total meltdown, yes. But, first cause is still...

...a whole bunch of mostly little people pumping property prices to unsustainable levels as they individually sought personal profit to their ultimate collective detriment.

[Huey P. Long]

54. wrong again bob...Your half truths are incorrect. See ya -eom

[chervilant]

37. hmm...

Globalizing your personal experience of "far, far too many idiots" is not supported by the data amassed thus far on predatory lending and default rates.

Also, defaults span the socio-economic spectrum, with a significant percentage of 'wealthy' people walking away from mortgages they no longer intend to honor.

Actually, it's time to stop playing this 'blame and shame' game. We should be dedicating our time and energy to fixing this and the myriad other problems commensurate with radical income inequity. Oh, wait... #Occupy is doing just that.

[Smarmie Doofus]

27. K; and , of course, R. n/t

[Laelth]

30. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[unionworks]

31. Rachel

Was talking about this last night. (Occupyourhomes). K&R!

[guardian]

32. Unrec

for misleading subject title and wasting our time with a run of the mill, unimportant memo. This memo is boilerplate stuff to employees. It could just have easily said "the sidewalk is slippery today...be careful when exiting the building." If this memo is indicative of where Occupy is hurting BOA, then Occupy is having a trivial, nay, negligible impact on BOA.

[chervilant]

38. Really?

If #Occupy was having "a trivial, nay, negligible impact on BOA," this and any other email about the movement would be totally unnecessary.

[guardian]

40. I guess you set the bar lower than me.

If your goal is to get a giant corporation to issue another email along with the other tens of thousands of emails BOA generates every day then good for you. This is about as meaningful as the TPS Report cover sheet issue in the movie Office Space. The actual impact is negligible no matter what you assert.

“Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.” Mark Twain

[Huey P. Long]

41. It reveals 'concern', much like your post. -eom

[guardian]

43. I'm sure BOA is more concerned about their

TPS Report cover sheets.

[chervilant]

51. OIC

Do you work for BOA? Have a friend or family member working there? Have an inside track on the concerns of their upper echelon managers?

Methinks thou dost protest too much...

[guardian]

53. No. No. and No.

But I CAN read. The memo in the OP is standard issue corporate pablum. All it says is (1) don't engage with protesters, (2) if you see a problem with a bank owned property then report it, and (3) don't talk to the press...leave that to corporate communications. The language in this memo could have been pulled straight from some employee handbook issued to all new hires. Nothing special.

[chervilant]

55. Yeah, okay.

Nothing special, pulled straight from some employee handbook, addressing #Occupy... That DEFINITELY tells me that BOA has not a scintilla of concern about #Occupy.

[chervilant]

50. hmm...

Setting the bar anywhere was clearly not my intent. I've been a bank manager (in my younger, naive days), and I can assure you that I would NOT waste my time generating a memo or any other form of communication about a meaningless issue that promised to have a 'negligible' impact. What a sublime waste of time THAT would be...

[hack89]

52. I work for a large corporation and delete several trivial corporate announcements daily.

this email says nothing about the impact of OWS.

[lonestarnot]

34. They have raised their payments into escrow after taxes and insurance to their highest possible.

Those fuckers! Keep fighting!

[guardian]

39. WTF?

"They have raised their payments into escrow after taxes and insurance to their highest possible."

I have no clue what you are trying to say. Your statement makes no sense. Please rewrite using a coherent sentence.

[Huey P. Long]

35. in case the morning people did not see this-

[snot]

42. If Taibbi's recent article is correct, & foreclosures are proceeding based on fraudulent paperwork,

the banks engaging in such fraud SHOULD be liable for punitive damages, among other things. That can make the "cost of doing business" via fraud cost-prohibitive.

I agree this memo doesn't live up to the hopes raised by the OP heading, but it's possible that OWS's actions could help focus attn on such fraud.