Demonstrators Demand End of Impunity for Banks | Black Agenda Report

Demonstrators Demand End of Impunity for Banks

22 May 2013

🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

Hundreds of protesters massed at the Department of Justice to demand that banks be held accountable for their multitudinous crimes. That’s like asking the Pope to convert to Islam. “If the Obama administration has been consistent on any one issue, it is the untouchability of the biggest banks.”

Demonstrators Demand End of Impunity for Banks

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“Banks have failed to pay more than half of $5.7 billion owed to homeowners from over 30 settlements since 2008.”

Attorney General Eric Holder won’t lay a hand on the cabal of banks that are “too big to fail” and far too politically powerful to jail, but DC police seemed eager to use their tasers on homeowners and anti-foreclosure demonstrators at Holder’s Justice Department, this week. Five hundred protesters from organizations around the country, including Occupy Minnesota, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, the Home Defenders League, and Occupy Our Homes gathered to demand that banks be held accountable for the massive frauds they’ve committed against homeowners and society at large. Several dozen protesters were arrested, including a number of elderly persons, but Eric Holder and his top lieutenants didn’t even bother to acknowledge their presence.

If the Obama administration has been consistent on any one issue, it is the untouchability of the biggest banks. Attorney General Holder has acted more as the bankers’ bail bondsman than the nation’s top law enforcement official. When confronted with two Scandals of the Century – the massive robo-signing bank fraud and the Libor interest rate fixing scheme – Holder moved to protect the banks. He used the powers of his office to block state criminal prosecutions in favor of financial settlements and fines. Holder, who is relentless in his determination to enforce the letter of the law on marijuana, claims he is helpless to bring criminal charges against banking corporations and their top executives, because it might cause an economic crisis. The real economic catastrophe that Holder and his boss, President Obama, fear is that Wall Street might withdraw its campaign contributions to the Democratic Party.

“He used the powers of his office to block state criminal prosecutions.”

Not only does the Attorney General refuse to consider putting bankers in jail, whatever the crime, he allows them to defy the terms of agreed upon financial settlements. According to the Washington Post, banks have failed to pay more than half of $5.7 billion owed to homeowners from over 30 settlements since 2008. These include robo-signing frauds, subprime mortgage entrapments, discrimination in lending to the disabled – a whole universe of criminality for which, in a just world, the offending banks would be dismantled and their top executives imprisoned. Instead, they are allowed to renege on payments to their victims with impunity.

As it has turned out, many of the banksters’ victims have received only a few thousand, or even just a few hundred dollars after years of struggle.

Even as his administration fails to live up to its Constitutional responsibilities to enforce the law, as it applies to Wall Street, Obama preached personal responsibility to the graduating class of Morehouse College, in Atlanta. The President spoke of the importance of “men who refuse to be afraid.” But he and his Attorney General are scared stiff of the power of the banks, to which they are beholden as servants. If there is no law that the banks cannot break with impunity, then this is not a nation of laws.

So, let’s stop pretending.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

listen

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20130522_gf_DOJDemo.mp3

More Stories

Ray Bush
Migration and Climate Emergency in North Africa
16 Nov 2022
Imperialist wars and capitalist predation have accelerated the pace of migration from North African nations. The climate crisis worsens structural inequality between the global south…
Abayomi Azikiwe
COP27 Deliberations Reaffirm Imperialist States as Main Obstacle to Ending Climate Change
16 Nov 2022
Developing countries and mass organizations at the COP17 summit continue to demand compensation for damage and loss created by fossil fuel production in industrialized capitalist nations. The…
Salifu Mack
Identity Without Responsibility
16 Nov 2022
There have been endless news stories about basketball player Kyrie Irving. But insight on celebrity culture and acknowledgement of the confusion that is deliberately created in this country is…
Socialist Movement of Workers of the Dominican Republic
Statement and Petition Against Inhumane Deportation of Haitian Migrants from the Dominican Republic
16 Nov 2022
Oppression of Haitians in the Dominican Republic intensifies, as deportations and discrimination against Dominicans of Haitian descent continues. The Socialist Workers Movement of the Dominican…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio November 11, 2022
11 Nov 2022
In this segment we will learn about the scarcity of affordable housing in New York City and why this public need is not being met. We will also hear about how voting rights for formerly convicted…