Leid Stories - 11/01/13

The Taking of Detroit: Banksters Force An Exodus

 

In 2008, the same year President Obama made history being elected president, the City of Detroit made history, too. That year, Detroit had the highest foreclosure rate of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. More than 67,000 properties were upside-down in their mortgages.

While a legal battle rages on in federal bankruptcy court, with Gov. Rick Snyder and his appointed emergency city manager, Kevyn Orr, seeking the legal go-ahead to declare bankruptcy in order to restructure and discharge the city’s $18-billion debt -- a five-year struggle against “banksters” gains momentum with a call for a moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility cutoffs.

Abayomi Azikiwe, an organizer with Moratorium Now!, explains that the banks’ predatory lending practices and other unlawful actions have wreaked havoc in Detroit, causing an unprecedented foreclosure rate and a mass exodus of working-class people from the city.