On Friday, June 1, Occupy Bernal (the tiny Occupy group that, despite its size, somehow gets shit done) plans to stop the auction of Alberto Del Rio's house by making noise to drown out the auctioneer at City Hall, among other ideas. Why all the fuss? Occupy Bernal explains:
"Alberto Del Rio is a Bernal Heights resident who grew up in his family home. He lives there with his wife and 3 kids. To help his mother have a decent retirement, the Del Rio family took equity out of the home and refinanced. But their loan from World Savings was a Pick-a-Payment loan. Lawsuits have found these sorts of loans to be predatory. World Savings sold the loan to Wachovia, which was then acquired by Wells Fargo. “Wells took advantage of me. Like they did so many other people. They promised us the moon,” says Alberto, who has been trying to get a loan modification since 2000. The bank has continually lost his paperwork, and refused to negotiate in good faith. The bank even advised him to stop making payments in order to qualify for a loan modification, which triggered the foreclosure process. Now, Wells Fargo is scheduled to auction his home on June 1. But we won’t let them."
On the flip side, Wells Fargo Bank did donate a whopping $25,000 to aid the more than 20 small businesses that protesters vandalized during a May demonstration on Valencia. So, you know, there's that. Anyway, if you would like to join in on the Occupy Bernal action, it all goes down at 1:45 p.m. on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Friday. Just please stop chanting "Hella, hella, Occupy." Find something new. Because you'll sound like a .... well, you'll sound like a dipshit.
For more details, please visit www.occupybernal.org.