Occupy Riverside protesters try to stop foreclosures

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Occupy Riverside protesters surrounded a foreclosure auction in front of the courthouse Wednesday, chanting, singing, yelling and doing anything they could to try to stop foreclosures from going through.

Protester J.B. Scranton said the target of the protest is the banking industry.

"This is an effort to shut down the auction process," said Scranton. "They got bailed out by the federal government. They should pass some of those savings onto homeowners."

Samuel Shulman, an 88-year-old World War II veteran, is about to be foreclosed upon. He said his bank isn't working with him at all.

"They wouldn't answer me," said Shulman. "They wouldn't do nothing. They assigned me to a case worker who didn't even call me."

The group claims it actually stopped some foreclosures on Wednesday. At times, they were so loud that investors, like Brett Hupe, couldn't tell what the auctioneer was saying.

"We can't even hear, so it interrupts a lot," said Hupe.

Despite how loud and vocal they were, some people wonder if this was the right venue for a protest.

"They're coming to the wrong place. They need to be protesting at the banks, not at the public auction," said Hupe.

Jack Werdowatz of San Diego said you can't just blame the banks.

"You can complain about the economy being bad, that's true. But banks, yes, they talked a lot of people into loans, but the people knew what they were doing. They're adults," said Werdowatz.

Sheriff's deputies and Riverside police officers were on hand at the protest, which remained peaceful despite the noise.

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riverside county, protest, housing market, inland empire news, rob mcmillan

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