Protest Pasadena's efforts to prosecute foreclosed mom for protesting

The Pasadena Star News ran an article today revealing that the city of Pasadena plans to prosecute Rose Gudiel and others who protested the attempt by OneBank to foreclose on her home without just cause.  See http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_20124822/pasadena-pursues-charges-against-foreclosed-mom

Jill and I are urging people to take action and ask the prosecutor to drop these unfair charges. You can either write a letter to the editor or directly

to http://cityofpasadena.net/CityAttorney/Contact_Director/


Thanks to Gudiel's protest, OneWest relented and Gudiel was able to keep her home. Now the city wants to prosecute Gudiel and those who helped her. City Attorney Michelle Bagneris claims that she is just "following the law." This is similar to the argument made by Southerners during the Jim Crow era when they arrested protesters for sitting in at segregated lunch counters.

Clearly there is something wrong with laws that allow banks to foreclose on people's homes, but don't allow people to protest to save their homes from unfair eviction. We need to change the laws to protect the homeowners, not the banks.

I urge the City not only to drop these charges, but to commend Gudiel and the protesters for living up to America's finest tradition: the spirit of civil disobedience that led the citizens of Boston to dump tea into Boston harbor, and the protesters in the Deep South to violate the discriminatory Jim Crow laws. We need to honor men and women of conscience like Rose Gudiel who are calling for banks to behave morally and responsibily.