By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 13 --
Amid the
crackdown in
Ferguson,
Missouri,
after the
killing of
unarmed
African
American
teenager
Michael Brown,
at the UN on
August 13
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric about
the killing
and crackdown.
Video
here.
Dujarric began
by saying that
Ban and the UN
have "no
particular
comment," then
added that "as
in all cases,
the right to
demonstrate
peacefully
needs to be
respected, and
investigations
need to be
conducted."
Okay, then.
There have
been reports
mentioned the
financial
institutions
in the area,
including
nationwide
lenders Bank
of America,
US
Bank and
Fifth Third.
Inner
City Press and
Fair Finance
Watch reviewed
the
demographics
of mortgage
lending by
these three in
the area in
the most
recent year
for which data
is publicly
available,
2012.
In the St.
Louis
Metropolitan
Statistical
Area in 2012,
Bank of
America denied
the
conventional
home purchase
mortgage
applications
of African
Americans 1.81
times more
frequently
then those of
whites.
Fair
Finance Watch
has previously
objected
to US Bank's
stealth branch
closings,
including in
Chicago, here
and here. The
US Community
Reinvestment
Act requires
banks to lend
fairly in all
of their
communities,
but is not
sufficiently
enforced, FFW
has shown.
For US
Bank, the
disparities
was 1.6 to 1;
for Fifth
Third
Mortgage, that
company's
lender, it was
a whopping
4.95 to 1:
African
American
applicants
were denied
4.95 times
more
frequently
than whites,
worse that the
aggregate (all
lenders).
Troublingly,
for all
lenders
Latinos were
denied 3.1
times more
frequently
than than
whites. So
where is the
US headed? And
why has the UN
had nothing to
say so far?
Watch this
site.
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