Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Nominee, Arrested Occupying Fannie Mae

The campaign trail doesn’t always include stops in police cars and courthouses, but is not your typical presidential candidate.

The Lexington resident and Green Party presidential nominee was arrested yesterday, Aug. 1, during a sit-in at a Philadelphia bank protesting housing foreclosures.  Stein and her running mate, Cheri Honkala, were among five people arrested after about 50 party supporters staged an “Occupy Fannie Mae” protest.

Watch the video posted to your right to see Jill Stein rallying the crowd before her arrest.

According to an email from Stein’s campaign, the protest was originally called for by the Poor People’s Economic Rights Campaign to demand that Fannie Mae halt foreclosure proceedings against two Philadelphia residents.

Honkala, a former homeless single mother, has a history of protesting home foreclosures. Stein said she believes it’s time for laws that protect victims of the housing and foreclosure crisis, not the developers and financiers.

"The developers and financiers made trillions of dollars through the housing bubble and the imposition of crushing debt on homeowners,” said Stein in a statement. “And when homeowners could no longer pay them what they demanded, they went to government and got trillions of dollars of bailouts. Every effort of the Obama Administration has been to prop this system up and keep it going at taxpayer expense. It's time for this game to end. It's time for the laws be written to protect the victims and not the perpetrators. It's time for a new deal for America, and a Green New Deal is what we will deliver on taking office."

Since announcing her presidential bid last fall, Stein has and promoted her vision for a Green New Deal. Her campaign outside the mainstream continues later this month when she plans to speak at the 2012 Seattle Hempfest.