Coakley on Occupy Boston: 'Properly Channeled' Frustration

Martha Coakley has been paying close attention to Occupy Boston, and although there have been over 100 arrests, the protests have appeared to be mostly peaceful - and rightful, she said Tuesday.

"This is a country that is founded on the idea that civil protest, rightful protest, is something that we guarantee," Coakley said in a brief interview Tuesday at City Hall in Medford. "I hope everyone in Washington will pay attention to this voice of frustration.”

Coakley, the state's top law enforcement official as Attorney General, said have been "an expression of anger and frustration that seems to be properly channeled."

The country has been "turned upside-down by this mortgage crisis," Coakley said, and her office is planning to take aim at bad mortgages by pursuing litigation against unlawful mortgage agreements and foreclosures.

“I am convinced if we do not stop this wave of foreclosures and get back to a healthy real estate market, we are not going to turn this economy around.”

Coakley's office is looking into several avenues of litigation, specifically naming the Mortgage Electronic Registration System as a possible target.

"We think they cut corners," Coakley said.

She called on federal government to take action against mortgages that are unfair to homeowners.

“I feel pretty strongly that something has to happen at the federal level," Coakley said. "We’ve been doing what we can at the state level, the federal government has to take some action particularly getting at some of this mortgage unfairness.”

Coakley, a Medford resident, a new program that aims to provide high schoolers with guidance on the transition to adulthood that they may not learn in the classroom.