By Reno Berkeley | reposted from Gather News (follow link to see video)
More ridiculous arrests coming out of New York today, as Citibank proves it’s just as bad, or even worse than Bank of America in how it treats its customers. Earlier today, about two dozen people formed a queue inside the Citibank building in order to close their accounts as a part of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Instead of allowing them to take their money elsewhere, the genius managers and security people in charge locked them inside and had them arrested.
It’s not clear why the people were arrested, but speculation is that when the bank would not allow customers to close their accounts, the customers began to protest. When this happened, that’s when the genius managers decided to lock them all in and call the police. Nice work, police, protecting your corporate masters.
The arrests were so contrived that you can’t help but laugh in bemusement. One woman who was talking angrily with police outside the building was manhandled by what appears to be a plain clothes officer and dragged inside by about five other officers.
Reports from around the internet are saying that two people who succeeded in closing their account left the bank but were forced back inside by police and security officials. In the video posted online, you can see how one woman was practically carried into the bank by a plain clothes officer, where she and the rest of the bank’s customers were subsequently arrested. So, if you were just in the neighborhood, and arrived before these people and closed your account, you’d have been arrested for disorderly conduct, whether you were a part of this protest or not. What the hell is this country coming to when you get arrested for simply asserting your right to do what you want with your own money?
The NYC police department is not doing itself any favors by acting with such force and dishonor towards the people it’s supposed to be protecting. Citibank, likewise, isn’t going to garner any kind of support among its customer base for refusing to allow customers to withdraw their money.
Corporate greed, a police state, citizens arrested for voicing their opinions. Unfortunately, it looks as if the United States is living proof that ‘1984’ has come to pass.
I’d like to see more first-person accounts of what actually went down at Citibank yesterday, if anyone has come across any. Guess we might have to wait until those folks are released.
Something else that made me want to use the 7-letter F-work were these photos, tweeted and blogged by journalist Heidi Moore, of police lined up outside of the headquarters of various banks last night. Here are some of the photos from her blog:
http://moorehn.tumblr.com/post/11508662114/the-police-set-up-phalanxes-of-about-20-officers
http://moorehn.tumblr.com/post/11508768519/this-is-the-police-phalanx-in-front-of-societe
http://moorehn.tumblr.com/post/11508904207/this-is-what-the-police-phalanx-looked-like-as-you
http://moorehn.tumblr.com/post/11508956314/another-bank-another-phalanx
http://moorehn.tumblr.com/post/11509136359/these-officers-were-not-allowed-to-go-home-so
http://moorehn.tumblr.com/post/11509202872/another-view-of-the-police-protecting-the-entrance
http://moorehn.tumblr.com/post/11509288108/i-counted-at-least-20-police-cars-on-the-street-in
Will the NYPD explain these deployments? Did they receive credible & specific threats against these buildings, or what? It’s really hard to look at these photos and not think of the big banks’ “donations” to the NYPD cited by Shanna & Susie.
Meanwhile, “Anonymous” at work on the CEO of Citigroup:
http://gawker.com/5849826/want-to-talk-to-the-ceo-of-citigroup-heres-his-cell-phone-number?tag=Occupy-Wall-Street
Beth et al,
Since the first of the year, I know two people who wanted to close accounts at Fifth Third and were told that there would be a $50 to $80 “fee” to close an account. Needless to say, that’s when you take the account down to a dollar and let them do their thing. Won’t even go to the topic of “maintenance fees” that are charged that empty the account, and then the notices that the account is overdrawn because of fees. Fifth Third did drain an account of mine over a three month period with fees. My main accounts are not in that bank, and needless to say, it’s NOT the bank I have used for almost forty years.
May the word spread far and wide of the idiocy of them all.
JannKinz
Mic check! As awful and wrong as this is, I see it as another win for the awareness movement. The stupidity and lack of any sort of plan on the police’s part (as well as the banks) only caused a reaction like the one’s that the pepper spray incidents did. Think of how many people will now pull their accounts from citi and other banks alike. It will be interesting to see some of these numbers…
Odd to me……………..I can’t fathom how ANYONE can have their money in one of these banks now.
Wachovia screwed over my son 8 years ago. Last year I was trying to get a friend to extricate her $ from the same…………..& open a credit union acct. It was a bit complicated, as she had direct deposite of her paycheck, her house was under foreclosure & she was potentially moving to another state.
18 years ago I had a job in another state, and I interviewed 6 banks before I settled on one ( the right one as time proved.) I have not trusted banks for at least 20 years………
make that 30, there was the female owned bank in Philly I used, back in the 70’s.
For the most part I have never had that much money to worry about being hours for dollars; no income without work.
But I think my Grandfather was a RW’r. ( he profited off the crash & depression) Explains the tension between him & my Father. Must be in my genes.
I found the arrests yesterday profoundly disturbing!
Early on during the protests I saw a picture of an NYPD officer holding a demonstrator (it appeared to be on Wall Street itself) and it looked like the collar insignia said “WSTF,” and not “NYPD.” Everything else looked legit, but does that stand for “Wall Street Task Force?” If so, they’ve really been bought: all in the name of counter-terrorism of course, and I guess the 99% are now the terrorists.
It may be time to bring back “pig” as a pejorative…
The bank managers have been doing this a lot lately, and not just if you’re closing your account. My friend was paid with a BofA check and he went in to cash it. He didn’t have a BofA account and they wanted him to give them his fingerprint before they would cash it. When he said no, you’re not getting MY FINGERPRINT the manager called the cops and he was taken out of the bank and banned from all BofA in town. Any time the manager thinks there’s going to be a problem they can call the police, which is fine, IF there’s an actual threat, but these people see threats where there arent any lately. My friend didn’t yell, didn’t threaten, he just refused to give his fingerprint. Our Occupy Santa Fe at The Roundhouse yesterday went really well, as far as I can tell, I had to leave early to go to work, but it was in full swing and people driving by were honking their horns, one postal person on her rounds honked like crazy and thanked us. Only one man said “I’m the ONE PERCENT” and we all just kind of looked at him and he kind of went away. I didn’t see any counter protest of 1 Percenters.
“Some things stretch credulity so far that they’re in danger of snapping the delusional rubber band that too often serves as the American brain stem.”
Judith Gayle’s words this week apply to this different perspective on “Crazy Money.” It’s so crazy apparently the 1 percent and their companion corpornications aren’t going to allow the 99 percent to have their little bit of money.
Why am I still going “WTF?”
Thanks, Eric, for posting this. Can’t wait to see if Olberman and/or Stewart comment on thius.
JannKinz
And my last thought is: (heh, heh) “Apparently the customer ISN’T always right.”
Have a lovely day, folks.
*level of THREAT these guys perceive*
(no coffee yet.)
The Citibank customer/woman dragged back in for her arrest was particularly disturbing to me in that she contradicted everything we assume about “protesters”. She looks like any other smart, urban young professional in the city. Perhaps she didn’t have the time or the interest to go down to the park, but she could withdraw her money as her act of protest. Others have done this.
The NYPD story says that the protesters were disruptive and making a scene inside the bank. I didn’t see any of that from the footage, but the video doesn’t place us close to the service counters so we could be missing the “disruption”.
I put this down to fear and borderline-hysteria. Everyone’s jacked up. The script’s gone off. How many days do tellers face two dozen people all wanting to close their accounts in one afternoon? The world’s gone mad, I tell you…
And to susyc: the big banks have been extra generous to the NYPD police for a good while now. The last JPMC donation came six months ago. I imagine this kind of protection has gone on for decades (this kind of thing is nothing new, and I heard stories like this from my grandfather’s era when he, as a drugstore manager, paid for a little extra protection, under the table). But it would be interesting to look at pre9/11 and post 9/11 figures for these contributions to gauge the level of fear these guys perceive.
Absolutely amazing!! Of course, the upside is the bank and police actions will serve to increase publicity for Occupy and encourage more people to transfer money. My 85 year old mother is moving her money out of Chase to my credit union next week. I emailed the credit union yesterday morning before the above publicity, just in case they hadn’t heard about the Occupy action being recommended. Nov. 5 was advertised as a “transfer money day,” but why wait!
“Police in New York said they made 70 arrests. These were mostly at two flashpoints: 42 were detained near Times Square when attempts to disperse a crowd led to confusion; 24 Citibank customers who attempted to close their accounts in protest were led away for trespass after they opposed an order by the branch manager for them to leave.”
From The Guardian
*Police arrested 24 other protesters earlier for trespassing at a Citibank branch, a New York Police Department spokesman said.
Citibank said its branch staff had called police after a “large amount of protesters” entered the bank near Washington Square Park.
“They were very disruptive and refused to leave after being repeatedly asked,” Citibank said in a statement. “The police asked the branch staff to close the branch until the protesters could be removed.”*
from AFP
Eric,
You are absolutely correct in your assessment. Yet another line has been crossed. Many thanks to you for the public service of providing this information.
Dude, that is truly bizarre…it’s their money – people can close their accounts if they want to – incredible!
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2011/10/07/jpmc-isnt-alone-donating-to-nypd-bank-of-america-barklays-capital-goldman-sachs-others-did-also-occupywallstreet-ows/
The banks are buying up police forces. You’d have thought they’d have already gotten around to that. Quelle Surprise! “J.P. Morgan Chase “donates” $4.6 Million to NYPD” #OccupyWallStreet
Quelle Surprise! “J.P. Morgan Chase “donates” $4.6 Million to NYPD” #OccupyWallStreet
UPDATE: JPMC isn’t alone “Donating” to NYPD, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs… others did also!