See for yourself…
Here are the videos: First, of the rather dull, “disruptive” discourse on student loans inside the branch (yep, bad move, but…) (back to Page 1)
UPDATE: We’ve just posted an additional video that bridges from the time the occupiers started to leave, to their arrests. See: New video: Inside Citibank as guards prevent Occupy Wall Street demonstrators from leaving.
Next, the arrests. Note at about the halfway point, the woman in the business suit being accosted by the police, accused of having “been inside the branch” – that is, having been part of the protest but having left – and being dragged – literally – back into the branch to be arrested. (back to Page 1)
As we noted in Saturday’s article, there was also this much smaller demonstration (three people) earlier in the week in Santa Cruz. Again, there was no disruption, again, the branch manager threw them out, but somehow they all managed to get through the whole thing without resorting to arresting anyone. (back to Page 1)
What you can do:
- Call Citibank President Vikram Pandit and tell him to stop arresting his customers. He told Fortune magazine he’d be happy to talk to Occupy Wall Street! His office line is (212) 793-1201, and his email address is vikram.pandit@citi.com, or on Twitter @askCiti
- Take the pledge – tell us in comments if you’re going to close your Citibank (or Bank of American) account on Today! Take your business to a good local credit union or bank. Find a local credit union.
- Find out about your local Occupy events happening today via Occupy Together
Like what you just read? Like us on Facebook for more updates!
More on the Citibank arrests:
- DON’T close your Citibank account today. They’re arresting people
- Citibank arrestees say undercover cops set them up
- New video: Inside Citibank as guards prevent Occupy Wall Street demonstrators from leaving.
More on action against the banks
More on Occupy Wall Street
- Hawaiian singer Makana Occupies President Obama’s state dinner
- Bill Moyers: How the 1970s backlash against the environmental movement morphed into today’s class war
- Will winter weather stop Occupy Wall Street?
- Bill Maher skewers right-wing idiots who hate Occupy Wall Street
- Calvin and Hobbes explain OWS
- Why are they lying about OWS – and why are they getting away with it?
- Why we occupy: The Story of Citizens United – Why Democracy Only Works When People Are In Charge
More resources:
- Find your local occupation at Occupy Together – now planned for more than 1,000 cities! | Twitter |Facebook
- Atlanta: website | Twitter| Livestream |Facebook
- Boston: website | twitter | yfrog | Livestream |Facebook
- Dallas: website | Twitter| Livestream |Facebook
- Los Angeles: Website | Twitter| Livestream |Facebook | Youtube
- New York: website | Twitter| Livestream |Facebook
- Portland: Website | Twitter|Livestream |Facebook
- San Francisco: Website | Twitter|Livestream |Facebook
- Seattle: Livestream (Video) | website | Twitter |Facebook
- Information about making donations can be found here: nycga.cc/donate
(citibank arrests image by twitter.com/celakabat)
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About Jeremy Bloom
I will be opening a credit union account and trasfering my BOA direct disposit. Prepare for Bank Transfer Day, get everything set up to move your funds by 11/5/11!
If any bank is charging fees that you don’t want to pay (a reasonable response), why did people wait until OWS to do that? I moved by account to a credit unions months ago. It had nothing to do with OWS.
Perhaps Citibank arresting arresting people has more to do with preserving the banks autonomy and very survival rather than the very interesting idea that all the security guards and cops were trying to do was put a sudden frenzy session of customers/vigilantes into quarantine mode. Who really needs to be quarantined are the banks, but that’s just the humble opinion of an individual with hardly a dime to his name.
Such are the affairs of modern day America bristling with self hate and apathy towards the haves and the have nots on a sullen Saturday afternoon.
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/10/citibank-would-like-to-blame-the-nypd-for-having-23-of-their-customers-arrested-for-trying-to-close-their-accounts/
We need to have Citibank and Bank of America’s 800 numbers so we can make them responsible for the charges.
behind the scenes look at occupy boston!
Check this out. A woman outside of the bank offering legal aid to those locked inside is then dragged inside against her will, locked in and arrested!!!! Please watch…this is crazy!! Wrong on so many levels…reminds me of the beginning of Nazi movement. You could be next. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/24-people-arrested-for-trying-to-close-accounts-at-citibank.html thanks for article
I am doing the groundwork so I can transfer 2 checking and 2 savings accounts from Citibank to community banks. In addition to withdrawing my financial support from a bank that has engaged in treasonous behavior, I will get far better interest rates.
You had me until “stupider”.
Are you people stupid? I went to college, I got student loans, commuted to save money. Worked at crap jobs to pay the loans back. This sounds to me that people do not know how to live within their means. Why should I as a taxpayer have to pay other peoples student loans when I have already paid mine back.
Live within your means and quit complaining. The rule of thumb is you shouldn’t take more than half your expected first years salary out in student loans. Did the lady really think that after college she would make 240,000$ a year? These are just stupid parents not directing their children and teaching them how to live within their means.
I truly hope those who read, realize that even if for some strange reason, they believe they are not a party to this, they best wake the heck up. Since Fannie and Freddie delved into this mess, you, as a taxpayer, are involved. Now, if this got your attention, look up 15 USC 7003. E-Notes do not have a law to support them. E-Notes are what is used for substitution of your mortage note and security instrument. They are trading that scanned copy of the mortage note and security in what they call a transferrable record, a payment intangible that is elluded to hint toward the missing paper note and security instrument. If you didn’t grasp that, I suggest you start learning all about them. This is one of the biggest frauds in the history of mankind. It put you and everyone else into servitude, didn’t it? And….. You might just find your student loans are just as involved.
It is not about being a deadbeat, or whatever you would like to call these person. I would say thy at least are trying to do something rather than being a Sheeple. Peace be with you.
I am a former Citibank Banker, and VP. Generally, they TRY to help clients acheive their financial goals, and have always had free checking for everyone. Yes, they did get bailed out, but the taxpayer received $2,000,000,000 MORE than what they gave! Pretty good deal for the Taxpayer in this one single case… BUT….. now with the changes, Citibank, which for many years, held out, and was always better for their clients, is turning down the dark path…. You can still get a free account with no balance requirement, as long as you do one bill payment and one direct deposit… I’m still closing my account, becuase I saw my boss’s getting HUGE bonus’s (i received some also), that was just TOO excessive…
Maybe it was your performance keeping you from the larger bonus
I’m in the process of closing my BoA accounts. Today I’m working on my BoA money market account. I joined Mission Federal Credit Union in San Diego. Another plus is very personal service, it’s not crowded, and I don’t feel like I’m in a Walmart. Our vote doesn’t count for much anymore with our political system bought and sold. We are economic entities only to those running this country. The only way we can vote is with our wallets and pocketbooks. The most important vote is where we get our loans and where we put our money.
this is intense.
Actually the people WERE being disruptive to business and while it was citibank who asked for them to be charged it was the police no allowing everyone to leave, because they were rightfully under arrest, wait let me say this in big lettings RIGHTFULLY UNDER ARREST.
The woman outside was not just offering legal advice, she was one of the protestors inside before hand… why don’t you actually watch and LISTEN to the conversation in the video, the woman is clearly trying to get out of being arrested and when she made a move to leave they stopped her because…. you guessed it.. she was RIGHTFULLY UNDER ARREST.
Are we stupid??? ARE YOU? If you’re mad your tax dollars might be used to pay off someone else’s money problems, then you should realize they already have been. OUR tax dollars were used to pay off the BANK’s bad decisions, since apparently, they don’t know how to live within their means either. But I would think, if my tax dollars saved them from their debts (caused by so many unpaid student loans, and so on), then I consider it a debt paid.
Hmmmm….sympathetic to the cause and agree the proper action is to vote with your feet and change banks, but watching the videos do you really not think an arrest was warranted? Pretty sure no one would enjoy the society that doesn’t honor the right to exist without people screaming and loitering wherever they choose. Would like to see the ‘leader’s’ response if I protested at his relative’s funeral – think we mat see a flash of hypocrisy?
Since when is the solution to everything “ARREST SOMEONE!”
See my other comment..
1) If YOU got busted every time you violated some law or regulation, you’d spend most of your life in court or in jail – even if you think you’re a “law-abiding citizen”.
2) The banks and investment firms are in violation of spectacular numbers of regulations and laws – the kind involving forging documents, fiduciary malfeasance and billions of dollars of frauds. Are you saying it’s okay for the banks to get a pass (which is what is currently happening) but if customers voice their objections and don’t leave as soon as they’re asked, THEY should be arrested?
Even if Citibank was “within their rights” to arrest folks, it wasn’t NECESSARY, and it was counterproductive to everything they said they wanted. Chase, faced with the same situation, just shrugged their shoulders and got back to business after the kids finished up and left.
That’s the point of the article, but I guess you missed that.
Jeremy,
What you fail to report on is that crowd put the employees and the customers, and in this case, the large group of non-customers, at a security risk. That cannot be ignored when you say the branch manager over-reacted. Her number one responsibility from the time she opens that branch in the morning to set up for business till the evening when she locks the doors to close down is the security of everyone in that branch. Anybody can walk into a branch and say they are customers. That’s why you have non-loitering laws, especially for bank branches. At some point the branch manager had a responsibility to end the demonstration, so she called the police, which is probably felt was her responsibility, if not her duty at the time.
Just because you are certain that none of those protesters would ever in a million years have the inclination to pull out a gun and try to rob the place, that doesn’t matter to what the branch manager has to be aware of at all times. And almost all robbers go into a branch pretending to be customers. What you’re arguing is that the branch manager should have just assumed because they were just protesters, none of them could have had malicious intentions. And not only that, that there could not exist someone with malicious or criminal intentions to try to take advantage of the disturbance.
Call up a friend that you know who is versed in bank security measures and try to learn something before you judge someone charged with that kind of responsibility.
See our update: Citibank arrestees say undercover cops set them up.
It now appears that the only people who were a danger to anyone were the undercover cops who tried to cause trouble, and the cops that slammed people into walls.
I will close my citibank credit cards.
Yes, please do! I already pulled out my money from Chase Bank after they took out WAMU and i got tired of having the big guys use my cash!
Close credit card and bank accounts before November 5th if you can.
Thanks for the report. You might want to stay away from the Shylock analogy –he’s kind of the stereotype of the Jewish banker and there’s a lot of debate about whether Merchant of Venice is anti-Semitic. Not saying that the way you referenced him was anti-Semitic at all, but given that conservatives are already charging OWS with anti-Semitism (and some of the Jewish people I know who would otherwise support the movement seem to be worried) it might be a good idea to stay away from material that could be alienating.
Being Jewish myself, I thought twice about whether or not I should go there.
But in the first place, Shakespeare goes out of his way to humanize Shylock, giving him one of the best speeches in the play (“If you prick me, do I not bleed?”).
And secondly, the analogy is apt. Shylock’s sin is that he over-reaches. He’s got the niggling letter of the law on his side, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to budge just because what he’s doing is repugnant.
This is pretty sickening stuff…
No doubt I’m moving to a credit union
I’m closing my ShittyBank account and opening one at a local credit union. I can’t wait til they ask me why I’m closing my account, and I will say with total honesty, “I’m ashamed to be in business with you.”
A kind reminder that those who work in retail bank branches are not the ones taking home the huge bonuses, and are very likely earning salaries not so much higher than your own, and perhaps in some cases even less. When you close your account and tell them why, no problem, but please try to be kind. We make ourselves more noble when we allow others to be as well.
I hope people realize that while Citi received money from the government, they also paid ALL of it back PLUS interest.
If you close an account, doesn;t it cost to open it again or elsewhere?
I’ve never heard of anyone charging to open a bank account.
To join a credit union generally requires you put down about $25, but that’s because you’re a PART OWNER of the credit union! And you’re paid annual dividends. If and when you leave, you get your $25 investment back.
I just wanted to say that your brief summary of jay walking is not accurate. Jay walking is defined differently in every state, but in Wisconsin, where I am from, the jaywalking law is completely different from what you say.
In WI you are allowed to cross the street anywhere as long as you don’t impede traffic. Outside crosswalks the traffic has the right of way, in crosswalks pedestrians have the right of way pending giving vehicles enough time to stop.
It’s a small thing to nitpick, but given that you spent most of your article nitpicking Citibank’s statement you should have been more careful. Let he who is without sin and all that…
Citibank closed MY account because I would not consent to the 12% APR increase (from 6.99% to 18.99%) for absolutely no reason at all. I have stellar credit and a long history of them of opening accounts, paying them off and keeping them open. I continually charge through Chase and MBNA now. They have lost all my money. I was told they did this to many, many people This damaged my credit rating. Anyone else have this problem??