Citibank, Bank of America declare war on customers
Today a group of Citibank customers decided to close their accounts en masse as part of a global day of action against the big banks. Citibank is a subsidiary of Citigroup, which received $306 billion dollars in bailout money in 2008–more than any other company.
The customers were asked to leave. When they refused, they were LOCKED INSIDE THE BANK and 24 people were arrested for criminal trespassing. For videos, look here or on the thousands of other news sites that are already covering this story.
I’m not a lawyer, but I cannot imagine how these charges are going to hold up in court. How can you claim customers entering a bank to complete a transaction are trespassing? However, locking people inside a bank seems to be a clear case of false imprisonment. Protestors should file criminal charges against Citibank and any law enforcement who were present for false imprisonment. The police could claim that they they had a reasonable suspicion that a crime was being committed (trespassing), but for this defense to work, they would have to make the case that Citibank customers walking into a Citibank branch during business hours constitutes trespassing. Furthermore, if even one person who was not part of this protest was locked in the bank with them, that person was falsely imprisoned.
Regardless of what happens to these 24 people, there is a bigger problem here. Citigroup is now effectively at war with the American people: it views us not as business partners but as a financial liability and as a physical threat. Here is a leaked bank memo–written well before today’s protest–giving instructions for what to do if “mobs” descend on a bank branch. Note that “do not try to reason with protestors” is part of their instructions.
The banks have been preparing for this war for a long time. Another leaked memo written by Citigroup in 2005 describes their plan to invest on a continued shift of wealth to the very top–what they call “Plutonomy.” The Plutonomy memo warns of a possible “backlash” by the people that could hurt this plan. It expresses concern that either the far left or the far right might actually value “patriotism” over outsourcing and threaten the banks. It also points out that the poor have equal voting power to the rich and describes this as a liability. Chilling stuff.
Then last June, J.P. Morgan (another bailout recipient) made an unprecedented donation of 4.6 million to the NYPD. Corporations like J.P Morgan are required to do whatever is in the interest of their share-holders: they don’t make donations, they make investments. This 4.6 million dollar gift was made so that the police would be beholden to the banks in the face of a popular backlash.
So the picture becomes clear: The banks began preparing for this war at least six years ago, they have tried to buy off the police, they have made contingency plans for violent conflicts with citizens, and now they have locked their customers inside a bank–probably illegally.
I am not part of a militia. I am not suggesting that we stockpile weapons or prepare for a violent conflict with the global banks. But this cannot stand. Everyone needs to contact Citigroup and tell them this will not be tolerated. More importantly, we need to take our money out of these banks and put it in a local bank or credit union. There are also lots of terrific online banks that offer much better interest rates and have far more reasonable transaction fees than Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, and Citibank. Just go to bankrate.com and you will almost certainly find someone better to bank with. Not banking with Citigroup is patriotic, they said so themselves!
Finally, even if you think the 24 people who were arrested today are Marxist scum, you should still take your money out of Citibank. Citibank started this war and as it escalates, it is going to be bad news for all of their customers: more fees, more disrespect for customers, and possibly bank runs. Just remember to close your account electronically, so you won’t be falsely imprisoned!
Update: Here is a press release from Citibank, essentially saying they did nothing wrong today. For the moment, all this proves is that Citibank knows the world is watching. Hopefully everyone will get their day in court and justice will prevail.
Update: A Bank of America in Santa Cruz demonstrated exactly the same response as Citibank, declaring that “You can’t be a protestors and a customer at the same time.” Watch this video: Bank of America had exactly the same contingency plan as Citigroup: Lock protestors inside the bank and summon police. The manager refuses to speak to protestors/customers–exactly as described in the leaked bank memo. This is not “customer service”, it is a concerted effort to protect bank assets by using force against American citizens attempting to close their accounts.
