Citibank is full of crap.
Admittedly, I was skeptical of the video which is going viral on Twitter and which shows either police or security guards ushering into the bank a woman standing outside of a Citibank branch holding her checkbook and repeating, “I’m a customer!”
It is hard to discern exactly what is going on in this video, and wary of astroturfing, I was loathe to jump up and down about a video that (might) tell only part of the story:
Having seen Citibank’s press release on the matter, however, I have to call bullshit:
Citibank Statement Regarding Protester Arrests
October 15, 2011 6:12 PM By Citibank Public AffairsCitibank Public Affairs issued the following statement regarding today’s incident: “A large amount of protesters entered our branch at 555 La Guardia Place around 2:00 PM today. They were very disruptive and refused to leave after being repeatedly asked, causing our staff to call 911. The Police asked the branch staff to close the branch until the protesters could be removed. Only one person asked to close an account and was accommodated.”
To be clear: no one was arrested for closing an account; we didn’t lock people in our branch – the police decided to close the branch; and we didn’t ask for anyone to be arrested – that is a police decision.
A “police decision,” eh? And what happens when big banks prompting the arrest of these protestors buy off the police? Huh? What then?
The woman is clearly being ushered back into the bank. Perhaps she got outside somehow and the police dragged her back in to arrest her because she was part of the earlier (unpictured) fracas. It’s hard to tell, but it certainly looks fishy.
Also, Citibank’s press release is too clever by half. Hyperbole aside, no one is seriously claiming that people were arrested for “closing an account.” And more importantly, did branch staff close the branch or not? Pursuant to police request or not? Was the branch closed with the people inside or not? Were people outside the bank dragged back into the bank or not? Why does it take five officers to usher the woman in question back into the bank?
Methinks Citibank’s PR team is stupidly unaware of camera phones and YouTube.
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
The Fat Kate Middleton
So she’s a protestor. So? So she wants to close her account …. as so many did here. If they are peaceful, polite, etc. is there something they’re doing here that might lead to arrest? Even if a few people became agitated, this is a major PR fail on Citi’s part. All kinds of people are going to be shutting down their accounts in the next few days, I would predict.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Oh … and last I heard, twenty thousand people were in Times Square. Not to mention sixty thousand in Barcelona. I haven’t felt hope (no, maybe not hope – I don’t even know what word I want) like this in forty years.
magurakurin
@The Fat Kate Middleton: definitely, PR failure on Citi’s part, although PR failure is minimal compared to how they have failed as, you know, a bank. The banks, the 1%, and their lick-spittles(aka “52%”) are doing everything wrong in response to this. Perhaps there is nothing they can do right since they are, in fact, such clear and obvious dickheads. Lincoln’s adage is looking to be true, “you can’t fool all the people all of the time.”
curiouser and curiouser
Villago Delenda Est
If you DARE to stop doing business with us at Citibank, we’ll sic our goons on you. Goons paid for with your tax dollars, mind you.
The Dangerman
I don’t see why outside lady was being arrested; she surely wasn’t causing any disruption inside (perhaps she was and had just walked outside; trying to be fair). Double Fail, Citi and the NYPD.
srv
Her countertops will be on Fox News before the night is out.
Obama will take this call from Citi – he will be talking about appropriate forms of protest shortly.
The Dangerman
@srv:
Not sure about that, but I’d be shorting the shit out of BofA stock right about now.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Ha! Oh, yeah. But that might make me one of Them?
tommybones
Paying off my BoA credit card next week! Finally! Can’t wait to cut it up! So happy…
The Fat Kate Middleton
Been in a credit union since the early Seventies … but don’t know yet what to do about that damn mortgage of ours with Wells Fargo (which they got when our local bank sold out).
NobodySpecial
TBH, the whole thing smells to me of the simple “Fines are a handy way to take care of all those overtime bills” idea that police departments get. They’re interested in making a profit, too.
burnspbesq
@The Dangerman:
“but I’d be shorting the shit out of BofA stock right about now.”
If you were as smart as you think you are, you would be closing the short position that you opened last January.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Police are losing their shit in Times Square:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/15/1026847/-On-the-front-lines-in-Times-Square,-NYPD-in-full-fight-mode?via=siderec
cynn
Do you know that the movement in Denver was supressed, with 23 arrested, and helicopters circling even now?
srv
BofA can always get another bailout. They don’t need customers.
Loving the google news archives:
gene108
I’m not sure what these guys wanted to do by showing up in large numbers at a local Citibank branch.
The bank’s private property. They have every right to kick the protestors out or call police, when the protestors don’t want to leave.
There are plenty of people going about there business at the bank branch. I think any shop, where a significant number of people show up in the store just to “hang”, will want them to leave.
If you’re going to stage a protest on private property, expect the owners of that property to have you thrown out and/or arrested.
I’m not sure what other outcome the protestors thought would occur.
Seems like a waste of everybody’s time and poor decision making.
scav
@srv: I so immediately said IV in my head that I had to go to check. Yep. IV.
The Dangerman
@burnspbesq:
If I was as smart as I think I am, I would have bought into Apple when they were on life support (but I’m not that smart; I thought they were done).
What has BofA done this year (I’m too lazy/tired/drunk to look)?
Hawes
The reason I haven’t joined OWS (aside from the fact I had to teach classes and coach youth soccer… aside from THAT) is that I don’t think I could control my shit around police who act like that. That mixture of pompous self-importance and fear-kicked adrenaline… I would not comport myself well.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@gene108:
I’m sure that, legally, you’re correct. I repeat – major PR fail. Here’s what a whole lot of people are going to be thinking: “I can’t close my account – move MY money – without being arrested? Shitshitshit!” And you can take it from there what they might consider doing next.
suzanne
@cynn:
With any luck, our little FourLoko was one of the 23.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@gene108:
You can also expect to be arrested if you happen to be nearby, apparently.
The Dangerman
OT, but UO/ASU is turning into a pretty good game (if chippy with all the personal fouls).
Oops, UO just scored to go up again.
magurakurin
@The Fat Kate Middleton: That diary from NYCEVE is informative, but so totally over the top. Signing off with “welcome to Amerika.” She describes it as the “most awful thing she has ever seen,” really? It doesn’t sound like the cops were actually any rougher than ever. Not to defend cops, but it really doesn’t help a writers argument when they use hyperbole. It would have been more effective if she had written something like, “as to be expected the police responded with force to the peaceful marchers, but like the marchers before us in Selma, Kent State and elsewhere who met with even worse, unjustified violence from police, we carried on.” Their writing style is one reason I just couldn’t read the writers over there anymore. Everything is always the worst, the most important, the most threatening move against the Republic. Battle stations, full on, all the time. And now, when shit is actually happening, it rings somewhat hollow over there at the GOS. Just my opinion.
Good on the folks in NYC. This is starting to really get interesting as I watch it from afar in East Asia.
fasteddie9318
It’s obvious that the peasant was arrested for daring to act as though it should be allowed to control its own money. Vermin scum must learn its proper place.
Percysowner
This can get very ugly. I’m from NE Ohio and I remember Kent State. I worked with a man who had a bullet go through his hand during the shootings and his roommate is partially disabled because a bullet went through his leg and into his foot. He will never walk normally again. On a milder note,
I also remember the Memorial Day Vietnam Veterans against the war march. 458 people were arrested and taken to the Public Works Garage to be held for trial. This was the march led by the”coward” John Kerry.
I’ve lived through this before, it can go very bad, very quickly.
Jenny
@srv:
Her countertops? Why would they interview her kitchen?
chrome agnomen
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
giddy covers my feeling. as an aging DFH, i almost feel young again. (except when i bend down to tie the laces of my shoes)
Irving
So far – and I’m knocking on wood really, really hard here – the police have been professional and the protestors haven’t done anything that would escalate things to the point where they get out of hand. We’ve had one jerk with a heavy hand on the pepper spray, one slightly dubious traffic accident, and it’s been 30 days of protests. If I’m off base, let me know, but overall that’s a pretty good record. Lord knows how long it’ll last.
DecidedFenceSitter
@Jenny: In case you were serious – from the Balloon-Juice Lexicon:
Jenny
@DecidedFenceSitter: Oh, I see. I just thought it was a typo.
Dustin
@24:
You fail to take into account that this is rapidly turning into the largest truly disruptive protest movement in a generation so maybe, just maybe, the actions of the NYPD that the author witnessed are the worst thing she’s ever seen. Kent state happened 41 years ago, there ARE those of us who’ve never witnessed anything like this before.
Or I suppose we could ignore the front-line photo filled report because you think they’re being hyperbolic.
Quarks
@gene108: As another commenter pointed out, legally, you’re absolutely right. And Citibank easily survived the equally bad press of needing a multibillion bailout from the U.S. government, not exactly something to give me confidence that they know what they’re doing. And I think it’s safe to say that they make more money from corporate accounts than from individual checking accounts.
But having a customer arrested, for whatever reason, unless said customer is committing a bank robbery, just does not look good, and Citibank’s press release of “blame the cops” who were only called in the first place because people were ticked at Citibank just doesn’t sound good.
arguingwithsignposts
@Dustin:
I can think of one event 10 years ago that would qualify as the most awful thing I’ve seen. arresting a few protesters doesn’t even blip on the radar.
ETA: And another on April 15, 1995 that would qualify maybe as second. And another in Blacksburg, Va. on April 16, 2007. Do I need to continue?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@burnspbesq: Your comments would be much more interesting if you could resist the temptation to be a smug, condescending ass.
ChrisNYC
I wonder what happened to all the street vendors in Times Square today. Guess they’ll have to make it up tomorrow. But, hell, they can surely afford it.
The Dangerman
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Well, to be fair, I checked; if I had shorted in January, I would certainly be closing now (to be more correct, I would have closed months ago, because, well, I’m a coward).
My point earlier was based mostly on this $5 debit fee; I know a LOT of people that are pissed to the point of moving their money out. I also know/suspect they’ve had more than their fair share of IT problems. If people are going after the big banks by pulling money out, BofA is ripe for the picking (and they aren’t being bailed out anytime soon).
ABL
@The Fat Kate Middleton: That’s a great post. Thanks for the link.
piratedan
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: gives new meaning to the phrase “collateral damage”, doesn’t it?
The Fat Kate Middleton
@ABL: You’re welcome. I’m happy that somebody thought it something to offer.
piratedan
@arguingwithsignposts: hell, some of us here kinda feel the same way about 1/8/11, just sayin’. Lots of us suffer from the ongoing myopia of “it can’t happen here”.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Leaving words out again. Time to go to bed. Too late for this old DFH.
magurakurin
@Dustin: I said it was informative. And yes, I suppose it was the worst thing she has seen, but, if you had read the article, I believe some readers might come away with the sense that it is over the top. Obviously you didn’t(feel it was over the top or read the article) It’s an opinion on the writing and not only of the writing of that particular piece. I used to read and comment over at DKOS on a daily basis, but the writers became increasingly hyperbolic. And now, when things are actually happening, in my observation, their writing is not as powerful as it could be for these reasons. Sorry if you thought I was being a dickhead and I’m not quite sure why you felt the need to be a dickhead to me. But, you know, cheers, mate.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@The Dangerman: I was thinking of a series of comments, stretching back several threads today.
The Dangerman
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Oops; my bad. I was busy watching football and drinking. The UO game is starting to turn into a dog, so it’s back to just drinking.
BTW, Nostradumbass? Great name.
Dustin
@magurakurin: I’m a snarky bastard by nature and ipods are terrible for anything approximating long posts, so my apologies for missing the meta-analysis of the overall tone of the GOS. Needless to say that leads things to come out, as you put it, with me being a dick. Again my apologies.
The events that this author saw, in person, could very easily have been the most horrific thing she’s ever seen. And yes, @arguingwithsignposts, the actions this author witnessed could even be considered worse than the towers falling. Not because of the sheer horror of the event, but because of what such actions portend.
The towers falling was a barbaric act committed by monsters, to be sure, but it pales in comparison to witnessing the very people who are supposed to protect society being turned against it. The very idea that America isn’t “the land of the free”, that we are in many ways a nascent police state, isn’t a comforting thought. It is, in fact, horrifying beyond rational comprehension.
I don’t know how old the author of that post is but I’m 27. I was blessed to have missed the civil rights battles, the assassinations and massacres. I’ve never witnessed large scale populist protests, ones so powerful that they defy media blackouts and grow against all efforts to shut them down. And, I hate to admit it, but until a few years ago I was still naive enough to believe that the police were the good guys without reservation and that they’d never barge through a barracade, on motorbike, into a crowd. That they’d cold-clock HIV+ protesters, perform 2am raids against protesters after telling the media to leave, arrest bank customers for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or run over a legal observer and then beat and arrest them.
The nation we were taught we lived in was the shining beacon on the hill, and instead we are discovering more and more that our parents and grandparents were sold a pack of lies and we’re left to try and salvage the situation. We’re faced with trying times the likes of which haven’t been seen in our lifetime and things are coming to a head. The entire future we were sold as children, that we were born into, has been wiped away. We aren’t the shining beacon, and we sure as hell won’t even have the standards of living our parents did unless we fight against the system to get it. That’s what I got from this post, so as I said I saw nothing “over the top”.
But then again I never go to DKOS except when linked, so you could very well be right about the overarching atmosphere. Still I personally won’t hold that atmosphere against this poster any more than I hold the idiocy at FDL against TBogg.
FlipYrWhig
@Dustin: FWIW, the cops rounded up protesters at the Republican convention in Minneapolis, and it was all rather paramilitary in look. That was not a bygone age. It was 2008.
Dustin
@FlipYrWhig: True, but from where I’m sitting the difference isn’t so much the protests themselves but the fact that somewhere along the lines mainstream America figured out that they’ve been getting screwed over on purpose. The protests went from “damn dirty hippies” to the team everyone roots for even if they’re one paycheck from losing their house and can’t leave work to join in. The zeitgeist is changing, and 2008 was a prelude to that. I fear things will only get worse before they have a chance to get better.
magurakurin
@Dustin: cool, boss. I am basically a sarcastic dickhead myself, it goes to my Philadelphia upbringing. It does suck to realize that we(Americans) aren’t actually as free as we are told we are. But there is always hope. After all, you know what’s up and so do a lot folks around you I’m sure. It’s an on-going thing, I suppose. I’m 49 and my disillusion probably occurred in 1980 when I realized that many of the people who were voting Ronald Reagan into office had in fact been part of the the changes in the 60’s. Certainly not all and probably not even most, but a good many liberal minded people fell for Reagan’s bullshit and became the infamous Reagan Democrats. In spite of it all though, I actually think things do continue to get better. I mean when I watched America vote for Ronald Reagan, I never ever would have believed that 30 years later an African-American president would be the calling for and overseeing the acceptance of gay men and women into the Armed Forces. That is some amazing shit from my perspective.
I want to like DKOS, because basically I totally agree with their feelings. I just think the way they go about expressing them isn’t the best and that some of them look to long and hard into the darkness and end up having a nihilistic and pessimistic outlook. That, and this particular diarist said some fucked up shit, in my opinion, during the Health Care Battles. But that’s my on personal take on NYCeve. I don’t much care for her Internet Persona.
jayackroyd
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
There’s the “where’s my note” site: http://bit.ly/pu8WTm
JR in WV
@arguingwithsignposts:
Dude, exactly which of those events involved police misconduct? She was referring to the police misconduct as the worst she’s even seen, with her eyes.
Those events you refer to were terrible, but not officaldom in misconduct.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@jayackroyd: Thanks!
I had only thought of doing this in response to the immediate threat of foreclosure – I’ll be pursuing this.
NCSteve
You’d think our Galtian Overlords, superior beings that they are, would know when to use “amount” and when to use “number” in a sentence.
FlipYrWhig
@Dustin: I just mean that the DKos poster, in decrying one particular police crackdown as the worst thing she’s ever seen, is overlooking not just long-ago history of cops busting heads, but very recent history about how police forces respond to organized protests.
I think you’re right that sympathies are working in a different direction than usual, and my pet theory is that the protests in Egypt galvanized a more positive view of protests in America.
Greyjoy
The problem with America these last few years is that we keep hearing more and more of the sheep starting to shout, “Four legs good, two legs better!” in response to the pigs beginning to take over. It would be one thing if a bunch of people acted in a really inappropriate, un-American way and the population at large nullified them and pointed out that our American principles don’t allow such things. It’s another entirely when that same bunch of people acts in a really inappropriate way, and a large portion of the population thinks it’s a great idea and we all need to get used to it, or else.
Jeremy
I’ve got a follow-up story today on the Citibank arrests, with some additional information. It turns out there was another action at about the same time, this one at a Chase bank branch. Guess how that one went down? “Citibank was stupid, Chase bank was smart“