Wow.

Just Wow.

If you go into a restaurant and created a scene with a camera crew, big signs, and acted belligerently, you would probably be asked to leave even if you wanted to order a meal. Why shouldn't it be the same for any other business, including a bank?

NYPD cops make the SPD look like triathletes.

@2: Watch the video before accusing people of making scenes. And, at Citibank, they weren't just refused service, the manager LOCKED THEM INSIDE, called the police, and then had them charged with TRESPASSING. Assholes.

@2: You would be asked to leave. You would not be locked inside, unlawfully detained until the police could arrive and arrest you for trespassing.

Please, people who were arrested, please, please, please, for the love of god, sue the everloving shit out of these assholes.

@4 Don't pay attention to @2 who seems to be an establishment-worshipper who has a distaste for any type of real direct action.

Citi's story is that only one person asked to close their account and that they were accommodated...except I guess the girl on camera, I guess. They claim that the protestors were disruptive and that no one was held against their will.

@4: I did watch the video and I disagree Godly. The bank has every right to change them with trespassing and take whatever means necessary to protect their business from potential mayhem. Same with a restaurant or the offices of The Stranger.

If they want to close their accounts they can return the next day, sans protest mode, be polite, and will be treated graciously by the bank staff.

Closing a deposit account removes a liability from the bank's balance sheet.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/20…

That's kidnapping.

@7 Ah, more evidence of giving the institution the benefit of the doubt at the expense of DFHs. "will be treated graciously by the bank staff." That was certainly NOT my experience when dealing with one of the big 3-5 many years ago and I never was a protestor or dressed shabbily. But keep on believing!

@8 Yes. Institutional accounts are bigger anyway. I don't get the move your money thing because part of the problem is that these banks were involved with massive leverage--far bigger than any individual deposits on the balance sheet. However, removing capitalization from the bank also removes its ability to earn interest on the more lucrative projects like loans, etc. I would rather capitalize a local bank than pay ANOTHER rent (e.g. usurious $60/yr debit card fees) for the privilege of using my money.

In the Santa Cruz video those girls just walked in quietly and sat in the waiting area when the woman came out and asked them to leave immediately. She didn't even see the camera at first. She could have asked them to dispose of the sign or something but she didn't, she was just a bitch.

Both of those videos are pretty amazing. In the first one, it seemed like there might have been actual trespassing occurring, but the second one (from Oct 6) is pretty crazy how quickly the protustomers are asked to leave. But for both, I am surprised the bank wasn't worried about a PR nightmare fallout. Then again, it looks like nothing happened. so.... I guess they made the "right" decision.

@12 "protustomers" was a stroke of genius, you rock

@7: Here is how trespassing works in a privately owned public space like a bank: you are allowed to be there. If the owner doesn't want you there, they can tell you to leave. If you do not leave, you are trespassing.

If you are not asked to leave, you cannot be trespassing. If the owner of the privately owned public space falsely imprisons you, denying you the opportunity to leave, you cannot be trespassing.

@7: I agree. A bank is a place of business, not a protest area. There is money at a bank and that money could be stolen. The bank must protect itself and the customers. The protestors can arrive separately and close their accounts and put the money under there mattresses.

Who carries a checkbook these days? Nana?

Is anyone cancelling their Facebook account?

Mark Zuckerberg is part of the 1 percent...

Curmudgeon, you clearly don't understand balance sheets. They have to BALANCE. Closing a deposit account removes a liability ONLY if there is money in the account. The liability is equal to the sum in the account, so If I have $1000 in my deposit account and I withdraw it all and close my account, $1000 is removed from the Liabilities portion of the balance sheet, as the bank no longer owes me that money if I demand it. At the same time, $1000 has ALSO been removed from the Assets portion, because they no longer have that cash. Banks NEED that money in order to operate; removing the money from the bank is not doing them a favour by taking away a liability.

I really, really can't believe people are having the nerve to defend the banks in this situation. It is VERY CLEAR from the first video that people are being held against their will while attempting to leave. The peak of the video is someone OUTSIDE THE BANK being brought BACK IN by what appears to be a plainclothes police officer. This is reprehensible behavior and people really should sue the fuck out of them.

More importantly, the implications of these videos are SHOCKING and staggering, and all of us should be outraged. They are essentially saying the banks have a right to do what they want with your hard-earned money, and you do not have the right to take that money back from them if you disagree with their policies. This is tantamount to fascism, a political and economic ideology that holds the privatization of profit, the socialization of loss, and dictatorial state bank control of your money as one of its central tenets. Look it up.

And, by the way, I work for those sumbitches... but not for much longer.

@10 - " I would rather capitalize a local bank than pay ANOTHER rent (e.g. usurious $60/yr debit card fees) for the privilege of using my money."

Actually, you are paying for the zero-liability fraud protection, online banking, mobile banking, technology infrastructure, back office processing and other services required to make possible the movement of your money from swipe to debit of your account. You're not being charged to use your money; you're being charged for the services that allow your money to move. You can avoid these charges by using cash (your money) without those services, either through a "mattress-based" method or with a financial services firm that does not owe returns to shareholders, such as a credit union.

When a disturbance happens at a bank, they close the doors. The same thing happens if it gets robbed. They were trespassing when they refused to leave. Closing the doors just allowed the cops to take care of things. But I'm sure you talked to some people who worked at banks, or did some investigative reporting or you know, something.

For the love of God. There's so many things to get legitimately pissed about, constantly posting snippets that don't show an entire story and actually have a reasonable explanation makes these protests look like a charade.

People are still going to close down their accounts. They're just going to do it one at a time, and leave their signs at home when they do it.

@7: A few years ago, when I shut down my account at Chase, I wasn't protesting, but I wasn't treated with any sort of respect either. When someone asks to close their account down, the correct response is to CLOSE THE GODDAMN ACCOUNT DOWN, not tell the former customer that they're just being emotional.

@ Dirac and others, the only problem with "direct action" like this is that it's happening at some local branch. The people at the branch are, at most, pawns.

That said, the freakout overreaction of the branch manager has ensured that this was a successful action. That's lightning you can't even hope to catch in a bottle.

@23 When Citi has to release PR that explains this, I'd say it was a tactical win. Also, as you point out, this is clearly viral propaganda. I don't think that's one I'd use, but I'm still not willing to be a sycophant for zombie parasitic institutions like @20, @19, and @7.

Did I just see a plane clothed cop who looked like he could have been a protester? Can I now call them secret police?

If the manager had just told the people to come back another day and not all at once (in a pleasing and understanding voice) and the people complied then nothing would have happened. But, I can't believe you trolls are supporting the action of the bank and the police. Especially with the customer on the outside who was taken against her protests that she wasn't with the group.

I only saw one guy with a white board that could have had written stuff on it but I can't tell. Everyone else just looked like they just came from marching and probably smelled a little. So, did the bank do some of that airport security profiling that many are so against on the group and considered them to be hostile or something?

I know it's hard to read and comprehend a whole post, but I did imply I used a local bank, which happens to be a credit union.
"Actually, you are paying for ... other services required to make possible the movement of your money from swipe to debit of your account. "
Haha. Spoken like a true sycophant. First of all, the charge of moving my money with all the whiz-bang gimmicks they sell customers (which are virtually free) does not cost $5 dollars a month per customer. I assure you of that. Especially when the structure is provided mainly by the Federal Reserve System, Treasury, and the VISA monopoly that charges merchants, middlemen, etc. exorbitant, usurious fees.
In the case of BofA, why now then? Oh, that's right, this happened. Not because I'm (not, me--as you apparently have not been able to intuit, I am at a local bank) entitled to all these whiz-bang gimmicks* that are virtually free because these zombie banks have been using services in the public commons.

*When Chase, a recipient of small $25 billion dollar US taxpayer loan, started promoting that you could use your iPhone to deposit checks and you could put your checks in the ATM without an envelope as something super exciting and whizz-bang! [HAHAHA, thanks massa, I always wanted that massa] I knew we were fucked.

Oh, and I wish I could have a billion dollar, zero interest taxpayer-funded loan so that I could do high frequency trading to make millions off that loan and then charge those taxpayers much more than their individual share of that loan for all the whizz-bang infrastructure they get from my totally independent institution!

I just love the input of apologist minions, like the for the corporate overlords. I'm sure that people who actually can think wouldn't ever be swayed by your drivel. It is transparent, weak thinking and idiotic.

I think it would be great that everyone who is closing their accounts with Phoebe's best friends at the big banks, also will need to film their experience being treated with graciousness by the big banks. I don't think it is in their DNA or in the people they hire.

Lesson learned: take a glass cutter and a hammer with you to the bank.

I sooo wish I had a Citibank account right now, so I could close it.

Alas, I closed it eons ago when I realized what vultures they are. Which brings to mind a question... Why do they still have any customers? There's nothing you can get there that you can't get somewhere else, better.

C'mon, people. Close those Shitibank accounts, already!

"Actually, you are paying for ... online banking, mobile banking, technology infrastructure, back office processing..."

You're hilarious. Also stupid. Very, very stupid. You know what all of those "other services" took the place of? Live human bank tellers, who used to do all of these things for you, either in person or on the phone. You know why banks chose them over live human tellers? Because they were cheaper: IT automation is a capital investment, and you can write off the depreciation on all of those computers. Human bank tellers want raises and benefits and might even talk unionization.

Then they realized that because very few people understood how systems automation works, they could then turn around and charge their marks, er, customers more money to use a cheaper-to-operate service. A nice little scam all around.

But credit where credit is due: you're quite correct when you say that using a credit union is the actual solution to this problem.

Stealth mode everyone. Just quietly go to your bank, close your account, and place it in a credit union. If enough of us do it, the point is made. No need to read dumb comments by Trolls. They hate to be ignored.

@19 wow banks sure do super sparkly things! those things are WAY more exciting than having actual money in my accounts!

...wait, my credit union does those shiny things too...WITHOUT BEING EVIL.

now I'm confused.

Disgusting. Just close her account and move on. There is no excuse for this.

@31 Fucking antisemitic shitbag, reciting hackneyed antisemitic myths.

Cite one major American money-center bank (Citi, Chase, BAC, Wells Fargo, etc.) with a Jewish CEO, or board, or president. In general, those banks are even more antisemitic than you are.

Perhaps arresting these 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.

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/10/…

Perhaps arresting these 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.

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/10/…

@32 -- I wouldn't break the glass as a matter of course, but if I'm trapped in a vestibule with a fire (I anticipate seeing Molotov cocktails on the menu) or toxins (tear gas or worse, courtesy of the gendarmerie) then I'll risk the felony charge.

Chances are I'll get away (alive). Maybe someone will acknowledge your clean police record at your funeral.

Like all businesses, some storefronts are run by shitty people.