Citi Bank having its own customers arrested for closing their bank accounts?

[girl gone mad]

Happening on the OWS live feed.

www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

edit: Citi, not Chase.

[bluestateguy]

1. That is not legal

There must be more to this.

[girl gone mad]

2. When it comes to the banks, our laws do not apply.

[varelse]

3. This is a serious mistake

a major tactical error on their part.

[EFerrari]

5. Yep. Instant image makeover.

[uppityperson]

18. Very much so. For everything they do that is outrageous, more join in. Willd.

[uppityperson]

4. Are they thinking they are protesting inside or what?

wild

[EFerrari]

6. They went in to protest and to close their accounts.

When they were asked to leave, they went to the exit but bank security blocked them inside. When the cops arrived, security went outside to grab two people that had exited. The group was then arrested.

These mofos are totally out of control but the #OWS people got it on film and are broadcasting it live.

:applause:

[uppityperson]

10. thanks, watching, listening now. What a situation!

[WinkyDink]

23. Bank security are literally out of bounds stopping anyone outside the bank. It's called "kidnapping"

and no, I'm not joking.

There are some serious repercussions for the bank to follow.

[Luminous Animal]

26. Yep. It is kidnapping.

[EFerrari]

28. Maybe. They never seem to get any consequences. n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. Crowd now chanting "Let them Go"

[Gin]

8. interesting to watch it live...and the crowd is growing

[Harmony Blue]

9. Have they lost their minds?

What is wrong with Citi Bank?

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. Just removing their masks is all.

[JHB]

21. That's a rhetorical question, right?

[caledesi]

45. What is RIGHT with Citi Bank ? n/t

[Puregonzo1188]

11. Just got a call from a friend that someone from our school was arrested there.

Is that what they were doing? No way that's legal.

[varelse]

12. I almost wish I had an account with them

so I could close it now.

My ex just pointed out that creating a "run" on any bank is against federal law. I haven't researched it yet but I think that might be the basis for the arrests.

However, in this case I think Citi would have been wise to not take this bait. They've stepped straight into the jaws of a bear trap with this move.

[Harmony Blue]

15. It depends actually

and varies depending on the country.

[glowing]

55. How can 23 people be a run on the bank. Only people with accounts

went into the bank to close their accounts. I'm not sure if anyone had any footage inside the bank? It didn't look as if they were. AND then Citi closed the bank, the cops kept them inside, and then arrested everyone... the people inside are the bank's customers.. well, not for too much longer. It will be interesting if the bank "loses" their money or puts some sort of special hold on it or messes up any transactions that the people make.

No matter what, the bank has created a negative PR problem for itself. Its not going to look good on them. And the people inside the bank were not oddly dressed, wearing masks, or especially even all that young. A few looked like middle-aged parent types. But maybe they were trying to get arrested? They had legal aid outside of the bank with them.. The ONLY people who were in the bank were people who actually held bank accounts and wanted to close them.

Hopefully, we get to hear directly from some of the people that were inside and what was happening.

[Odin2005]

14. WTF?

:wow:

[Gin]

17. there were 20 in the bank when it was locked...the guy with the

camera said....we will have 100 march here for each one arrested....and it looks like that is happening

[malthaussen]

16. Damn, I bet Rod Serling

... wishes he were still alive right about now.

-- Mal

[Odin2005]

24. You are entering... The PTB's Twilight Zone!

[pa28]

19. I wonder what Vikram Pandit has to say about this.

Maybe they should accept his generous offer and pay him a little visit.

[meow2u3]

20. $#itty Bank thinks it can make up its own laws

Arrested for closing a bank account? Since when did keeping your money where it can, and most likely will, be stolen become the law of the land?

[Luminous Animal]

22. Wow! Well, the Move Your Money project is going to get a lot more traction!

Find a community bank or credit union here:

http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/find-bankcredit-union

Look you your community bank or credit union financial health here:

http://us1.irabankratings.com/MoveYourMoney/IRACommunityZip.asp?affiliate=moveyourmoney&zip=&submit=Search

[EFerrari]

27. Divestment - it's Back!

:)

[cyglet]

25. Wow. Um.

What will happen November 5th?

[Luminous Animal]

29. People don't have to do it all in one day. I've already moved my money.

[cyglet]

30. The only bank I have accounts with

is USAA. The rest are credit unions.

[Luminous Animal]

33. Our community bank was bought out by a somewhat larger bank and then

bought out by WAMU then bought out by Chase. We were lazy about switching but did during the bank bailout.

[SoCalNative]

31. But they should

make a point of closing their accounts at the banks all on the same day.

It's no coincidence the date of November 5th was chosen for this.

[sarcasmo]

47. Remember, remember the 5th of November.

[tblue37]

32. That's a live video feed, so how does it show that a bank is

arresting customers for closing bank accounts? That seems implausible, so it needs an explanation.

Some of us are deaf, so watching a live video feed with absolutely no explanation of what is going on does not help us understand what is going on.

[uppityperson]

36. Protesters were outside. 20 some people went in to close accounts, bank security locked the doors.

Police arrested those inside as they were let out.

I don't watch the noise as it never makes sense, but this is what I've gathered from what I've been reading.

Only way bank can say it is ok in the slightest is if those inside were protesting and refused to leave (which they didn't) or they were scared of a run on the bank, in which case no one should've been arrested.

It is pretty amazing and a really bad move by the bank.

[EFerrari]

37. 20 people (apparently some students) went into Citibank to close their accounts.

They were asked to leave. When they tried to leave, security locked them in and called the police.

The police arrived and arrested them.

[uppityperson]

38. On the one hand this is making me laugh. WHAT were they THINKING?

have they no clue how this looks? Yes, do outrageous things, more and more and more and more people will become outraged.

[EFerrari]

39. They're so afraid of people, their brains shut down?

:shrug:

[formercia]

50. Reactionary Mode

Like when someone 'Loses it' and throws a punch. When they look back on it and look at the consequences of their actions, they will show remorse(perhaps), but that doesn't negate the unlawful act.

[CoffeeCat]

51. They were arrested for WHAT???

What could these people have possibly been arrested for????

If I go into my bank today--to close my account--I'm not doing anything illegal.

These punks.

Geez, they're going to crash their entire bank--all by themselves. Who in the hell
would keep their account open at Citi--after all of this????

This bank is toast.

I've worked in PR for many years--and I'd have to say that this is the WORST possible
corporate reaction to a crisis. I can't imagine Citi will survive this.

I've heard the "meme" spread through right-wing radio--that OWS is going to destroy
the banks and crash the economy. I'm wondering if this is some lame stunt to fuel
such actions and to cause bank runs and failures. Seriously.

No bank executive is this stupid. Does anyone believe that a group of highly
educated bank vice presidents sat in a board room and collectively decided, "Yeah, when
they come in to close their accounts, we'll lock the doors and hold them against their
will and then have them arrested".

They did this for ulterior motives.

[varelse]

52. That is appalling

I can't see how that behaviour is not illegal - and a violation of their civil rights.

[girl gone mad]

43. The arrests were still in progress when I initially posted this.

The posters above have given a good summary of what took place.

[tblue37]

56. Thanks, everyone. nt

[EFerrari]

34. We ARE the media now. Video of arrests:

http://yfrog.com/jwt4qz

:applause:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. I am so glad I closed my account with them after the bailout

when they started adding unannounced "miscellaneous fees" to my account which resulted in an overdraft. I was therefore out $85 that I could ill afford, the overdraft from the checks I had written, not knowing that these fees were coming, plus the "penalties" for the overdraft.

In other words, I wrote a check that should have cleared when previous withdrawals and checks and the monthly maintenance fee were figured in, but because of the "miscellaneous fees" (three of them!) I was overdrawn by $50 and had to pay an overdraft fee as well.

I sent them the money, drawn on another bank, along with my Citibank debit card cut into pieces and my remaining checks shredded.

It was a bit of a hassle to inform my overseas clients that they should now send remittances elsewhere, but darned if I was going to give charitable contributions to one of the Big Bad Banks.

[truedelphi]

42. Banks use every possible method of distorting reality in order to

bounce out a check or two.

I haven't had a personal checking account for several years. I thought it would be a major hassle, but the local grocery cashes any local checks, and the PayDay Check people cash any large checks with a 3% surcharge attached.

Three percent sounds like a lot - until you realize that when a bank creates some type of madness (like you describe) to bounce out a check, and your balance is $ 1.96 in the hole, and then they charge $ 99 on account of that small insufficiency, even though that insufficiency is paid up within 96 hours -- that is a whopping 82,000 percent rate of interest.

[grasswire]

48. there's always Paypal

Or that new service called ZashPay, a service of Fiserve.

[Luminous Animal]

40. Kick.

[coalition_unwilling]

41. K&R to keep this kicked - n/t

[fishwax]

44. k/r/wtf

:kick: :wtf:

[Fire Walk With Me]

46. +1

:rofl:

[texanwitch]

49. I had a CD mature at Capitol One Bank and the money is now at a credit union.

It wasn't that much, something my Father had.

[CoffeeCat]

53. I will be watching this situation very closely...

...because they can't arrest people for closing their accounts.

If many protesters entered at the same time, it's possible the banks
could arrest them for trespassing. Citi may claim that these people
were going to "occupy the banks", and that is why they were arrested.

It will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out.

I would encourage people to go in and just close their accounts, maybe
not in conjunction with a protest. Just do it, if that's what they
want to do.

Possibly, group account closings aren't going to be feasible.

[slay]

54. I'd get my money out first thing Monday morning

but i don't keep my money in banks. credit unions are MUCH preferable - especially these days. this is getting pretty fucked up when banks can have you arrested for wanting your own money.

[Raschel]

57. This is hitting 'em where it hurts. They can ignore the OWS protesters all day long, but they can't

ignore this.