Apparently the simple act of closing your account at a CitiBank can get you arrested. Watch as this nice woman in the business suit is manhandled and hauled away as she and some friends decided to close their CitiBank accounts at the same time.
My friends at New York Communities for Change have been behind a lot of actions like this. I don’t know if they are behind this one, but they have been convincing villages, towns and cities to remove their funds from Chase because of their poor response to the mortgage crisis.
I’m surprised CitiBank doesn’t just charge them a 50 dollar, “Closing your account fee.”
“Hello this is CitiBank, your business is important to us. If you would like to close your account press one and you will be transferred to our Account Closure specialist Helen Wate. At CitiBank when you talk, we listen and when you want to close your account you can go to Helen Wate.”
Personally I keep all my quatloos in a box under my bed. BTW, the quatloo is pegged to the Loonie, the world’s most elegant currency.
UPDATE 8:30 PM From the Guardian in the UK
Earlier, 24 people were arrested at a Citibank branch. A large group of protesters, all of them apparently Citibank customers, had arrived to close their accounts in an “act of peaceful protest”. The manager asked them to leave, but they insisted they wanted to close their accounts. Police arrested them – including the woman shown in the video at 6.07pm – for tresspass.
Here is CitiBank’s statement
http://www.citigroup.com/citi/press/2011/111015a.htm
Citibank Statement Regarding Protester Arrests
A large amount of protesters entered our branch at 555 La Guardia Place, New York City, around 2 p.m. 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.
