‘I’m a Customer!’: Wild Video as NYC Cops Arrest Dozens for Trespassing at Citibank
- Posted on October 16, 2011 at 6:15am by
Scott Baker
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Plenty of left-leaning sites tried to portray the women wearing a suit in this video as a mere innocent who simply wanted to close her Citibank account.
The truth seems to be that a group of anti-bank protestors stormed the branch with plans to close their accounts en masse. And they had no inclination to leave the premises.
The action really kicks in at the 1:30 mark in the video as Suit Woman is taken into custody. Content warning: Nonsensical shrieking.
WNYW-TV:
More than 20 people were reportedly arrested in a fracas outside the LaGuardia Place Citibank, after upwards of 50 demonstrators entered the bank to close their accounts.
“They were locked inside. They’re now being placed under arrest. Two individuals who were inside closing their bank accounts and then came outside were approached by an undercover cop and against their will placed under arrest simply for attempting to close their Citibank accounts in an act of peaceful protest,” one woman told spectators.
A streaming video of the protest claimed 23 people were arrested in all.
The bank facilities were closed for the most part, keeping protesters outside for short rallies before they plodded onto other facilities on their way to Greenwich Village for a rally at Washington Square.
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Comments (70)
janmil200
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 4:29pmLet the tellers refuse service, then let things evolve from there. Pretty predictable.
Report Post »DV
Posted on October 17, 2011 at 3:10amThe bank saw them coming, and probably figured it out instantly. I mean, you got 25 freaky lookin punks in your lobby, and outside the freak show continues in the streets … you know you got trouble coming your way.
Report Post »theaveng
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 4:03pmI don‘t see how cops can arrest this Woman when she’s standing on a public street.
What would they charge her with? She’s not trespassing. She’s outside the building.
Report Post »DV
Posted on October 17, 2011 at 3:21amShe’s not on the public street. She’s standing at the big sheet windows. She‘s standing on the bank’s property, and she’s peering in the window at her compatriots. The bank also has the right to tell her not to block the entry of other customers to the bank. And she was clearly doing that. Thirdly, the officer had the right to ask her what she’s doing there. She doesnt hvae to answer, but when she came up with the bs story, she lied to him, the cop told her to move or be arrested, she didn’t, the cops arrested her. Period.
Report Post »theaveng
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 3:32pm>>>“we have the right to protest any place we want too”
Dear “mygunsweetness”: Enter my home and my gun will show how Wrong-headed you truly are. You don’t have a right to protest in private homes or businesses. Toss aside your gun and go read some Supreme Court cases. Educate yourself
Report Post »Xracula
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 3:01pmSo much of this video looks staged and it doesn’t really show enough. Has anyone validated that what we’re seeing here is real? Almost everyone has cameraphones now, why isn’t there more footage from different angles? Has anyone identified the people in this video and can verify they were actually arrested? I’m not saying this IS all fake, but something about it is very off…It would be brilliant propaganda if it were, certainly everyone I know is enraged about it. I would like to know more.
Report Post »LadyLibertea
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 2:38pmI saw a tiny blurb on the news early this morning that people with racks of dress suits for men and women came into the OWS crowd and starting handing out suits, hair dressers were coming in and cutting people’s hair, and makeup artists were in there doing women’s makeup in an effort to elevate the look of the crowd. Yeah…..that is SOO grass roots…LOL. Gimme a break. You can dress these losers up all you want but they’ll never change their stripes.
Report Post »SERUM
Posted on October 17, 2011 at 5:50pmYou can put a zombie in suit, but you can’t get the stink out of a zombie!
Report Post »jessieH
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 2:07pmWell, I guess she just wanted to withdraw her two cents worth.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 4:49pmJessieh….. I like it…lol
Report Post »Mountain Dew
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 2:05pm@MYGUNSWEETNESS There is an escalation of threats from all sides as of late. With a username like yours, you might want to watch the rhetoric a little. You’re entitiled to your opinion like anyone else, but please drop the tough guy talk. People are starting to get antsy and it won’t end well for anyone. History has proven that over and over. If it starts turnign to violence, it won’t be any different. So you have guns. So what. You’ll still woe the day if it comes to that and wish you could take it all back. Violence is something someone makes you choose, it‘s never soemthing you want or seek unless you’re sick and evil. Personally I’m no longer going to associate myself with that kind of thought no matter what side of the poitical spectrum it comes from. It’s a no win. Hey it‘s Sunday and I’m in a preaching frame of mind. That was my sermon for the day. I meant every word of it. Peace to everyone. :)
Report Post »shorthorn
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 12:08pmHey, they want to get arrested, so be it. They really do not seem to understand that their actions have consequences. You can shout, “This is wrong!” all you want, but at the end of the day you’re still responsible for your actions. Don’t want to be arrested? Do what the police tell you to do. If you think the police overstepped their bounds, get a lawyer and fight it out. What you don’t do is protest, do something illegal, get caught, and then whine about it.
Report Post »DV
Posted on October 17, 2011 at 3:17amExactly right. Look, to begin with, she‘s standing on the bank’s property. Most states have laws that say you must comply with a lawful order from a police officer. You don’t have to say anything. He can’t make you talk, but if he tells you to move along, you’d better get your butt down the yellow brick road, TinMan, or you’re going to jail. In fact, the officer would probably prefer that you don’t say anything, and just get moving along. The point is, these protesters think they have all these rights that they simply don’t have. The cop had every right to detain her, and tell her to move along. when she‘d didn’t, he arrested her for criminal trespass. He gave her a chance to comply, and she didn’t take it. The cops didn’t have to warn her either.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:00amHAHAHAHA Not TOO planned.. “IT’S HAPPENING?” hahaha They thought they were going to try and take over and OCCUPY the BANK??? They knew darn well they would be arrested for protesting INSIDE that building and the police were CORRECT to stop them before hundreds more stormed that bank! Good for them! These losers have MONEY in the bank and they are CUSTOMERS? I thought they HATED CAPITALISM? hahaha What a bunch of TOTAL MORONS… seriously. GO TO WORK and do something with your pathetic lives….
Report Post »tifosa
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:16amI agree that those who did not have accounts should have been removed from the property, arrested if they were disruptive. However, those who had accounts, that entered to close their accounts, should have been served by a teller or bank manager to work toward doing so. period.
Report Post »tifosa
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 10:56amthblaze readers applauding violation of her rights. Determined to be on the wrong side of EVERY issue?
Report Post »red_white_blue2
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 12:33pmThank God for one blogger with a brain. This woman should have never been assaulted by the police. In a incident like this, the police needed to determine true customers with authentic Citibank banking card, and or papers. Those people were more than within their rights to be in the bank and to conduct any banking business they so wished. The police need to think before they start stripping liberties because I guarantee you this, that woman will get a even desert attorney and have a hay-day with the NYPD. I hope she makes a bundle off their stupidity. Also, she was at the time on the street..so WTF are they supposedly arresting her for..for having been in the bank? She was holding bank papers, what idiot thinks she is a protester looking to shut down the branch while standing on the “outside”.
Report Post »rox
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 1:58pmI think if these people had accounts in the bank, they had a right to close their accounts…in an orderly fashion. The police could have emptied the bank and then let two or three people in at a time, with proof of an account.
Report Post »kindling
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 3:18pmThis is not grass roots, Citibank has known this was coming for months. I bank there and have talked to tellers about it because of the changes the banks have been making. And BTW, this woman may have done something that is not in this clip that we don’t know about. I say don’t jump to any conclusions.
Report Post »NightWriter
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 6:17pmDue to a difference of opinion on this exact video earlier. I re-ran it and reviewed. Please note:
In the beginning the narrator/videographer? states: “Twenty-five people are going into the bank to close their accounts.” Note: As she pans through the window someone begins to tap on the glass, behind him (her?) a large group of people (ALL BofA customers?) mill about (loiter) in the lobby. You see NONE of the usual banking activity.
More banging on the glass, combined with hand signals and then the narrator speaks of arrests… and starts asking for everyone’s name… at this point in the video NO ONE has left the bank lobby. The person inside the bank show her his/her? forearm on which something is written (I have to assume it’s the phone # for the OWS/SEIU Lawyer’s Guild.. because the narrator mumbles something to that effect).
When the crowd pours from the building, the police appear, grab the woman who then makes the same statement as the narrator at the beginning of the video… WORD FOR WORD.
I have no great love for the banks – and ya’ll can believe what you want…
I‘ve researched OWS since way before they started this ’occupation‘ along with the other ’movements’…
This was staged… If you check out their websites and emails, you‘ll notice they encourage and promote these ’incidents’ – it‘s all a part of their ’agenda.’
God Bless America.
Report Post »hwertz
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 2:25amTifosa I’m with you. If these people were taking up space to take up space, then they should have left and if they refused then fine, the police took them out. But if they are bank customers there to conduct business (close their accounts), then they were NOT disrupting the bank’s business, because the banks business was to close these peoples accounts. I’m amazed at the people here that think people should not be able to close their own bank account. I use a local bank — if 25 people showed up at MY local bank branch, they would give them coffee and cookies!
Report Post »redbone007
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 10:55amLet them closed their bank accounts. Now, they can get a Simmons’ high price debit card for all of their purchases and paying bills. Let Simmons takes all of their money with every purchase..
Report Post »tifosa
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:09amThe well-informed will use credit unions.
Report Post »hi
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:39amTifosa
Report Post »If they were well informed, they wouldn’t be protesting freedom.
GeeWhiz
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 10:44amNot a lawsuit if they can prove that she was a part of the group protesting INSIDE of a bank, which is private property, Maynard. Just becasue she walked outside, doesn‘t prove that she hadn’t already been INSIDE and a part of the disruption.
Just because you‘re a ’customer‘ doesn’t mean that you can do anything that you want inside of your bank. It just means that you can access your money. Thazzit. All laws and bank policies still apply, even if you‘re an idiot member of OWS which doesn’t give you carte blanche.
And one person or ten people yelling about her arrest, doesn’t change the outcome. Welcome to the real world.
Report Post »DasAmerican
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 10:01amSo….. if Alec Baldwin went down to support these dill holes prostesting “CitiBank”, they would probably love him being there and showing his support, since he is such a Lefty who has way too much money?
Although you have to remember….He’s played a pilot before! So he know how to earn those frequent flyer miles!
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 9:06amThese whiners announced their intentions to do this. It was publicized all over the interwebs.
Report Post »It is THEY who placed the police ON NOTICE of their intended actions.
Police are already dealing with MOBS.
They do not have the LUXURY of being gentle or slow and methodic. Those things may be possible in a one on one arrest. But, in the midst of a MOB? No. It must be done rapidly. The longer it takes, the more the mob whips itself into a frenzy.
The police acted switfly and justifiably.
Gender has NO place during an arrest. That would be sexist, too, wouldn’t it? lol
Police must seize control of the situation as swiftly as possible. ESPECIALLY when outnumbered.
To say otherwise is to side with the idiotic FLEAbaggers.
The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 9:42amUm…so what. There was no crime here other than loitering/trespassing…and since she was outside on the sidewalk, she was clearly not doing those.
She entered a bank which was open for business which she had an account with, conducted her business and left.
None of the rest matters one little bit. She could have planned it, advertised it and had a plane fly over head announcing her intentions…none if it was illegal.
As much as we disagree with these protests, their right to do so walks hand in hand with the very core beliefs we love about our country.
Inventing reasons to arrest people just because we don’t like their views or policies is more in line with Nazi Germany.
This whole thing may have been planned and annoying, but there was nothing illegal about it other than the possibility of trespassing/loitering…which she clearly was not apart of. You want to arrest her for “conspiracy to commit trespassing loitering” with claims she had organized others? Utterly laughable.
There is enough ACTUAL evil and crime in this country of ours without inventing it or pushing the envelope of laws to arrange arrests of people simply protesting in an annoying way.
Report Post »beekeeper
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 10:57amProtesting IN the bank may be illegal, and if she planned, announced, hired an airplane to announce her plan to protest then she‘ll have a hard time saying it wasn’t a protest.
I’m sure CitiBank will really miss her account – her’s and her 49 other protesters…
What did they think their ‘protest’ was going to do to CitiBank? I suspect the sum total of all their deposits was below the daily amount their ATMs spit out each day, and when they walked out into the mob with their (hopefully) thousands, what was the next step – go open an account at TD Bank?
Report Post »smokie
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:08amBeekeeper, that’s almost, what? $200.00. That is a vast sum of money for the bank to lose at once!
Report Post »KidCharlemagne
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 8:47am“And they had no inclination to leave the premises.”
===================================
How come they had to go outside then and arrest her on the street?
They simply dragged her back inside after she had already exited the bank!
Plus, if she’s really a customer and can prove it, then Citibank had better send someone to drop the charges on her immediately. Otherwise, I can certainly see a multitude of incantations about this incident appearing on YouTube later on down the line to impress upon people that Citibank will have you arrested if you attempt to close your account.
Report Post »carbonyes
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 9:36amAs TOMFERRARI stated, when order is trying to be established, doesn’t matter whether you are a customer or not, leave the area. Either come back on another day, or go to another branch outside the OWS zone of trouble. May be inconvenient, but it’s a simple solution, and you don’t become part of the problem.
It will get worse on Wall Street before it gets better.
Report Post »KidCharlemagne
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 10:24amcarbonyes
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 9:36am
As TOMFERRARI stated, when order is trying to be established, doesn’t matter whether you are a customer or not, leave the area.
======================
She DID leave the area though!…….don’t you understand that?
Report Post »PaBowHunter
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 8:36amThe woman outside was an organizer of the illegal trespassing of a private business. She was a conspirator therefore subject to arrest. The police simply did what they were supposed to do. She was just angry that she was caught. Good Job NYPD.
Report Post »selenesteets
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 8:04amThey were clearly provoking arrest, saying ‘it’s happening’ over and over again. The bank has the right to refuse service, in this case I would be sure the tellers would feel threatened. So if they asked them to leave and they didn’t, they were trespassing. The woman was there provoking arrest and she chickened out. Still, do I like how a bunch of male cops were handling a young woman? Absolutely not. I support the police, but I also support the idea of human decency coming before ‘the job’. This whole interaction is just plain stupid and embarrassing for everyone involved.
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 8:02am“… as [Suit Woman] is taken into custody.”
As opposed to Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, Dress Woman?
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 8:00amDon’t know what these people did to get arrestred but sure sounds like the PD might have over reacted. Thats what the demonstrators want. They will provoke, call names, spit on officers, anything to get arrested. Then they will resist and holler “Police Brutality”.
Don’t give them what they want.
OMG – Psalm 109:8
Report Post »2012spartan
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 7:40amWow — I don‘t know what’s going on here but I’ll tell you this…if that was someone I knew those police officers would be hurting today. No one, police or not, better ever do that to someone I know. That woman did nothing illegal or aggressive.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 7:53amYeah, let’s see…25 people or so…who should us 10 beefy cops grab and arrest…oh, I know…the scrawny gal in a business suit with papers in hand showing she is a citi-bank customer and had a right to be there.
These OWS people are idiots…but this was just stupid police work. A waste of their time and had no effect. When you can’t take them all down in a planned arrest, you take the most disruptive/obvious problem person down to make a point to the others. This was just stupid. I hope she sues for false arrest, unlawful imprisonment, injuries and so on.
I love the poice, but when they are stupid and wrong…they need to pay.
Report Post »Roadrun63
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 9:05amCorrection…the protesters were attempting to open and close accounts over and over
Report Post »Also it sounds like you threatened police officers….I’m SURE I must be mistaken….
tifosa
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:27amWhere is one shred of evidence that there was anyone wanting to open an account?
Report Post »village idiot
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 7:05amShe needs a shot of pepper spray. The dress does not make her a lady does it? Yet another tool of the left wing.
Report Post »drago
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 7:02amCan we not declare open season on these useless idiots, with no bag limit?
Report Post »NativePatriot2001
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 6:43amThat woman outside didn’t act innocent, she was in communication with those inside and was calling the NPO?? or something like that for those inside. She was screaming because she got caught and nothing more.
Report Post »neckcarjim
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 6:42amSure would be nice if these kids would put this much effort into getting a job?
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 9:14amOr CREATING ONE FOR THEMSELVES!
Who said you have to be an EMPLOYEE?
You can start your own business.
Who hired the pilgrims when they arrived?
Who hired the pioneers who came out west?
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN LIFE !
Report Post »(The irresponsible take from others’ own lives.)
tifosa
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:03amShe has a bank account in Citigroup, you have evidence that she doesn’t have a job?
Report Post »coindexter
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:57amyou have evidence that she wasn’t in collusion? were you there watching, are you aware of the entire situation? the undercovers outside knew exactly what was going on. the protesters think they are slick and above the law. don’t play games with financial institutions is the lesson to be learned here. i don’t like seeing a woman being manhandled…it can seem shocking. but, unless you know all of the details, shhhhh. the police know the world is watching…they are not making mistakes.
Report Post »KidCharlemagne
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 4:33pmcoindexter
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 11:57am
the police know the world is watching…they are not making mistakes.
========================================
Well……not always:
“We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies
BY John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, October 13th 2011, 4:00 AM
A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.”
Report Post »http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/10/13/2011-10-13_excop_we_fabricated_drug_raps_for_quotas.html
The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on October 16, 2011 at 6:36amMajor lawsuit coming.
Report Post »