What went wrong with the Citiback arrests (my perspective). [View All]

[garybeck]

When I heard that a bunch of people were arrested for closing their accounts at Citibank this weekend, I thought, OMG, WTF is going on in this country??? I searched the internets and for 2 days all I could find is a short video showing some people getting arrested but no real explanation.

Today I read this article by one of the protesters:

http://gawker.com/5850398/a-protesters-account-of-this-weekends-citibank-arrests

Now I get it.

Folks, this is not how to do it. These people were asking to be arrested. If they want to make a big show and tell their story, do it OUTSIDE the building, on the public sidewalk, NOT INSIDE the place of business.

If they want to make a big statement by doing this together all at the same time, just walk in as a group, get in line, walk up to the teller, and cancel your account. Or withdraw 99% of your savings.

DON'T walk into a place of business and stage a "Teach in" as the article describes. And if they ask you to stop and you don't, what do you expect? This is their place of business. If you walk in there and do anything other than conduct business with them, you're disrupting their operations, and you're just asking to be arrested.

It doesn't matter if you're walking into Starbuck's and pontificating about the price of tea in China, or holding a teach-in at Citibank. In either case you're going to get arrested if you don't stop when they ask you to.

If they were planning or hoping to get arrested from the beginning, then they did a great job. But i'm not sure it really was a great idea. If they were surprised that they were arrested and thought the bank was going to let them conduct a "teach-in" in their lobby, I think they have a screw loose somewhere.

Just my opinion, I guess.