Occupy Oakland Makes $20K Deposit At Wells Fargo Less Than a Week After Protesters Smashed Windows At Same Bank…
Assploding hypocrisy at its finest.
(SF Examiner) — Last week, one or more Occupy Oakland protesters smashed the windows of a Wells Fargo branch.
This week, the group’s general assembly agreed — in a near-unanimous vote Monday — to temporarily place $20,000 of the group’s money in an account at the country’s fourth-largest bank holding company, Wells Fargo Bank.
Whether the decision was an abandonment of the movement’s opposition to big banks or an ominous affirmation of the hold that big banks have on Americans, Twitter was ablaze with outrage last night, as news spread about the 162-8 vote, from which 16 people abstained.
“I am so disgusted right now. the hypocrisy of it all is just amazing,” wrote @GiveMeThatJuice.
“ARE YOU F—— SERIOUS?!,” wrote @graceface.
“I can see the ad now: ‘People’s money is so safe here at Wells Fargo, even our sworn enemies use us for their banking needs!’” wrote @davidcolburn.
And indeed, Wells Fargo spokesman Ruben Pulido went out of his way on Monday to notify reporters about this development via email. “If this report is true,” he wrote, “it demonstrates that even Occupy Oakland understands — firsthand — the value and service that Wells Fargo provides its customers. Wells Fargo welcomes the 100 percent of Americans to allow us to help them meet their financial needs.”
Posted by ZIP on Wednesday, November 9, 2011, at 9:04 am | 
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Were farts counted as votes…………or could you only do twinkles………
tax the $20K.
Now with those $’s go and spend it on mending all the items, beginning with that sign, that has been damaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is absolutelyfreakingcrazy!
Wells Fargo should charge the cost of the replacing the windows against this account…hopefully it would overdraft the account and the OWS folks would be on the hook for even more!!
Who exactly has access to that account? There are apparently elites amongst the elites that are protesting. Too much hypocrisy to stomach.
They have a 186 member “General Assembly”? In what bizzarro universe are these assholes living in?
Where is the IRS? What kind of “group” are they?
Have they filed papers as a 527 Corporation or as a PAC?
Is having an “Overthrow the Government” PAC legal?
Ultimately, the real assholes here are the Bank.
They should confiscate enough for the damages and then tell them to eat shit.
Guess hiding the cash in coffee cans in the freezer was not an option? Or under the mattress? Oh, wait….
Good for Wells-Fargo. Now get a lien on the funds necessary to fix the smashed windows….and take it.
VOTE – 2012
Was this account started as a Personal Account? If so, it had to be put under one or more names, WITH a SS#. Ever try to open a bank account without one? WHO is the account’s name under?
If it was started as a business account, you need to file the appropriate ownership and Federal Tax Number paperwork.
Ever try to start a Commercial account? Not without the proper papers.
We’re not being told the whole story.
Check out the grinning lawn jockey…heh heh
I hadn’t realized Wells Fargo was one of the “bad guys.”
Were they too lazy to find a credit union?
I just don’t get it.
@ Mickey Shea – That is Al Sharptons love child.
Is that…is that…is that Aunt Jemima standing beside that sign?
Oh wait, Aunt Jemima has a job.
Confiscate it to pay for the windows.
Have a nice day.
Hilarious!
Do these idiots even realize how ridiculous they are?
I just want to know who was dumb enough to give these idiots $20K. That should buy a butt-load of Che Guevara rolling papers.
It shows that banks are NOT what this is really about and never were.
@Mickey Shea
Looks more like the spawn of satan to me
Stupid vandals the bank should deduct 75% of their savings to pay for their acts and the penalize them another 25% as well
Rufus says:
They have a 186 member “General Assembly”? In what bizzarro universe are these assholes living in?
The Politboro?
To make any comparisons with the Tea Party makes my blood boil. How come we hear of Tea Parties going to all the trouble of gaining permits, etc for the places of meeting. Furthermore, paying those bills promptly and keeping the place clean?
Then these schmucks get the pardon’s on the whole wagon of things?
Our country real is a has been. Division is growing as big as the Grand Canyon.
Good. I hope all you morons start slashing each others throats.
The real idiots here are the folks who glorify this as some sort of ‘people’s movement’ or grassroots organization. This was a call to arms to anyone with a vague grievance against ‘the system’ or ‘the man’ or fill in the blank. And all those disenchanted, aimless people joined the throng of unionists, socialists, anarchists or whatever.
So, blame the glorifiers…you know who they are, for the violence, crime, and continued stupidity.
Oh back off bitter-clingers, it’s my campaign contribution…
OsamaHusseinIslamObama 2012′ (WTF)
(the terrorist-Uighur-ACORN-media choice)
-It’s never too early to campaign-
Bank needs to charge them ‘handling fees’ that cover the cost of the damage.
Cannot wait til the General Assembly sets up the guillotine and commences lopping off each others noggin.
The politburo members are setting up their limo fund.
An Open Letter to Occupy Oakland
November 10, 2011
There has been a lot of discussion about the deposit of funds into my Wells Fargo client trust account. In the interests of transparency, I submit this open letter.
When I volunteered the use of the account I was balancing the possibility of bad PR, with the possibility of forestalling serious physical harm to people in the jail. It was possible that there would have been mass arrests on the day of the general strike.
If I have to choose between bad PR and human lives, then I will choose bad PR every time. I was informed that people had already faced seriously dangerous conditions in the jail. The night before the general strike I had no way to know that the day would not end in mass arrests at the port, or a hail of rubber bullets and wooden dowels like the anti-war port protest in 2003.
A few points of clarification:
1. Why did Occupy Oakland open an account at Wells Fargo?
We didn’t. My client trust account existed previously– I did not open it recently. I was in process of moving all my accounts for 5 November when I got sick.
2. So you control the money?
No. The money is technically still the property of Occupy Oakland, that’s why it’s called a trust account. Occupy Oakland has ownership of the money, and dictates how it is spent. That is why the solidarity committee brought a proposal to the GA the other night– to get approval for the money to go into the client-trust account. Had the GA rejected the proposal that would have been 100% fine with me, which is what I said at the GA. Had someone else stepped up that night, that would have been 100% fine with me as well. But no one did.
3. Why didn’t Occupy Oakland just open an account in its own name?
We were in the process of doing that. However, we had to file paperwork with the state of California. I, personally drove to Sacramento to file it and get it done in an expedited way. Nonetheless, we still had not received the paperwork back, and are still waiting for it. We are still in process of setting up an independent Occupy Oakland financial account.
Neither a bank nor a credit union will open a bank account for an organization without showing the relevant state paperwork.
4. Well what about Long Haul? Aren’t they handling some donations on our behalf?
Long Haul could not accept the money from OWS. The terms of the agreement with Long Haul forbid Occupy Oakland to use any of the deposited money for bail. Period.
5. Why didn’t you just send someone down to a credit union to open an account?
Because if we sent some random person down to a CU or any institution, and they opened an account, they would take legal possession of the money. If that person had wanted to run off to Tahiti with the money, they would have been well within their legal rights to do so.
6. Why didn’t you personally just open a trust account at a credit union, it’s so simple?
Actually it’s not simple. First, there was nothing I could do the night before the general strike. Second, adding steps to a process always adds uncertainty and more variables increases delay. Last week, we knew that at least one person had languished for almost 24 hours without medical care, despite a ruptured spleen. Those are not, by any stretch of the imagination, good conditions.
7. Where the hell is the money now?
The money reached the client trust account today, November 9th, around noon. I have been told that another attorney has stepped forward who has a client trust account with a non-major financial institution. If this is the case and Occupy Oakland authorizes it, I will happily transfer the money to him.
8. Well fine, but you didn’t receive the money until November 9th, why not open a new account before then?
I had passed the client trust account information to OWS (via people inside Occupy Oakland) on the afternoon of 3 November. I was advised that the transfer would take place immediately, so made no preparations for another account.
Over the next week, I heard a variety of things from “the money is being transferred today” to “NPR has reported that the money was transferred over the weekend.” I can understand that OWS was concerned who I was, and so I offered my bar (law license) number as well as volunteering to give personal references in the Bay Area progressive community.
Commentary:
Had I known it would take a week, I would have simply put the word out for another attorney with a trust account in a community bank or other institution. But there was no way to know that going in.
I understand that this entire event has been bad PR for Occupy Oakland and the Occupy movement generally. What I also know is that I will always choose to risk bad PR over risking people’s lives and personal safety.
The mentality that Occupy is protesting is a mentality that applauds the opposite. It applauds good PR over risking people’s lives. That is the mentality of people who stand aside for corporate misbehavior, even when it costs lives. It is exactly the mentality of politicians who choose to go to bat for oligarchs and try to cut food stamp programs, rather than risk being called a socialist. It is exactly the mentality of judges who allow foreclosures even when the bank foreclosing has no case.
People like that don’t want the bad PR, and they’re willing to risk other people’s lives to avoid bad PR.
And that is exactly what we are fighting against. Isn’t it?