Joined by Julia’s thump thump beat across the street, shattered safety glass quietly crackled as it settled in the window frames of Capitol Hill’s Chase bank at Broadway and Thomas late Thursday night. Windows on three of the bank’s sides were shattered and the front door was fully destroyed as Chase was apparently targeted by vandals again in the most damaging attack yet on the building. UPDATE: SPD says vandals were clad in black and in a “coordinated” attack — see full update below.
Seattle Police were at the scene but we have not yet confirmed the details of the damage that occurred around 9 PM Thursday. The damage to the front of the bank and the large windows on the southern and western sides of the building was significant and the front door was completely busted out.
This would be the third significant act of vandalism against the Chase outlet that CHS is aware of since a late February incident during anti-police rioting that also left broken glass at the bank. Broadway has been a busy place for sometimes damaging protest in recent months. In March, a group littered the street with leaflets, unfurled a large banner and set off smoke bombs and flares in a show of solidarity with an anarchist facing trial in Greece.
JPMorgan Chase has been a frequent target for protests across the country as it and other large financial institutions suffer a backlash following Wall Street bailouts and increased scrutiny of predatory lending practices.
We will will update this post as we learn more about the circumstances surrounding Thursday’s incident.
…cuz smashing windows and setting off smoke bombs is really an effective way to get what you want. Fucking entitled Eastside middle-class hoodlums who feel guilty for being raised in comfortable homes and are looking to make political statements about how damn progressive they are by trying to “start revolutions” by vandalizing Broadway. Nevermind that the rest of us have to clean up after them, I’m sure the Chase employees that have to deal with that mess will think twice about, y’know, crashing the economy and letting their CEO collect massive bonuses paid for by tax dollars ever again. o.O
Chase are cunts. They deserve what they get.
Child.
…however JPMorgan Chase is a dirty company, rotten to the core. I have no sympathy for them.
Reminds me of WTO. Come on up Oregon break our windows. It really matters when you shake your tiny fists of rage.
Big incovenience for employees and small inconvenience for the customers. Is it going to change the bank practice? No.
The company replacing the windows thanks you though.
Dear “anarchists”: Please, please, pllllleeeaasssse go away. You are c*~ts. And ignorant. And selfish. …And c~^ts. Besides, you might be happier someplace like Somalia. I think that’s really up your alley.
Peace (not that you have that in your vocabulary).
It IS a big inconvenience to the customers because they/we are the ones who end up footing the bill for these pointless acts via fees and penalties.
Trashing shit is the kind of thing that makes sense to 11 year olds. Adults should be able to come up with more creative ways to get their point across.
It’s not a big inconvience for me cuz I don’t bank with Chase cuz the suck balls. Besides they have insurance so the cost really isn’t going to trickle down very much if at all. Chase has plenty of other ways to screw you out of money.
These miserable, self-righteous vandals need to be stopped.
I wish the SPD could respond fast enough to arrest at least some of them, but probably the reality is that these jerks disappear within a minute or two of the 911 calls. So, why doesn’t the bank hire some under-cover security to monitor the location during off-hours? I realize that this would be expensive, but probably no more so than constantly replacing the windows. And, such security could be done for awhile, then stopped without letting anyone know, so the anarchists would not be able to tell if this measure was currently in place, or not.
And I doubt Chase is any worse than any other large bank….even if they are, breaking windows will have no effect on them.
There are many ways I could describe your attitude, but I’ll be polite about it: “Jerk-with-too-much-time-on-your-hands.”
I would not shed a tear if the police were to catch these childish, pathetic douchebag “anarachists” in the act and kick the shit out of them. So very childish. And I will add cowardly to that as well – donning their black masks and skulking around the neighborhood like menacing little children. So very, very weak!!!
“Besides they have insurance so the cost really isn’t going to trickle down very much if at all “
Wow, you’re a real economics mastermind, aren’t you?
I’ll make it short; Anarchists are cowards, hypocrites, and domestic terrorists. They suck on the teat of our culture then hide their faces in fear as they mindlessly cause ruin. Pathetic.
Hey, big men, if you really want to show solidarity with the jailed Chilean anarchists, I’m sure it could be arranged for you to join them in jail in Chile. We’ll take up a collection. Hell, Chase will probably even pay your way. How does that sound? We’ll see how big you talk after a couple of weeks in a Chilean jail.
typical seattle passive-aggressive responses: a bunch of smug internet champions.
like unfocused rage and tired old slogans actually change anything. whatever
thank you for noticing. YES! I am a friggin’ genius!
[Justin: I don’t know if this is being held for moderation because of the profanity or because I used a valid but nonexistent e-mail address, but I hope you’ll allow it, even if it requires a bit of censoring. Betcha I’m not alone in my feelings on this matter.]
Contrary to my policy of signing my name to my comments, I’m posting this anonymously, because I’m not comfortable claiming this sentiment, but:
FUCK YOU Chase! Fuck you and other mega-banks’ raping of this nation. I won’t do it, and I won’t publicly support it, but I hope these people keep punching you in the mouth until you can no longer do business here.
Our elected representatives and our regulators have failed us, standing by idly while you cheated, then they forcing us to bail you out. They’ve failed us, so we’ll resort to vigilantism.
We’ll stick with our credit unions. Get your “too big to fail” ass of our town.
I’m in support of this targeted action.
Next, they should pull that hideous chase sign down.
Yeah, what a horrible inconvenience for the customers. Boo fucking hoo. What will you do without your precious convenience? Grow some balls and quit crying over a bank. They don’t care about you. Whining little slaves, kissing the ass of your corporate masters, even on the anonymous Internet. You’re pathetic. They can’t see you here – they don’t care when you pretend to love them. They’re not going to give you anything. But you’re so afraid they’ll take away some of your precious “convenience” that you’ll do anything to suck up to them.
I mean they are really persistent and articulate. I can see where they are coming from.
the only thing tired and old is you!
You’re right. We’d better not upset our corporate masters or they’ll crash the economy and then what will we do? Better to just sit at home and kiss their asses on the Interwebs. Maybe then they’ll love us.
I agree however i think it’s the financial institutions at large and the concept of money as god. Fuck the commodification of life.
As a long time resident of Capitol Hill, I believe it’s up to the residents of Capitol Hill to assist the police in preventing this type of vandalism. There should be more community activism to prevent this disruption of order. We should have more citizenry involved in getting others to adhere to the law and keep the order.
Anarchists hide behind their masks and do this when the bank isn’t open. If you want to make a statement do this in the light of day and show your face to the employees and the customers.
Oh like defending capitalism is really noble. You are either a cop or a fool!
Im just confused how at 9PM at an area with so many people walking around and also standing at the small vivace location that it took this long for police response. REALLY?!? The question we need to be asking is “what took so long?” A person with a Sledge hammer could have decided to take his anarchists actions out on a pedestrian crossing the street or an inocent person who happen to be there I just am curious with all this talk lately of extra patrol where the hell were they? Also to all of the people on here talking about how Chase deserves this because they are a lousy bank get off your high horse and choose to bank somewhere else but don’t be supportive of this destructive behavior. Next time it may not be the bank it could be anywhere these people have no morals clearly and will go for anything they can. They also went for Julia’s why aren’t you cheering that action oh wait…Because you probably like them. GET OVER YOURSELVES AND GET OFF OUR HILL!!!!
You are being really condescending.
While I don’t completely agree with their tactics it makes sense that they are attacking banks. I mean why do banks get to take houses from people and throw them out into the streets and leave them unoccupied for months. If you think that banks are in the right I feel nothing but pity and disgust for you. Go on protecting the state.
This is why Cap Hill fucking sucks now: when did vandalizing businesses and causing damage become acceptable?
“It’s like the soulless corporations are, like, leading the commodiziation of life, forcing us to be peons of the dollar. And stuff.”
Get a clue dipshits. If you don’t like Chase – don’t fucking bank there.
Preach it.
I would say that more police would be a bad thing. Police don’t represent or protect the people. They defend banks, big business, landlords, and bosses.
You condone police brutality, and yet you call other people cowards? You don’t really understand the concept of hypocrisy, do you?
Oh, what a beautiful example of cowardice you are! Threatening people with the anonymous violence of a disinterested third party. “Hey, person I disagree with, I hope somebody who isn’t me does something bad to you!” Typical passive-aggressive whining pink-boy. Come back when you grow some balls.
I don’t bank there, Poseur. What the hell would make you think I do?
We all need to be preaching it!!!
If Washington Mutual was WaMu, shouldn’t Morgan Chase be MoCha?
Let’s be kind to MoCha, people. Where else am I gonna earn a whopping .02% interest on my savings deposits??
But I support the vandals, not the police. What sort of community activism can I take to prevent Chase and its cronies from establishing a foothold in my neighborhood?
I agree that a statement would best be made in the light of day, in full view of the customers – the vandalism hasn’t had much of an effect. Do you have any good ideas that won’t get me arrested?
I couldn’t agree more. If they are so PROUD of there actions why are they waiting until after dark. Also one thing I think should be pointed out is they said in there statement that they made: One group of onlookers was heard saying “It’s not a big deal, they’re not hurting anyone” as people stood by watching, no one was seen calling the police and no one was chased. YEA RIGHT!!!! Total and complete garbage. Im sure people also threw money and appluaded.
There was no attack on Julia’s. The author of the CHS was trying to be poetic about the music playing across the street and just succeeded in making the opening sentence confusing.
@ Ella, yeah, why should we believe the account of the only people who were actually there? If I had been there I would have said the same thing. I even might have cheered. Fuck the banks.
I wouldn’t have thrown money, though.
You sure know a lot about these vandals. You claim to know where they’re from, what social class they are, and some intimate details of how they feel and why.
Are you one of them, or do you just do a lot of stereotyping?
@poseuer:
Capitol Hill sucks now because left and right developers are tearing everything down to build these disgusting condos with their corporate box shop yuppy feeding stations built in the bottom. But mostly because of the kind of douchebags who would actually live in one those. To borrow a line from some graffiti that recently went up on Broadway: LEAVE BROADWAY. DIE SLOW, YUPPY SCUM.
I hope the anarchists keep making your type hella uncomfortable.
It is sad that you think a savings account is a good way to invest money.
Leavebroadway,
Broadway and Capitol Hill have already passed you by. Have fun in your trailer park in Renton.
@leavebroadway
It’s happening everywhere asshole. And you think this is a yuppie problem? And the appropriate response to that to be vandalism and ignorant stereotyping?
I agree with your namesake: if you want dirty and trashy, move to Skyway/Tukwila/International Blvd. Perhaps that will be “gritty” enough for you.
The city holds SEVERAL public meetings and forums for development and construction in the neighborhood, but I’ve noticed it’s always the SAME few community members that appear. In many cases, it’s Urban Planning Students, and not many people who actually have to live here.
In the case of this branch, WaMu had been in that location for 20+ years and I’m not sure you could’ve done much to prevent the purchase of WaMu by Chase and it’s conversion.
More than 50% of this branch’s staff lived Capitol Hill,prior to Morgan Chase coming into WaMu. What do we say to those employees when we say, “we want your business out of our neighborhood!”
The reality is, Capitol Hill is becoming more gentrified – thanks to the light rail, thanks to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google employees making $70,000+ to start and wanting to live in the city and not Bellevue or Redmond.
I’d love to claim Capitol Hill as my “urban oasis” – and we can protest, and petition to limit all the proposed development, but what right do we have to tell “yuppies” not to live here? Why is our claim to this neighborhood any more valid?
I condone a good, sound beating to anyone who deserves it and cowardly, destructive anarchists are certainly deserving. Just get the hell out of our neighborhood and crawl back into your dank, little holes. Pretentious garbage. One day when you grown up you will realize how silly and ineffective your tactics are.
Good point.
I think I’ll invest in the plate glass replacement industry instead.
(so keep up the good work, anarchists!)
Under Washington law, a private person can conduct a citizen’s arrest for a misdemeanor if the misdemeanor: (1) was committed in the citizen’s presence and (2) constituted a breach of the peace.
The public should organize groups such as a citizens watch, and get educated about what we can do.
If we don’t want these kinds of disruptions and behavior it’s incumbent upon us to help maintain order. Unfortunately the police have been put in the position of having the kid-gloves on.
OK, so I get the message — corporate masters, fight The Man, down with capitalism, etc. That’s fine. So here’s my challenge to you: just go ahead and DO what you claim to believe.
Don’t like capitalism? Well that computer you’re tappity-typing on was designed and built by people who got paid. All that cool eye makeup and those edgy patches for your backpack that you bought at Hot Topic — again, produced under capitalism. The water that you drink and those lights that come on when you flip the switch — all courtesy of our evil overlords. Even your “anarchy” flag — did you harvest the threads and sew that fabric together??? Cmon.
If you TRULY believed in anarchism, you would abandon society and go live in the jungle/woods, grow your own food, make your own clothes, and not give two sh$ts about what everyone else was up to.
Instead, here you are making some very thin, hypocritical “statement” that you clearly haven’t analyzed past the surface.
Under the Internet Tough Guy Ordinance, you are either going to 1) continue to grandstand from the safety of the internet or 2) find off you bit off more than you can chew.
I live in Capitol Hill and while I’m not sure that one night of vandalism means anything, I have no sympathy for the banks and admiration for people who fight them rather than just sitting around complaining.
@yeahright:
I think there are enough people on the side of lawfulness and orderly conduct who want to organize against this type of vandalism and behavior.
For those of us who want to see change and be taken seriously, we need to find ways to curb this type of radical action. This isn’t protest that’s intelligent – this is just destruction of property.
How cute. I see you have the typical 12 year-old’s understanding of anarchism. Turn off your television and open a book one day, and you might broaden your worldview.
Seriously, if you think capitalism is nothing more than people getting made to make computers, and anarchy is simply the chaotic destruction of everything, maybe you should quietly bow out of this discussion before you make yourself look even more stupid.
Hey anarchists, I know it’s fun to break stuff and you’ve convinced yourselves that you’re better than everyone else and the rules don’t apply to you and that feels good, but how about you take a good long look at yourself in the mirror and think about what you want your legacy to be. You think using intimidation and propaganda to promote your myopic point of view doesn’t make you every bit as evil as a corrupt government official or a bank board member pushing predatory lending policies? Fear of the police or losing your home or accidentally getting maimed by some random asshole wearing a bandana over his face is a much bigger problem than greed in this country. Right now, you’re part of the problem.
If you can talk just one small business into banking with a credit union, you do more damage to Chase than you will with any amount of vandalism. How about we pick two branches and you break windows of one while I stand in front of the other and hand out BECU brochures and we’ll see which branch shuts down first?
Wow. I didn’t think I’d find myself siding with the anarchists in this one, but when people like tco advocate “kicking the shit out of” people it’s easier for me to take the unconventional viewpoint. The anarchists have broken some windows and left some flyers laying around. They’re not hurting anybody, just making trouble for what they see as an intruder.
My grandfather died to keep this country from becoming a fascist police state. So when vile little turds like tco talk about how much they want to see the police use violence in retaliation for some damaged property (when we already have laws in place to punish vandals fairly), I feel physically ill. There’s a special place in Hell for people like you, tco. Right next to the Nazis and the child molesters.
They’re almost as bad as the bankers.
Jebus Christ! The world is really just black and white to the bunch of you douche-canoes, isn’t it? All of you should get a fucking life. Log off your Apple Mac Books and go outside for some sun.
Loosers.
What’s a looser?
La Dee Da
Breaking the windows of your home does hurt you.
Shoplifting does hurt anyone except for higher prices
People who do this or people who condone this are the intruders in this community.
Marxist dogma is so boring and inaccurate.
Who are you going to call when your home is burglarized or when you are mugged/assaulted on a public street? Will the police then respond by saying “sorry, can’t help, we’re busy protecting the banks, landlords, etc”.
I am entirely certain that Chase officials will not read your rant, and equally certain that they are on Broadway to stay. Breaking windows will not change this, but it will turn even more law-abiding people against your way of “protest.”
@anne. wow. where’d you learn that? fourth grade?
I’ve been persuaded. Where do we meet up? I off to Value Village to pick up my black hoody and jeans right now. Keep up the struggle, brethren!
seriously lol @ “the windows of your home.” You aren’t even paying attention, are you?
Attack the payday loan usurers first, if you’re going to do this. They have a more direct and tangible effect on the underclass.
But, of course, that requires forethought.
“How cute. I see you have the typical 12 year-old’s understanding of anarchism. Turn off your television and open a book one day, and you might broaden your worldview.”
While that’s true, I wish these “anarchists” opened a few books themselves.
“You sure know a lot about these vandals. You claim to know where they’re from, what social class they are, and some intimate details of how they feel and why.
Are you one of them, or do you just do a lot of stereotyping? “
You seem to think the captains of industry give a shit about a broken window. They’ll just overcharge more consumers to pay for it, big fucking deal. Breaking things feels good, you’re not doing it to be honorable, you’re not doing it to affect the “system”.
“I agree however i think it’s the financial institutions at large and the concept of money as god. Fuck the commodification of life. “
Sure, but these actions have essentially nothing to do with consumerism.
These kids breaking things near my home were probably not all born yet.
I don’t care much for Chase, they’re criminals. Becoming a criminal to combat criminals makes no sense though.
How about next time I see a corporation I don’t like, I come over and break your car windows, or set fire to your house. Would that prove how angry and morally enraged I was? The dumb anarchist logic is pretty much the same. Stand back while we avenge, or get caught in the crossfire. Meanwhile you make my neighborhood unsafe. Chase needs to be brought to justice, but ramping up the local violence is sure not the right way to do it.
“if you are angy – DO SOMETHING
typical seattle passive-aggressive responses: a bunch of smug internet champions.”
Are you suggesting people who don’t think this is doing anything, beat up some kids in black hoodies?
OrderOutofChaos asked, “What do we say to those employees when we say, `We want your business out of our neighborhood!’?
We say, “Remember when you found out that your employer and its peers are treated like they’re above the law? Remember when you learned that the entire nation is being forced to pay for your employer’s bad bets? Remember when you wondered if your neighbors knew what a horrible business you worked for, and you considered leaving to go be part of a community bank or credit union instead? We do, and you should.”
Breaking windows and complaining on CHS are unlikely to have any effect on this situation. Convincing our neighbors to move their money elsewhere might. Wouldn’t it be nice if people around here felt like they should apologize for continuing to do business with Chase, Bank of America, and the like, whenever they asked friends to stop at one of those bank’s branches or pulled out one of their charge cards to pay for dinner?
If these “anarchists” understood anything about economics, they would realize that vandalism does little to nothing to affect Chase. The money to repair the windows is a drop in the financial bucket. Annoying? Yes.
Those these sorts of acts of violence do wonders for discrediting people who find peaceful ways to try to undermine capitalism, or anyone who opposes capitalism’s oppressive processes by giving anti-capitalists a reputation for being amoral, impulsive adolescents with little capacity for discernment or respect for their fellow people.
I would prefer you go away and leave my neighborhood alone. Chase may be immoral, but becoming immoral to say someone else is wrong does not exactly give you a moral high ground.
what?
if my home is broken into, i’m assaulted on the street or am worried that i’m being followed or something, i call my friends. the police won’t do shit, and more than once i’ve been sexually harassed BY COPS who were uniformed and on duty.
“I hope the anarchists keep making your type hella uncomfortable.”
Oh give me a goddamned break, you hoodie-types weren’t here before the place got gentrified. You’re about as counterculture as the yuppies, I don’t see how you’re doing any more good for the world.
I sure as anything don’t see how attacking a corporate chain-bank would do anything to keep the yups from moving in, or keep the real-estate speculators from investing in high-priced and dense condos, or improve the position of Seattle’s poor. Sure, maybe if you were pelting the Federal Reserve with tomatoes, or pie-ing Chase execs, or doing something fairly constructive, like working with food not bombs, maybe we’d be more impressed.
Instead, this is just annoying because of how incredibly ineffective it is. It’s like signing an internet petition.
Ineffectual anarchist trying to “stick it to the man” and having no effect on the corporate overmind versus vaguely psychotic conservative armchair warrior, who will win the biggest worthless asshole award?
“You sure know a lot about these vandals. You claim to know where they’re from, what social class they are, and some intimate details of how they feel and why.
Are you one of them, or do you just do a lot of stereotyping?”
Eh, I know enough to feel comfortable in assuming that they come from a place of privilege (considering how little effort they’ve put into figuring who to target with their “revolution”) but yet, they seem poorly educated if they feel that this is somehow feeding anything but their insecure, attention-starved egos. Seriously, do y’all have nothing else going on in your lives but sponging off parents, selling pathetic etsy crafts spraying your ugly dumpy “shitbarf” graffiti and smashing “symbols of capitalism”? You guys are the Segway of revolution, do something that has an actual effect or stop pretending that you have any desire to “help”.
And by going with credit unions you’re already 100x more effective than this dumb act.
I despise JP Morgan Chase too, but I’m not going to bust windows like a puling miscreant. Like others have suggested, I moved my accounts to a credit union. Furthermore, I learned that JP Morgan Chase has a huge short position in silver, so I started buying silver last year. That’s been good for me as an inflation hedge, plus I enjoy tiny daydreams of JP Morgan crashing when it can’t cover its short position on account of angry and disaffected Main Streeters buying however ounces of silver strike their fancies.
Even an anarchist should be able to cough up $50 for a silver coin: it just means going without coffee for a month…
“Wouldn’t it be nice if people around here felt like they should apologize for continuing to do business with Chase, Bank of America, and the like, whenever they asked friends to stop at one of those bank’s branches or pulled out one of their charge cards to pay for dinner?”
How am I supposed to put that on an edgy pamphlet with drawings of “shitbarf”?
OK, say you are brutally assaulted on a street…Will your “friends” come immediately, chase down the perp, arrest him/her, take him to jail, refer to a prosecutor, testify in court, etc etc?
These are things that the police do many times every day. They’re not perfect, but I for one am sure glad they’re available.
You seem to have an inordinate animosity towards those who are critical to a civilized society.
“It’s not a big inconvience for me cuz I don’t bank with Chase cuz the suck balls. Besides they have insurance so the cost really isn’t going to trickle down very much if at all. Chase has plenty of other ways to screw you out of money.”
He’s calling you a moron because if they’re fully insured, this does nothing to change the system and the way they operate, aside from getting better surveillance cameras.
“The world is really just black and white to the bunch of you douche-canoes, isn’t it?”
I don’t know, is it, douchecanoe? The anarchists haven’t put forth a single grey thought, idea, or action here. There are millions of sympathetic people in the US who hate the financials and the system, and yet you still can’t offer us anything of substance. I don’t want yuppies in my neighborhood, and I don’t want idiot manchildren smashing the fucking place up either. How bad do you have to be for people to actually prefer the police protection?
Fuck, maybe you guys are financed by the police, to strengthen the police state. Sure seems to happen to delegitimize the opposition all the fucking time.
Complaints about people wearing masks for actions such as these and attacking at night are facile. Even from my outside perspective some of the possible reasons seem pretty clear:
Why would it possibly make any sense to engage in illegal action with one’s face clearly visible? People who expect that anarchists in particular are playing by the rules that commonly govern civil disobedience and other more recuperated forms of protest are missing the point that this was not a protest, it was an attack. These are different things. Why attack at night? less chance of getting caught (and if this isn’t civil disobedience, why would anyone possibly want to go to jail?) and a similar attack during the day would’ve risked injuring the low-paid employees and customers so many people seem so concerned about.
Hey Linda… Why don’t you let someone stay in your house for free? Oh, you probably don’t own one…
“Our elected representatives and our regulators have failed us, standing by idly while you cheated, then they forcing us to bail you out. They’ve failed us, so we’ll resort to vigilantism”.
Actually our elected officials are more to blame for this mess than the banks. Ever heard of the Community Reinvestment Act? Liberal politicians in the Carter administration decided that poor people should be able to own a home even if they can’t afford the mortgage payment and so they provided banks with incentives to make a whole lot of bad loans, causing the housing bubble. Sure enough, those risky borrowers were not able to pay their mortgages which resulted in a housing market flooded with foreclosures. The surplus of foreclosed homes caused the housing bubble to burst, which eventually led us to the bail out that you so detest. I have to agree with you on this one point, I do wish that the government would have let the banks fail and allowed prices and interest rates to return to their market-clearing levels.
Maybe you should study up on some economics and try to come up with a solution that would be productive. Smashing out windows does nobody any good. Believe it or not, our system is designed for people to make a change without resorting to violence or vandalism. If you have an idea that could change society for the better, why don’t you try to get some supporters? If your ideas are so brilliant then I’m sure you’ll have no trouble doing so. The problem is that you don’t really have a solution, now do you?
“Under the Internet Tough Guy Ordinance, you are either going to 1) continue to grandstand from the safety of the internet or 2) find off you bit off more than you can chew.
I live in Capitol Hill and while I’m not sure that one night of vandalism means anything, I have no sympathy for the banks and admiration for people who fight them rather than just sitting around complaining.”
I also live on Capitol Hill and I’m not just an “Internet Tough Guy.” I would love, love, LOVE to be there when one of these people “fight” the banks. I’d be happy to make a citizen’s arrest and believe me when I say that I have the physical tools to do so. I’m sick and tired of these anarchists running around and resorting to stupid acts of property destruction to gain attention. If their message was all that great, they’d be able to make a statement in non-destructive ways.
“Complaints about people wearing masks for actions such as these and attacking at night are facile. Even from my outside perspective some of the possible reasons seem pretty clear: “
Of all the complaints, wearing masks and operating at night are pretty low on the scale of outrage.
“Actually our elected officials are more to blame for this mess than the banks. Ever heard of the Community Reinvestment Act? Liberal politicians in the Carter administration decided that poor people should be able to own a home even if they can’t afford the mortgage payment and so they provided banks with incentives to make a whole lot of bad loans, causing the housing bubble.”
1) banks were never forced to make bad loans
2) loans covered by the CRA amounted to what, 20% of the toxic debt?
Stop blaming the blacks, the poors, and the liberals for bankers’ ills.
From the comment by “Blackhand,” it seems that decisions made by Carter administration officials are at least partly to blame (if not the root cause) for the subsequent housing crisis. Yes, alot of blame goes to the banks too, mainly because of the way they “bundled” the iffy loans and sold them to investors, thereby ridding themselves of risk. But some of the blame must go to those individuals who signed on to these mortgages, using false income information, and knowing full well they would not be able to make the payments, especially for “adjustable rate mortgages.” Did they think some tooth fairy would come along and save them from the increased payments?
There’s plenty of blame all around. You can’t lay it all on the banks.
The CRA does not mandate bad loans.
The CRA does not incentivize bad loans.
In the long run, bad loans do not make money.
So, again, fuck the bankers and the liars who support them in their fleecing of our treasury.
(Lib, not anarchist.)
Broken windows is nothing. In Sacramento, CA vandals went after a pair of Chase ATMs in the wall of a branch. With a backhoe/front loader stolen from a construction site. There’s no way they could have accessed the cash, you need dynamite for that, but they wrecked both ATMs and the side of the building.
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/03/21/thieves-use-backhohttp://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2011/04/sacramento-pdhttp://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2011/03/thieves-with-
The replacement ATMs were just installed this weekend…total cost to Chase: over $50,000.