A man is taken into custody by SFPD officers, in front of the Bank of America at 555 California Street on January 20, 2012..
Story and photos by Thomas K. Pendergast
A steady rain that came down most of Friday didn’t stop Occupy demonstrators in the hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand throughout the day, from converging on San Francisco’s Financial District.
They showed up in the belly of the city's international business machine to protest real estate foreclosures and financial institutions profiting from people losing their homes.
Two years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that it's unconstitutional for the government to limit how much money corporations and labor unions can donate to poitical causes, in the Citizens United vs the Federal Election Commission case.
Now the headquarters, offices and branches of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other finance companies were targeted by a variety of groups aligned with the Occupy movement for direct actions, and in some cases, human blockades or “lock downs”.
By 5 p.m., 18 people had been arrested for misdemeanor trespassing, most of them taken into custody after they blocked the exit of a bank. Another man was also arrested and charged with a felony, after he was found to be in possession of a police baton that someone had stolen from an officer at the scene, said Sgt. Michael Andraychak of the San Francisco Police Department.
Calling the event Occupy Wall Street West, protesters began the first actions early in the morning, before 8 a.m., and went on with them throughout the day and into the evening hours. They targeted more than 20 "action sites" for protesters to visit -- including the Macy's at Union Square, where a small flash mob showed up at about 2 p.m. -- ending at about 8 p.m., when a core group of about 40 people broke into an abandoned hotel, presumably hoping to squat there.
“Banks have spent more than any other sector, the greatest amount, on lobbying. Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo dropped $12 million between them in lobbying in 2011 alone,” said Cinthya Munoz over a bullhorn to a group of demonstrators standing in front of a Wells Fargo branch on California Street. “We’re asking that Wells Fargo put a moratorium on all foreclosures because we need our homes more than the banks need one more. … Wells Fargo, you owe us!”
Go here for the full story on the Examiner.com website --->>>
