TD Customer Joins Pipeline Picket Line

John R‑P. could be seen through just inside the TD Bank at the corner of Chapel and College streets Wednesday evening when protesters against the Dakota Access Pipeline began to picket the bank and block traffic.

When he saw his friends outside, he finished up his business at the bank and went out to find out why they were there.

John R‑P., who asked to be identified by only his first name and last initials, soon learned why his friends were among the more than 300 people chanting, ​“Water is life,” ​“Divest from dirty oil!” ​“Peace, the planet and people over profit,” and marching in front of his bank. They were calling on TD Securities, the parent of TD Bank, to stop its financial support of plans to build a 1,172-mile pipeline across four Midwestern states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

The New Haven protest was one among many that have taken place all over the country in front of banks with a stake in the pipeline.

The $3.7 billion project calls for routing it through land that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says belongs to its reservation in North and South Dakota. The tribe has sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers citing potential environmental disaster and the desecration of ancestral lands.

The Army Corps announced Monday ​“that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nation’s dispossession of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationships, and the statute governing easements through government property,” according to a press release.

That statement came after months of protests where thousands have banned together to halt construction of the pipeline. One of those protesters was New Havener Mark Colville of Amistad Catholic Worker.

He told the gathering crowd Wednesday about how Native Americans are being treated by what he called a militarized police force, while the many white protesters like him are often treated with deference and respect. There have been news reports of violent clashes between protesters and police, often with the focus on protesters attacking private security officers and setting fires. Protesters have disputed those reports, saying their nonviolent protests have been met with not only brutality, but arrests and strip searches, even though most arrestees are charged with misdemeanors.

Colville said he saw protesters, particularly Native American protesters, being brutalized firsthand.

“They were mercilessly maced and shot with rubber bullets and kicked into the water,” he said. ​“That was their immediate response to nonviolent direct action. Intellectually, I understood the issue, but the direct experience of it — the experience of my white privilege — I felt I needed to see that and talk about it.”

He urged the crowd to take three actions: tap into a higher spiritual power, as they did at Standing Rock camp, and let it fuel their protest; go to Standing Rock; and move their money from institutions that are funding the pipeline.

Melinda Tuhus, one of the organizers of New Haven’s protest, called the recent announcement from the Army Corps of Engineers a step in the right direction but said pressure has to be brought to bear on banks around the world that are funding the project. She said a large Norwegian bank has already released a statement indicating it is reconsidering its involvement with the project if the concerns of impacted Native Americans are not addressed. If people pressured the banks, the project might be halted all together.

Tuhus said New Haven Stands With Standing Rock! delivered a letter to the New Haven TD Bank branch manager two months ago. The goal of Wednesday evening’s protest was to deliver another one calling on the bank to stand with the people of Standing Rock or risk losing customers.

“TD Securities is contributing $365 million to this $3.8 billion globally funded project,” according to the new letter. ​“It is also one of four banks still holding in reserve over $1 billion in funding until Energy Transfer Partners secures all of the permits and easements it needs to cross the Missouri River, which it is exceedingly close to doing. We’re asking you to pass on the message that we demand that TD cut off its line of credit to the Dakota Access pipeline.

“Tribal members wonder why their burial sites have been desecrated and how people would feel if a private company put a dirty, climate-destroying pipeline through Arlington Cemetery,” the letter continued.

It wasn’t to be.

The TD branch manager refused to allow anyone who didn’t have business with the bank inside the branch and refused to accept the letter. A couple of police officers and a security guard stood in the doorway to make sure protesters stayed on the sidewalk and that only customers got inside. At one point protesters, much to the consternation of rush hour drivers trying to get home, blocked the intersection at Chapel and College Street for about 15 minutes, which drew a lot of angry drivers laying on their horn admonishing the protesters to move. After people started attempting to make U‑turns on Chapel Street, an officer told everyone that if they wanted to continue the protest they had to get on the sidewalk. (TD declines to comment on the protests.)

The protest didn’t seem to deter people from doing business at the bank. A handful of people like John R‑P., braved the hundreds of chanting protesters, some of them burning sage, to go to the bank. No one was harassed as they headed inside. Many just seemed baffled by all the fuss. And unlike at Standing Rock, police and protestors did not clash and no one was arrested.

But they might have had at least one victory. Once he understood why his friends were protesting, John R‑P. said that he will rethink his banking choices. He’s been a TD Bank customer for about two or three years. He might not be for long.

“I’m going to consider that,” he said of moving his money as he joined his friends on the sidewalk in the picket line. ​“It’s better for our future to bank with someone that is ethical.”