Paul Bass Photo
A “granny” upset about corporate bailouts had a sweet lunchtime offer with a six-figure pricetag for two men at Bank of America.
“100 Grand,” Eileen O’Donnell offered one of the bank employees (pictured above).
O’Donnell didn’t have a check. Instead, she reached into a plastic Halloween pumpkin and retrieved a Nestle “100 Grand” caramel and chocolate bar.
O’Donnell, a member of a New Haven group of senior activists called the Raging Grannies, was making a point Monday. She and her group, joined by members of Occupy New Haven on the Green, held a demonstration outside Bank of America’s Church Street branch to “Trick or Treat the Tax Cheat.”
Their claims: The federal government gave Bank of America $70 billion in bailouts in two installments, in 2008 and 2009. The bank proceeded to give executives an unconscionable $5.8 billion in bonuses (which partly led to a $150 million fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission), was caught engaging in municipal bond fraud and another case of antitrust and wire fraud, ducked billions of dollars in taxes it should have paid even while raking in profits, and now is taking advantage of consumers with a plan to charge $5 a month for the use of debit cards. The bank’s foreclosure practices in particular have made it a central target of the “Occupy Wall Street” spin-off protests across the country. (A Bank of America spokesman could not be reached for comment for this article; the bank has repeatedly said protesters are unfairly targeting it. The bank announced Monday that it will abandon the planned $5 fee.)
O’Donnell handed out the 100 Grand bars Monday as token “handouts” for everyday people who are hurting in the recession but lack the access to federal coffers that big banks have.
The Bank of America employee politely turned down the proffered bar.
“I need more than that,” he said.
As he went into the building, past the protesters, he turned more serious.
“It’s a joke,” he said of the noontime protest. (He confirmed he works for the bank; he declined to give his name.) “Corporations are in the business of making money. They don’t have a unified message, these protesters.”
Meanwhile, a nearby protester called out, “We got sold out — Banks got bailed out.”
The Bank of America employee reemerged from the building with a colleague. O’Donnell and her fellow grannies accosted them again as they neared Church Street, offering them flyers.
One of gave them the second man, who also declined to say what he does at the bank “(“none of your business,” he told a reporter), an open letter to Bank of American CEO and President Brian T. Moynihan. It called on him to cancel the debit charge and to “pay a fair” share of personal and corporate taxes.
“I knew it,” the man replied. “He’s a scumbag.”
Click on the play arrow to watch that exchange as well as a sample of the Grannies’ musical repertoire.
Asked what makes his boss a scumbag, the man declined to answer.
But he told the protesters that they had the wrong target. They should be picketing former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, because he got a bigger bonus this year than Moynihan did — even though the company he runs, MF Global Inc., filed for bankruptcy Monday.
The protesters agreed to take a future protest against Corzine under consideration.
Racel Marcotte of New Haven, who has been sleeping in a tent on the Green for two weeks as part of the “Occupation” protest, joined Monday’s demonstration.