Please join OWS Alt-Banking for a second picket to highlight the crimes of HSBC, Monday, March 4th. As HSBC presents its 2012 earnings report – more billions for the Official Bank of Drug Lords & Terrorists -- we’ll be gathering on the steps of the New York Public Library, Main Branch, Fifth Avenue and 41st Street, at High Noon.
What’s true of HSBC is true of all Wall Street megabanks – size, perverse personnel incentives and de facto immunity from prosecution create an environment that is “criminogenic,” in Bill Black’s phrase. That means institutions in which crime pays, in which those who remain honest are "patsies." The 99% suffer as these institutions engage in systematic plunder and fraud from the top – and set us up for the next crash and the next bail-outs.
This is an ongoing campaign by Occupy Wall Street's Alternative Banking Working Group. We are highlighting not just HSBC’s admitted (and unpunished) severe criminal activity but the general problem of “Too Big to Fail” and “Too Big to Jail.”
During our first picket, on Valentines Day, we chanted:
Bankers and drug lords sitting in a tree - k– i – s – s – i – n – g .
First comes crime. Then comes profit. Then comes a settlement with the justice department!
Sell a bag of marijuana, you could go to prison.
Make billions by helping the Mexican drug cartels launder billions, you get a banker’s bonus.
Our Valentine's Day action was a lot of fun (check out these pictures).
Join us this time and we will have plenty of colorful signs and sandwich boards ready for you. And a money-laundering dancer will welcome you on skates.
Join our new Alt-Bank Meetup page for regular updates on events and meetings.