Read

Error message

Notice: Undefined index: base_url in include_once() (line 125 of /home3/occupyco/public_html/dev/sites/default/settings.php).

User menu

Search form

What Would Jesus Do? Jail the Bankers!

What Would Jesus Do? Jail the Bankers!
Tue, 3/26/2013 - by Carl Gibson

Even though he’s widely viewed as the most perfect human being to have ever walked the Earth, Jesus did commit one violent act during his time here. In the “Cleansing of the Temple” story, all four of the gospels talk about Jesus making a whip out of cords and using it to drive the moneychangers out of the temple, dumping their jars of coins into the streets, kicking over their tables, and accusing them of turning a holy place into a “den of robbers.

Today, Wall Street has turned a government once founded by someone who believed banks were "more dangerous than standing armies" into one that gives “Too Big to Fail” banks 3 cents of every tax dollar. Even Bloomberg News, which is owned by a guy who made his billions on Wall Street, has plainly stated that nearly 100% of profits generated by the five biggest banks—JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs—are made possible by taxpayer handouts and subsidies.

According to the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve, these same five banks own roughly half of all assets held by the banking industry. And even the conservative Dallas Fed says we need to break up the banks.

Elizabeth Warren, the newest member of the Senate Banking Committee, recently got into it with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke over breaking up TBTF banks. After a back-and-forth with the Massachusetts senator, Bernanke eventually agreed that big banks could be broken up without causing serious harm to the economy.

But Sen. Warren doesn’t just want to see the big banks broken up—she wants to see bankers stand trial for their crimes against the American people and economy. But we know the current crop of federal bank regulators that came straight to Washington through the revolving door from Wall Street won’t do it. Warren proved that to us live on C-SPAN in her first committee hearing. We have to be the ones to do it.

And they’re almost begging us to arrest them.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who paid himself an astronomically high salary to create abstract financial instruments that wrecked the economy in 2008, is one of the biggest cheerleaders of austerity in Washington. Blankfein will go on TV and say, with a straight face, that working people who already struggle to make ends meet will have to put off retirement and work longer.

It’s okay for Blankfein to say that because, according to him, he does “God’s work.” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon bragged to a roomful of wealthy investors that because his bank is so monstrously large, it actually "benefits from downturns" while everyone else is losing all they have. Wall Street’s bonus pool has actually QUINTUPLED since 1985. And at over $362,900 a year, the average Wall Street salary in 2011 is almost ten times higher than median income for most Americans.

There’s something very wrong with this picture. Especially when our government will arrest an ex-Marine for simply wearing a jacket that says “Occupy Everything,” but not the banker who smiles as he’s robbing all of us of our homes and our retirement security. It’s time for some citizens’ arrests.

The website Contact the CEO has home addresses for the CEOs of all of the top Fortune 100 companies. You’ll find the home address for both Jamie Dimon’s mansion in Mount Kisco, NY, and for Lloyd Blankfein’s lush apartment at 15 Central Park West just down the street from Columbus Square in Manhattan, for which he paid $26 million in cash.

All of this is public information found in any phone book and legal to publish. So here's a proposal: we cuff these bankers, make them stand trial for their crimes, convict them and lock them up. Then, once their sugar daddies are in jail and unable to fund their re-election campaigns, and once the fury of the people has been exhibited in public, we'll force Congress to reinstate the Glass-Steagall act, which separates banks that make deposits and withdrawals and loans from banks that gamble in derivatives and credit default swaps. It won't do anything but help the economy recover. Iceland arrested and jailed their criminal bankers, and their economy is outperforming both the US and the EU.

Since the Occupy movement began, 7,719 people protesting the banks’ greed have been arrested for using their First Amendment rights. At the same time, 0 bankers have been arrested for robbing billions of dollars from millions of people. As Elizabeth Warren showed the world, the government officials entrusted with the job of arresting bankers and bringing them to trial haven’t done it and won’t do it.

So if you ask yourself, “What Would Jesus Do?” The answer is clear—cleanse the temple, and bring these crooked bankers to justice.

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

prison reform, incarceration rates, private prisons, for-profit prisons, white supremacy, enslavement, climate justice, racial justice, Green New Deal

The year 2020 has caused many white people to realize we live in a racist system. The Green New Deal is about systemic change for all, and deconstructing racism must be front and central in this agenda.

coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, COVID-19 deaths, downplaying coronavirus

By infecting three of the world’s most right-wing leaders, the coronavirus underscored not only the incompetence and irresponsibility of their governments – but the truth that their brand of populism doesn't keep people safe.

COVID-19, corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, corporate destruction

Corporations are not "too big to fail" and, when they commit crimes, they are not "too big to jail." As David Whyte writes in his new book, "Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us," the moment is now to rein in out-of-control corporate power.

The world has lost an incredible thinker and doer. I have lost an amazing friend. A void exists where before it was filled with David's optimism, humour and joy.

Kevin Zeese speaks at a rally for Chelsea Manning. By Ellen Davidson.

Kevin fought to bring truth every day. We must not lose this struggle.

prison reform, incarceration rates, private prisons, for-profit prisons, white supremacy, enslavement, climate justice, racial justice, Green New Deal

The year 2020 has caused many white people to realize we live in a racist system. The Green New Deal is about systemic change for all, and deconstructing racism must be front and central in this agenda.

coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, COVID-19 deaths, downplaying coronavirus

By infecting three of the world’s most right-wing leaders, the coronavirus underscored not only the incompetence and irresponsibility of their governments – but the truth that their brand of populism doesn't keep people safe.

COVID-19, corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, corporate destruction

Corporations are not "too big to fail" and, when they commit crimes, they are not "too big to jail." As David Whyte writes in his new book, "Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us," the moment is now to rein in out-of-control corporate power.

The world has lost an incredible thinker and doer. I have lost an amazing friend. A void exists where before it was filled with David's optimism, humour and joy.

Kevin Zeese speaks at a rally for Chelsea Manning. By Ellen Davidson.

Kevin fought to bring truth every day. We must not lose this struggle.