Brian Moynihan, Bank Of America CEO, Interrupted By Codepink Protesters During Event (VIDEO)

Brian Moynihan speaks that the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. Moynihan was interrupted Thursday by shirtless protesters from CODEPINK while giving a presentation.

Shirtless women are likely not the types of guests most would expect to see at a conference full of Wall Street suits.

But they were in attendance at yesterday's Citigroup Financial Conference and they had a message for Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, written on their chests:

"Bust up Bank of America before it busts up America," the message read, a slogan they also chanted while Moynihan gave a speech yesterday.

After the the first interruption, Moynihan continued his speech with "as I said," to laughs and applause from the audience, according to a video posted on Business Insider.

Shortly after the first outburst, another woman interrupted Moynihan saying "This is International Women's Day," and then the event's audio feed went silent and played music for about a minute until Moynihan continued with "as I was saying," according to the Wall Street Journal's first-hand account of the event.

After the second woman was cleared by the event's security, a third woman jumped on a table, took off her shirt and started chanting, according to an anonymous tip to DealBreaker.

The interruption was brought to the Citi conference by CODEPINK -- a grassroots social justice organization that has held demonstrations at a variety of events ranging from Nancy Pelosi's speeches to a Karl Rove Book Signing. The protest at yesterday's event was in honor of International Women's Day, according to Business Insider.

Though all of the big banks have become a target of protesters in the wake of the financial crisis and particularly since the dawn of the Occupy movement, BofA has evoked an especially loud rallying cry.

That bank dropped a plan to charge customers $5 to use their debit card for purchases late last year, after consumers erupted in anger over the plan. Before scrapping the fee, Moynihan defended it, saying in October that his company "has a right to make a profit."

In addition to the debit card fee, BofA has stoked ire with some of its other practices. In February, protesters from the Occupy Our Homes movement targeted a branch of the bank in Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press.

 

Comments

[General Armchair]

08:22 AM on 03/28/2012

My slogan is: Close on BoA before they close on you!

Occupy Turners Falls Mass. helped convince BoA they weren't welcome in their community and the BoA branch there is CLOSING on June 1st!

We can repeat this elsewhere. Start vigiling and picketing as frequently as you can outside your local BoA branch. You will find that almost everybody, including most BoA customers, will be sympathetic! You will gain modest intermediate victories as individuals respond and MOVE THEIR MONEY. Every little bit helps. Encourage like-minded folks who stop and talk to you to join you or take on different time slots. Organize a local Occupy group around opposition to BoA. Look into where your local governments and other large institutions (schools, churches, etc.) bank. If it's with BoA (or the other large Wall St. banks like Citi or Chase or Wells Fargo, etc.), organize campaigns to get them to move their money! Remember, everybody hates this bank! All you really need to do is a little research, a little agitation, and you have a winning campaign on your hands! GET TO WORK!

[Maure BriggsCarrington]

08:33 AM on 03/28/2012

Yep, if we can do it in little ole Turners Falls, MA , you can do it in your community, too !!! We were even front page news ! :-)

[General Armchair]

08:07 AM on 03/28/2012

If you have Facebook, go check out Bank of America's Facebook page. No, not all those Bank of America Sucks pages, but the real one, with over 450,000 Likes. I would post the link but since AOL/HP can't deal with it, you can use FB's Search feature and you should be able to find BoA's page, easily.

While I do commend the dweebs at BoA for giving us their FB page as a forum for our discontent, please note the honest-to-God voices of the 99 percent there. This isn't any kind of organized thing. It's just the many people from all over this country who have been screwed over by these criminals, looking for SOME way to express their anger and frustration.

If there's any way to document my repeated assertion that Bank of America is the most hated bank IN America, their FB page is surely one way.

[General Armchair]

07:53 AM on 03/28/2012

Bank of America is the most hated bank IN America.

And deservedly so.

[General Armchair]

08:47 AM on 03/28/2012

(no comment)

[sheoples]

08:36 AM on 03/17/2012

nudity is the most powerful form of protesting.

it's rarely used.

bravo ladies!

femen

[smolenski]

11:47 PM on 03/13/2012

I guess CP is looking for relevancy again, since they only protest wars during a Republican Administration. How sad.

[Ralphiec88]

12:15 AM on 03/16/2012

They've been irrelevant ever since they embarrassed themselves on the Daily Show.

[Trollstein]

07:45 PM on 03/13/2012

Should be called B of S

[Bystander]

01:37 PM on 03/13/2012

Do these females also protest for PETA?

[TheSheeple]

07:40 PM on 03/10/2012

Only libs have a right to free speech, all others will be interrupted and shouted down.

[jameshat]

10:12 PM on 03/10/2012

really, what about all the interptions during the obama care debate at every democratic town hall. whats ith the selective memory?

[Mandolin Cole]

06:40 PM on 03/15/2012

Oh puh-lease. Wah! The poor banks with all their monies! No one EVER lets them talk! Wah! Now all the people they have screwed over? Each and every one of them has had MORE than ample air-time in exactly the same highly publicized forums. How dare they not sit silently and wait until the cameras are ready to give them their chance! Right? Cause you know the news stations and publications are all clamoring to hear the common people! I offered to do an interview and then had to go into witness protection just to hide from the media response it generated! Blow it out your hole, dude.

We should be so lucky that all of us had a chance to exercise our free speech so publicly. We should all be so lucky that when we are talking, no one *ever* interupts... I bet those bank guys never interrupted a home owner trying to point out how the due-process system with foreclosure seemed to be broken, and they needed someone to look at it, care, and listen. Stupid liberals. Always thinking they have rights.

[snewell]

05:52 PM on 03/10/2012

NON VIOLENT PROTEST MUST GET CREATIVE IN ORDER TO GET NOTICED. CORPORATE AMERICA GETS AWAY WITH WHAT THEY DO ONLY BY VIOLENT FORCE.

GUESS WHICH SIDE HAS MONEY AND GUESS WHICH SIDE HAS MORALS?

[karlhungus08]

12:52 AM on 03/12/2012

Could you give me some examples of the violent force employed by corporate America? And I'm not talking about the Pinkertons in the 19th century - I'm asking for recent incidents.

[Ralphiec88]

12:12 AM on 03/16/2012

Faved, but stand by for an onslaught of OWS absurdity. What'll it be?
1. "You can't prove that there are no examples so it must be true."
2. "I'll describe some outrageous outlier and generalize it to all of America"
3. "Poor sheep. If you were as insightful as me, you'd agree with me"
4. "Are you a teabagger/slave of the banksters/FOX gulping patsy?"

[Terri Skau]

01:29 PM on 03/10/2012

Let's see they stopped the ATM charge that they were going to put on everyone..Then why do they still continue to charge you to cash a check drawn on another B O A account...which is 5 dollars...And so does US Bank. I'm not sure if Chase, Wells Fargo, or Citibank is doing that now....I know B of A has been doing it for many years..

Just sayin' ;-)

[smolenski]

11:48 PM on 03/13/2012

LEAVE! GO TO ANOTHER BANK!

[Terri Skau]

01:53 AM on 03/14/2012

I was commenting on how bad the "Big Banks" have gotten. I have not been with one of the Crooks for many years now...;-)

[Bootinureye]

09:22 AM on 03/10/2012

Ewwwwwwww......cover it up.

Codepink = ows for the maddow/Rosie bunch.

[George Picard]

08:10 AM on 03/10/2012

I have seen some of the Code Pink types, I really dont want them to take of there tops.

[Ken Roberts]

05:54 AM on 03/10/2012

Many years ago I had accounts with them because they were within walking distance from my house. They charged a fee for writing more than 10 checks a month. Since I wrote very few checks, it didn't affect me. Then they started charging a fee for NOT writing any checks in a month which did affect me. Then I got a notice from them that they had charged me a $10 fee for a non-existent overdrawn check I went to the bank & tried to get someone to talk to me about it. I had to get "loud" about their practices before I was quickly ushered into the Manager's office. After going through several hours of minute examination of my records, he concluded that no, I wasn't overdrawn and said that I would be receiving a letter of apology from them. I said "and you're giving me the $10 back - right?" Well, no, they couldn't do that but I did deserve an apology. I pointed out that it was their error and since they could charge me a fee, surely they should give me, not only my fee back but add an additional $10 to that because of my wasted time as a result of their mistake. He was outraged by that. After further loud "discussion," I got the $10 back & immediately withdrew all my funds. I've never looked back. They've been pulling this crap forever. I hope they crash & burn.

[whyus]

02:58 AM on 03/10/2012

Codepink is a pretty brave group of women. Good for them.

[ms velma]

11:43 PM on 03/09/2012

Probably nothing to get excited about, folks. Have you ever noticed that the people who want to take off their clothes in public are always the ones you least want to see naked?