No Arrests as Demonstrators March on Wells Fargo CEO’s Home

With many helping to carry a 50-foot plastic replica pipeline festooned with slogans, more than a hundred demonstrators made their way from Pasadena to San Marino to protest at the home of Wells Fargo Bank CEO Tim Sloan late Sunday afternoon, apparently violating a City of San Marino ordinance banning protests within 150 of private homes. There were no arrests.

The noisy demonstration was sponsored by several organizations, including the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), the Committee for Better Banks, Climate Hawks Vote, Communication Workers of America (CWA), and Our Revolution Los Angeles.

Among the demonstrators was Pasadena resident Peter Dreier, professor of Politics, Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College, who said, “We are here to draw attention to the fact that Tim Sloan, the CEO of Wells Fargo, runs a bank that makes money on the Dakota Pipeline, and also been engaged in predatory lending and redlining and abusing its employees.” (In 2012, the bank agreed to pay $175 million to resolve allegations of charging minorities higher rates and fees on mortgages even when they qualified for better deals during the housing boom.)”

Continued Dreier, “Sloan was brought on after the previous CEO John Strumpf was forced to resign, and he pledged to clean the place up, but we haven’t seen anything.”

The marchers moved from Wilson Avenue in Pasadena south into San Marino as the procession wound its way through San Marino, where the City Council had passed an anti-picketing measure in 2011, requiring that protestors stay 150 feet from the home they are targeting.

According to one protestor, it was at least the second time that Sloan’s home has been the target of a demonstration.

Prior to the march, San Marino police officers met with a small group of protestors at the Von’s market on California Avenue to give them an application for a permit to protest, and remind them to call on police to head off any problems that may emerge during the demonstration.

Police then gathered at the Sloan home as the demonstrators arrived, admonishing them only not to step on private property.

Asked about arrests, Watch Commander Sergeant Robert Matthews, said the police had no initial plans to arrest demonstrators and said it was a question of how long the protesters stayed at the location that would determine if arrests would be made.

Among the speakers at the rally were former Wells Fargo bank employees, who complained about the bank’s loan practices, as well as Wells Fargo customer Ruby Smith, 83, who told the group that she was coerced to sign “blank documents,” and said that other forms were signed with her name while she was out of the country, and now she faces foreclosure eviction from her South Los Angeles home.

The marchers gathered for nearly an hour in front of the Sloan home, as police officers controlled traffic around the blocked-off street, while others stood in front of the home and on either side of the demonstration.

Following the protest, the marchers peacefully dispersed, and there were no arrests.