Cello-playing climate activist arrested at New York Citibank protest as crackdown escalates
Second activist also arrested during ‘summer of heat’ protest against second largest financier of fossil fuels
Thu 8 Aug 2024
Last modified on Fri 9 Aug 2024 12.45 EDT
A
63-year-old climate activist and professional cellist faces up to seven
years in prison after being arrested on Thursday while performing a
Bach solo outside the headquarters of one of the world’s largest fossil
fuel financier Citibank in downtown New York.
John
Mark Rozendaal, an adjunct music instructor at Princeton university and
Alec Connon, director of the climate nonprofit group Stop the Money
Pipeline, were arrested for criminal contempt in the public park at the
bank’s global headquarters as the crackdown against nonviolent climate
protesters escalates.
Rozendaal
was handcuffed and led away to the police vehicle singing “we are not
afraid, we are not afraid, we will sing for liberation because we know
why we were made”. The crowd of protesters chanted “let him play” and “
shame on you Citibank”.
Thirteen other climate
activists, who had linked arms in a circle around Rozendaal to protect
him as he played Bach’s suites for cello, were detained for alleged
obstruction of governmental administration, a misdemeanor criminal
charge. “People are dying … today is my birthday,” said Mike Bucci, 77,
teary eyed as the police in riot gear broke up the protest.
Since
10 June, climate activists have been peacefully protesting against
Citibank’s record financial support for new fossil fuel projects as part
of the Summer of Heat on Wall Street campaign.
At least 3,700 people have participated in the nonviolent civil
disobedience, repeatedly blockading the entrance to its global
headquarters. More than 475 people including faith leaders, scientists
and elders have been arrested while calling on Citi to stop bankrolling
new coal, oil and gas.
Citi is the second
largest financier of fossil fuels and the largest financier of fossil
fuel expansion since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, according to the
latest Banking on Climate Chaos report.
The
latest arrests come as climate advocates accuse Citibank and the NYPD
of coordinated and escalating efforts to suppress nonviolent protests in
retaliation for drawing attention to the banking giant’s key role in
funding fossil projects globally. (Citi declined to comment on the
allegation. The NYPD told Inside Climate News that there was no escalation in law enforcement’s response and individuals had not been targeted.)
Photograph: Stephanie Keith 100584/Getty Images
Over
the course of five days in July, four high-profile “summer of heat”
organizers and activists were arrested on what they say are bogus
charges targeting campaign leaders – an escalation condemned by hundreds
of celebrities, scientists, lawmakers, students, nonprofits and climate
activists.
“The window to avert the worst
impacts of climate change is rapidly closing … efforts by the fossil
fuel industry and its allies to criminalize and suppress protests
imperil democratic freedoms and obstruct meaningful climate action,”
said Kathy Mulvey from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
In 2021, the International Energy Agency warned that the world must immediately halt investment in new upstream oil and gas development,
in order to have any hope of complying with the Paris climate accords
and curtailing global heating to 1.5C (35F). Since then, Citibank has
provided $60bn to the companies expanding oil, gas and coal operations.
Among
the leaders facing criminal proceedings are Rozendaal and Connon, who
were first arrested on 18 July and charged with assault, they say
falsely, against a man, James Flynn, who is working with Citi’s private
security team. Flynn was granted temporary restraining orders, reviewed
by the Guardian, against Rozendaal and Connon which prohibits the
activists from communicating with him or going near his person, home,
business or workplace for six months, but does not specify any of these
locations.
Flynn appears to have previously
worked as a NYPD detective, according to publicly available databases,
information from his social media and his own comments to protesters.
Citi declined to comment on Flynn’s role. The NYPD did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
On
Thursday, Rozendaal and Connon returned to the Citibank HQ in violation
of the restraining order, which they believe is unconstitutional, and
were arrested for criminal contempt, a charge that carries a maximum
seven-year sentence.
As the detainees were
driven away for arraignment, one participant, Felipe, 86, a retired
realtor originally from Cuba, said: “This is a moral cause. The police
are doing the wrong thing.”
Graham Bier, 41, a
singer who has performed with Rozendaal, and who traveled from
Philadelphia to attend the protest with his four year-old son, said:
“We’ve had warnings since the 60s and 70s and I don’t know what it’s
gonna take to shift such a massive habit, but it’s it’s getting so
desperate.”
In a separate incident on 21 July,
videographer and summer of heat organizer Teddy Ogborn was arrested and
held in a cell for more than eight hours, days after he filmed an alleged Citi employee apparently inciting violence against climate protesters blocking the entrance.
“Just punch him in the f–king head! Punch him in the f–king head,” shouted
the woman, identified by protesters as the executive assistant to
Citi’s co-head of Global Financial Strategy, which Ogborn caught on
camera. “Get a machine gun and f–king kill them all,” she added.
“These
comments are unacceptable,” a Citi spokesperson said. “We are looking
into the matter and it will be addressed appropriately.”
At an earlier protest, Ogborn also captured Citi’s general counsel
apparently shoving a female protester who was among a group blocking
the entrance. A Citi spokesperson said the protesters’ claims were false
and that an employee was initially hit by a barricade before pushing it
out of his way.
Ogborn was charged with
obstruction of governmental administration, a misdemeanor, for allegedly
having placed a hand on a barricade that was being moved by activists a
week earlier. The charge was dropped two weeks later.
“We
have made the bank synonymous with environmental destruction, violence
and fossil fuels, and I have been capturing moments that are damaging
for Citi,” said Ogborn, cofounder of Planet over Profits. “The
escalation against organizers is targeted, and attempts to use bogus
charges to harass and intimidate protesters.”
Last year, Citibank financed almost twice as much fossil fuel energy as clean energy,
less than its competitors JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. In order
to meet global climate goals, banks must finance four times as much
clean energy as fossil fuel energy, according to research by BloombergNEF.
The methodology used to calculate fossil fuel financing has been previously disputed by some banks.
A
spokesperson for Citi said the bank is “transparent” about its
“climate-related activities” and its approach reflects the need to
transition and meet global energy needs. “We are supporting the
transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and
our $1tn sustainable finance goal.”
“The
Summer of Heat campaign has mobilized thousands of everyday people and
brought financial executives face-to-face with the very communities they
are harming through the billions they bankroll in fossil fuels,” said
New York City council member Alexa Avilés.
“Rather
than engage on the merits of their arguments and acknowledge the role
they play, Citibank has chosen to unleash a brutal police crackdown on
organizers … You cannot incarcerate your way to a livable planet.”