350 Wenatchee Climate Conversations NCW

Today in New York, a 63-year-old grandfather and professional cellist, John Mark Rozendaal, was arrested and hit with a criminal contempt charge for performing J.S Bach’s “Suites for ‘Cello” at Citibank’s headquarters.

Confronted with the music of Bach, Citi called NYPD and insisted that they arrest the 63-year-old grandfather performing Bach on his cello.

Send an email to Citi’s top executives now, demanding that they stop targeting climate activists ― and stop funding fossil fuel expansion.

Three weeks ago, John Mark and Stop the Money Pipeline’s Alec Connon were targeted by Citibank’s security team and subjected to an unconstitutional restraining order designed to prevent them from returning to peacefully protest Citi’s funding of fossil fuels at the bank’s headquarters.

They were warned that returning to Citi’s HQ could result in a criminal contempt charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 7 years in jail. Refusing to be intimidated by Citi’s bullying tactics, they announced their intentions to defy Citi’s intimidation tactics and return to the HQ.

As a recently retired music instructor from Princeton University, John Mark’s performance of Bach was beautiful. He was joined at the performance by community leaders, such as New York Councilmember Alexa Avilés, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, and Rev. Chelsea MacMillian.

Yet, Citi felt so threatened that they instructed the NYPD to arrest the cello player.

Even when fourteen people encircled John Mark, the NYPD arrested them so that they could arrest the cello player.

We expect the fourteen who encircled John Mark will be released soon. John Mark and Alec probably won’t be released until much later tonight, or tomorrow morning―but we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure that they are out as soon as possible.

Here are 3 things you can do to keep the pressure up on Citi, right now

1. Amplify the cello action on Instagram
2. Amplify the cello action on Twitter
3. Send an email to Citi’s top executives, demanding that they stop targeting climate activists and stop financing fossil fuels.

Today, we showed Citi that we will not be intimidated. We will not back down, no matter how much they try to intimidate us.

The only way for Citi to make the protests stop is simple: stop financing fossil fuels―help us make sure they get that message loud and clear.

In Solidarity,
– the Stop the Money Pipeline team

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