Ferris Buehler once said, “Life moves pretty fast.” The truant wasn’t kidding. Seems just yesterday All Cops Were Bastards, or something, and burning government buildings down was peaceful protest, and suggesting the National Guard be used to quell rioters was actual violence.
Those were the days, my friend.
Now, 26,000 National Guard troops patrol D.C. like the capitol of some Banana Republic after a junta-staged coup, and cops are bastards unless they’re protecting politicians from the mob, and if you’re not cooperating with the FBI, you’re really endangering your future there, kid.
Bank of America really took that last one to heart. As reported by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, America’s second-largest bank, with more than 60 million customers, secretly searched through its massive database of its customers’ financial and transaction records to determine if any of its customers took part in the riots on January 6 in Washington, D.C.
Without its customers’ knowledge or consent, the bank, per Carlson, sought customers who made purchases in D.C. between January 5-6, customers who paid for hotel or lodging in D.C, Virginia and Maryland after January 6, and any purchases of weapons or at a weapons-related merchant between January 7 and Inauguration Day, and airline related purchases since January 6.
None of these actions are illegal.
Bank of America turned over to the FBI the records of 211 customers who met this profile.
What an incredible breach of trust Bank of America has committed. They have no right to go through its customers private financial records, much less to give them to the FBI.
Per the New York Post, Bank of America responded: “We don’t comment on our communications with law enforcement. All banks have responsibilities under federal law to cooperate with law enforcement inquiries in full compliance with the law.”
B of A is likely referencing the Bank Secrecy Act, the 1970 law intended to combat “money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal acts and the misuse of our nation’s financial institutions,” as one of the agencies charged with enforcing the law puts it.
But nothing in the records Bank of America searched and turned over to the FBI could possibly suggest anything even illegal, let alone related to terrorism or “other criminal acts.” Even buying a t-shirt at a gun shop would set off the Bank of America snoops.
Bank of America should be ashamed of itself, but in a shameless world, I won’t hold my breath. As ever, the banks are their own best argument for going bankless. I just never pegged them for Frenesi Gates.
