BOA Hounded City Attorney To Charge Vicious Chalk Artist

Sidewalk Chalk Protest Reveals Gaping Governmental Failures

erhaps you’ve heard about – and enjoyed – the acquittal of Jeff Olson after he was tried on 13 counts of vicious chalk attack on the Bank of America in San Diego.

A jury of his peers said essentially the same thing as Senator Elizabeth Warren’s tweet last week: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Well, no, actually, no one involved was really kidding.

Olson, 40, wasn’t kidding when he went on a seven month rampage, from February to August, 2012, remorselessly using a water-soluble children’s chalk to scar the sidewalks in front of a local Bank of America with such vicious messages as “No thanks, big banks” and “Shame on Bank of America.”

Being water-soluble, the chalked messages didn’t last. It’s possible that the sentiment behind them remains semi-permanent among much of the population.

Seems the Bank of America Has Tender Feelings

The Bank of America wasn’t kidding when it complained, but at first the San Diego City Attorney was reluctant to prosecute. The bank’s Darell Freeman, VP of Global Corporate Security, reportedly hounded police and prosecutors to act.

The Bank of America wasn’t kidding when it claimed it had to spend more than $6,000 cleaning chalk off public sidewalks, and security VP Freeman even got into a confrontation with Olson, as he chalked up two more branches.

The Bank of America wasn’t kidding when it reminded City Attorney Jan Goldsmith that his election campaign had accepted banks’ financial contributions. And it wasn’t kidding when it reminded Goldsmith that he might be looking for more contributions when he decided to run for mayor in 2016.MOREHERE