Arrests Made At Protest Outside UES Home Of JPMorgan Chase Exec

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Eight people were arrested Wednesday morning during a protest outside of JPMorgan Chase executive Jamie Dimon's Park Avenue home, protest organizers told Patch.

Hundreds of people picketed outside of 1185 Park Ave. around 8 a.m. to deliver more than 100,000 petition signatures demanding that JPMorgan Chase stop financing immigrant detention centers and private prisons, protest organizers said. The demonstration was organized by groups such as Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change and the Center for Popular Democracy.

Four men and four women were arrested after blocking Park Avenue, an NYPD spokesman said. The protesters are facing charges of disorderly conduct, the spokesman said.

Security guards at the Park Avenue building refused to accept the protesters' petitions.

Wednesday's protest was part of the protest groups' campaign to call out the "Corporate Backers of Hate," organizers said. JPMorgan Chase and its subsidiaries are the biggest Wall Street investors in private prison companies such as CoreCivic and the Geo Group, which run some of the detention centers used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, protesters claim,

A November 2016 report from the research center In The Public Interest found that JPMorgan Chase was the largest financial backer among banks for both CoreCivic and Geo Group. The company held bonds in both companies worth $166 million as of October 2016, the research center found.

“Private prison companies and their Wall Street financiers stand to benefit from policies that increase detentions, separate families, and cause irreparable harm to immigrant children," Ana María Archila of the Center for Popular Democracy said in a statement. "Under Jamie Dimon’s leadership, JPMorgan Chase has become one of the main bankrollers of the morally bankrupt private detention industry, and we will not allow them to fly under the radar while they profit from our pain."

The groups behind the "Corporate Backers of Hate" campaign also organized a protest at the New Jersey home of a Wells Fargo board member Tuesday and protests in Las Vegas and North Carolina.

Photos courtesy Make The Road New York