Citigroup protesters blocking HQ entrance claim employee shouted ‘Get a machine gun and f–king kill them all’
An alleged Citigroup employee lost her cool this week as protesters blocked the entrance to the financial giant’s New York headquarters — and was caught on video angrily shouting “Punch him in the f–king head!” and “Get a machine gun and f–king kill them all!”
Exclusive video footage obtained by The Post shows a bespectacled woman in a gray shirt and orange leggings holding a Citigroup employee badge — and apparently exasperated over activists who have been blocking the entrance to the bank’s lower Manhattan offices for the past three months.
“Just punch him in the f–king head! Punch him in the f–king head!” the woman yells as one of the protesters attempts to block Citi workers entering the building with the help of the police.
The woman then shouts at the rabble rousers – who have taken aim at Citi over its ties to the oil industry and, more recently, alleged ties to the Israeli military – “Get a machine gun and f–cking kill them all!”
As the woman turns away from the building entrance, the protester shooting the video begins trailing her.
“What’d you say? You’d like to get a machine gun and kill us all?” the activist asks the woman, who shakes her head and keeps walking.
“These comments are unacceptable,” a Citi spokesperson told The Post. “We are looking into the matter and it will be addressed appropriately.”
The incident is the latest example of tensions boiling over outside Citi’s headquarters in lower Manhattan this summer as protesters continue to obstruct employees from entering and leaving the building.
A week earlier, a separate video obtained by The Post showed a man – who protesters identified as Citigroup general counsel Arthur Kohn – violently shoving a young woman who was protesting outside Citi headquarters. A Citi spokesperson said the protesters’ claims were false and that an employee was hit by a barricade before pushing it out of his way.
Protesters at the Monday demonstration claimed they identified the woman as an executive assistant to the heads of the financial strategy group who has worked at Citi for nearly 25 years, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The protester who recorded the Monday video told The Post that around 50 demonstrators had arrived at Citi headquarters by 7:30 a.m. to link arms and block employees from building entrance points – as they have been doing every morning over the past three months.
The protester said they will continue to gather outside Citi every day until their demands are met: “Stop funding fossil fuel expansion. It is that simple and it is possible for them to do.”
The NYPD told The Post it has made around 200 arrests during the Citi protests for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and other charges since April. Police officers made another 10 arrests on Monday.
Some have criticized the protesters, saying they have the right to demonstrate peacefully – not the right to block employees from their place of work.
But the protester said climate activists have been trying to peacefully protest for years “and it hasn’t worked because Citi has their heels so dug in.”
“[We have the] right to defend literally the future of this planet,” the protester said. “Citibank is profiting off the end of the world.”
As tensions heated up, Citi urged its employees to “keep their cool” in an internal memo in June.
Protesters have shifted from climate activists dressed in orca costumes outside headquarters chanting “sink their yachts” to include pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“I know many of you have been offended by some of the language and actions, as have I, but we have to keep our cool,” Ed Skyler, Citigroup’s head of enterprise services and public affairs, said in a copy of the June memo obtained by The Post.
“We respect the right to protest, but not at the expense of our colleagues’ safety nor when others perpetuate abuse or hatred,” Skyler said. “Simply put, we do not tolerate acts of intimidation and violence, and we denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia, acts of hatred, discrimination and prejudice of any kind.”
The protesters have targeted an alleged financial agreement by Citigroup to finance Israel’s purchase of fighter jets from the US government.
While Skyler called Citi’s 30-year presence in Israel a point of “pride” in the memo, he said protesters are spreading false information and that the financing of military equipment for the US and its allies requires senior level approval.
Citigroup “will not directly finance” biological, chemical or nuclear weapons and it is rare for the bank to be asked to finance military equipment, a copy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile, climate activists are calling for the major US bank to cut ties with the oil industry.
A spokesperson from climate activist group Summer of Heat said Citigroup has “poured $396.3 billion into coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris agreement went into effect in 2016,” citing a Banking Dive report.
“While it is very frustrating when access to our building is temporarily blocked, we have to let the professionals do their job,” Skyler said in the memo, thanking local law enforcement.
