Occupy Port Townsend is taking credit for creating jobs: a Groundhog Day protest against foreclosure apparently prompted Bank of America to hire two armed guards.

“It’s become apparent to Occupy PT that we are job creators,” said Occupy activist Jack Range of Port Townsend. “We created two positions in our town and I don’t know if anyone else has done that in the last two months.”

“I have absolutely no doubt they are there because of us,” agreed Matt Ready, an Occupy member who was also part of a group of about 40 people who pitched a tent in front of the bank Feb. 2, sang anti-greed songs and put yellow “crime scene” tape up to block the drive-through teller lanes for about 90 minutes.

Although Bank of America officials won’t comment on security measures other than to say they make the well-being of customers a top priority, Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily said it is unusual for a small town bank to hire private security guards.

No other bank in Port Townsend has guards – armed or not – positioned at bank entrances.

“To my knowledge, it’s the first time I’ve seen it since I moved to Washington,” Daily said, a police officer here since 1994. He said it was common for banks to hire their own security in New Mexico, where he lived previously.

Daily said he’s not aware of any threats to Bank of America. But, a vice president of the bank said, after the Feb. 2 event, one employee felt threatened and was accosted, said Daily. He did not know details of that incident.

“He said the bank employees were scared, but I said I was there in uniform,” Daily said of a conversation with the bank executive.

At least three city police officers showed up in response to the Feb. 2 protest – which was announced in advance. At the end of the protest, Daily said, the officers escorted all bank employees to their cars. No one was arrested.

Although the bank did lock its doors, protesters did not try to stop people from entering the bank, Daily said.

First one guard, then two

Shortly after the Feb. 2 event, one security guard from G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. was stationed outside the bank's front door. That guard, who identified himself, said he was getting a lot of inquiries about where public restrooms were located, but no one asked him why he was there. He indicated that his presence was for security purposes. He left and was replaced several weeks later by two guards.

One guard stands at the bank's back entrance, the other at the front along Water Street. They decline to talk on the record to the Leader, although have been polite with every-day exchanges about the weather and local restaurants. When the Leader told the security guards March 19 it was doing a story on the elevated security and would be photographing them, they both went inside. One guard said to call Bank of America for any comment.

Bank officials in Port Townsend routinely defer comment to corporate headquarters and a media spokesperson.

“The well-being of our customers and employees is our top priority, and we continuously take a variety of security measures to ensure our customers and employees can conduct business,” wrote Bank of America media relations manager Britney Sheehan in response to an email inquiry from the Leader last week. “However, in order to maintain the integrity of our security operations, Bank of America doesn’t publicly disclose our security practices.”

“Individuals or groups are free to assemble on public property; we only intervene if their actions are impeding customers doing business or if the situation becomes unsafe,” she said.

Sheehan declined to answer questions about how long the guards might be stationed in Port Townsend or how much it is costing the bank. The two guards apparently are staying in a local hotel. The first guard was commuting from Tacoma, he told the Leader.

According to a business card a guard gave to the Leader, G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. is the company that Bank of America has hired.

That company does not appear to have a spokesperson. After three phone calls, one official with G4S said to contact Bank of America for any comment.

Cost of security

Joe D’Amico, president of Security Services Northwest Inc., a security company based in Jefferson County, estimated Monday that it could be costing the bank about $800 a day to hire two bank protection officers and pay for their housing. That would translate to about $250,000 a year.

“If their employees are feeling threatened, then the bank has to do something to safeguard their employees, and this may be what they are doing,” D’Amico said. “There’s usually more going on. We don’t know if someone is sending threatening letters.”

D’Amico said he also has seen at least one guard at the Bank of America branch in Sequim. “Maybe it’s peninsula-wide,” he speculated.

D’Amico said he was not asked to bid on the contract for security services, but that he wasn’t offended that the big bank wouldn’t think about local security. He said it’s typical for large corporations to get deals with nationwide companies, which G4S says it is on its website.

Not deterred

The presence of guards at the bank is not a deterrent to future protests, said Matt Ready of Occupy.

“Not in the least,” he said. “A group of us went to Olympia on Feb. 29 in a national event and there were armed guards waiting out front. It doesn’t deter. No one I’ve spoken to in Occupy Port Townsend is deterred,” he said.

“If anything, I appreciate that every day they are there reminding the community about our protest with their presence,” Ready said.

“I think the initial reaction is to laugh, but we realize these guys are working folks, along with everyone inside the bank as well,” Range. “That’s what we’re here to support, the working people’s interest in the town.”

“If we do our job,” Range said Monday, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, “they should be able to get some housing here eventually.”

Ready said, “We don’t live in a real democracy anymore. It’s a corporatocracy, a country where wealth and corporate power have undue influence, if not outright control, over our country.

“BOA can permanently station a SWAT team out front if they want, it’s not going to dissuade me from protesting.”

Another assembly is planned for May 1.

Foreclosure pledge

Occupy PT members are going bank-to-bank seeking pledges to help people going through foreclosure.

And Bank of America was one of the first approached.

“Whereas the Bank of America Port Townsend branch is committed to the dignity of the citizens of Port Townsend and whereas many families in the community may lose their homes because the banks got bailed out while the people got sold out,” is the preamble to a pledge Range, Ready and two other Occupy PT members went to the Bank of America with Feb. 24.

One of the Occupy members is a Bank of America customer, Range said.

The four asked to speak with branch manager Jan Carter. They wanted her to sign a petition pledging to inform homeowners of the loan modification process, to inform people of their rights, to review documents before they are submitted and to write letters of support for customers, among other things.

Once inside, Ready and Range said Carter’s husband, Bob, came up to them and asked them to leave. Bob Carter said he was there to protect his wife, Ready said.

“One of the first things he said was, ‘There are armed guards here.’ And we said, ‘That’s great. We’re here to talk to the bank manager,’” Ready said.

Bob Carter said Tuesday he would like to comment, but can’t.

Range said Occupy members told Jan Carter something like, “We know you are a good community member and a good person, and you’ve been here a long time and have done a great job, and we’d like to continue that by signing this pledge.”

She declined, he said.

“We did find someone at the bank who said they would be proactive [about foreclosures],” Range said.

“There’s a lot of emotion there,” Ready acknowledged.

“We didn’t go in there to cause an altercation,” said Range.

Since then, Occupy members have moved on to ask other bank managers in Port Townsend to make a similar commitment and sign the pledge.

A Wells Fargo bank branch manager talked to the group. While that manager also declined to sign the pledge, he did say he worked to follow the guidelines laid out in the pledge, Ready and Range said. A Chase bank manager also expressed interest in helping people, but he, too, couldn’t sign the pledge.

“It’s always an interesting experience the first time you go [into a bank],” said Range. “It’s emotional. You are trying to do this dance of getting to know people and work through defensiveness on both sides.”

The two security guards were standing by during the conversation with Bob Carter and during a conversation Occupy members had shortly thereafter with another bank employee, whom they referred to as supportive.

Range, 25, was an unsuccessful candidate for Port Townsend City Council last year, but his strong showing did garner interest from the local Democratic Party.

He put the security guard hiring into perspective.

“If they are able to hire full-time security guards, maybe they can hire mortgage modification helpers or people who are on staff and whose main purpose is to assist people with loan modifications,” said Range.

And as for the guards standing outside, Range said, “Everybody should be buying them cups of coffee. It looks cold out there.”