21 arrested in two Downtown protests Tuesday

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Twenty-one demonstrators involved in two Downtown protests were arrested Tuesday and charged with trespassing.

Police made 16 of the arrests at a protest at the Hyatt Regency about 11:15 a.m. and five women were arrested at the protest at the Loop Bank of America location about 12:30 p.m., police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said. All of those arrested were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing, she said.

Action Now, the group responsible for the Bank of America protest at LaSalle and Adams streets, said the five women were between 55 and 80 years old and were among demonstrators who dumped trash and furniture from a vacant Bank of America property at the downtown branch.

Sixteen others of unidentified ages and genders were arrested at Hyatt protest, at 151 E. Wacker Dr.

The group’s website accuses Bank of America of not properly securing or maintaining foreclosed properties it owns, including the West Side home where the garbage came from.

Protestors brought the trash to “confront the bank with the effects the foreclosure crises they caused and the dangerous vacant buildings they leave unsecured and in disrepair,” according to the website.

A Bank of America spokesperson could not be reached for comment early Wednesday.

Stand Up Chicago staged the Hyatt Regency protest to target a meeting there of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, according to a release. The group describes itself on its website as a coalition of community and labor organizations and families demanding jobs and community investment.

The same group also staged a Monday afternoon protest that saw thousands of chanting demonstrators march down Michigan Avenue before converging into a river of frustration, anger and dissatisfaction outside the Art Institute’s Modern Wing, where a reception was being held for the Futures Industry Association’s annual Chicago Expo.

Police reported only minor crowd control issues from Monday’s rally and cited 24 people for being in the roadway. The only person charged in connection with the protest was a Mobile, Ala. man charged with aggravated battery for punching a police officer.