A group of protesters set up a table Wednesday at the Wells Fargo & Co. bank in Gainesville and began selling two types of water bottles.
For about 10 minutes, they attempted to sell bottles with “oil water,” which was really just water with black food coloring, for $1, and clean water for $100 at the bank, located at 104 N. Main St.
“This is definitely not our first attempt and it won’t be our last,” said Joseph Ryan after employees at the bank asked them to leave.
The protesters stopped at the bank after marching from Turlington to the bank, a response after President Donald Trump’s administration announced Tuesday its plan to approve the final permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline, said Ryan, an organizer of the protest.
Abee, a 20-year-old who declined to give her last name, makes a poster that reads "Solidarity with Standing Rock" in front of the Chemistry Lab Building on Wednesday afternoon. She and two other organizers with Mississippi Stand sought support from students on campus to join them in marching to Wells Fargo & Co.
Wells Fargo is one of 17 financial institutions that will contribute to the cost of the pipeline, wrote, Michael Gray, a spokesperson for the bank, in an email.
During the march, protesters carried signs that read, “Lay off the frack pipe” as they yelled, “I stand with Standing Rock because water is life,” through a megaphone.
The group stood on the corner of West University Avenue and South Main Street for about 30 minutes before Gainesville Police Officer James Franklin told them they needed to have a permit to protest using a megaphone.
Because the group didn’t have one, the group headed toward the bank. The water bottles were to represent how water will not be free for long, Ryan said. Customers in the bank shot them strange looks.
Abee, a 20-year-old who declined to give her last name, leads a couple of protesters on Newell Drive to Wells Fargo & Co. Abee is holding a water bottle that she says contains the parts per million of oil allowed in our water by our government.
The goal was to create an uncomfortable situation for everyone to symbolize the uncomfortable feeling that may occur if Floridians no longer have access to clean water, he said.
Karrie Ford, who also organized the event, said she wanted to sent the bank a message.
“I just want to let Wells Fargo know that we see them,” she said.
Abee, a 20-year-old who declined to give her last name, and Joseph Ryan, 24, lead a small group of protesters on University Avenue while chanting, "You can't drink oil, keep it in the soil." The group met up with another group of protestors at the Wells Fargo & Co. bank, located at 104 N. Main St., in an attempt to ask them to divest from energy transfer partners. The group also aimed to stand in solidarity with the Dakota Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
