During the 2nd WW, President Roosevelt made an executive order for all safe deposit to be searched. His goal was gold which was confiscated. Banks will comply. Keep that in mind

I don't think all bankers are cronies. The "too big to fail" ones with tight relationships to the federal reserve banks certainly are. But your small town local bank is almost certainly crony-free and are living in a world where they have to compete with the cronies.

Putting your money on deposit with your bank isn't (necessarily) supporting the cronies. Banks use deposits to loan out money, and loans help drive economic growth, which is a good thing. The bank has charged you how much money for securely holding your money and settling your withdrawal demands? I bet it's been $0. Now, assuming your SDB is with the bank, you are asking them to provide less service, and charge you more for it. Bad economic decision, there.

Now, I am 100% in agreement with part of your post. Few people realize that putting money in your checking account is giving the bank an unsecured loan of your money, interest free. Who loans out money to people at 0% interest? Certainly not the bank! So, why should you do the same for them? The bank is providing a bit of service to you, so it is not as if it's completely a one-way street relationship. But they ought to provide some small amount of interest. The fact of the matter is, they don't need your money when the Fed is showering them with it. That's why checking accounts went to 0% over a decade ago. If not for Fed intervention in the economy, there would be a demand for cash that could only be satisfied with existing cash (not new cash printed into existence). In order to get the existing cash into the bank and staying there, banks would charge attractive interest rates on checking, savings, and CDs. The lack of interest rates given to deposits is not a result of greedy crony bankers. It's the fault of Fed ZIRP and QE.

You have every right to be angry at the crony bankers, but you have had no choice in stopping them. Your little action does nothing. This support for the crony bankers has been done via the federal government giving big wads of cash to "too big to fail" banks. That's money that will be repaid by collecting federal taxes from you. That money is confiscated before you ever get your paycheck.

what about a credit union? it's essentially a bank but not for profit and the board of directors is made up of and elected by members of the credit union.

Safe Deposit boxes can still be confiscated. You'd be better off with a safe at home than a safe deposit box. Not to mention if the bank is closed, for say a week like in Cyprus, you have no access to your cash.