Statue of Liberty shut down after protester climbs base
WOMAN PROTESTING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S IMMIGRATION POLICIES REFUSED TO COME DOWN
Authorities cleared visitors from the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July after a woman protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies climbed onto its base and refused to come down. About three hours later, police officers followed the woman onto the statue and took her safely into custody.
The stand-off created an unexpected spectacle in New York Harbor that culminated not long before the planned Independence Day fireworks were set to start nearby on the Hudson River. Television networks aired live coverage through the afternoon, showing a continuous video feed of the protester as she moved around the base of the statue.
The woman started climbing shortly after 3pm on what officials described as one of the busiest days of the year for the national monument. National Park Service officials said that more than 20,000 tourists typically visit the monument each July 4.
Afternoon show
Throughout the afternoon, the woman, identified by federal officials as Therese Okoumou, waved what looked like a T-shirt and reclined in a crease of the statue’s robe. The copper is only about one-tenth of an inch thick, and officials feared she could damage the statue.
Before long, police officers and park rangers gathered beneath Okoumou after she refused their orders to come down. Attached to ropes, rescuers from the New York Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit climbed up and cornered her at about 6:30pm.
Okoumou is in federal custody and was expected to appear in Manhattan federal court yesterday, a spokesman for the US attorney’s office said.
Jerry Willis, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said park officials, prompted by security concerns, started evacuating visitors from the island about 3:30pm About 4,500 people were on the island at the time, and they had all left within about an hour, Willis said.
The episode came after the arrest of seven people in a separate demonstration at the statue on Wednesday. The earlier protest involved members of Rise and Resist, a group formed after the 2016 presidential election, who hung a banner calling for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished. Members of the group, angered by the Trump administration’s immigration policies, called the agency a “threat to our liberty and way of life.”
Organisers of the Rise and Resist protest said Okoumou’s actions were separate from the group’s planned demonstration, which she had participated in.