TREE-HUG THUG MESS
Squeezin’ of the press in Queens
This is not the way to celebrate Earth Day.
A group of largely professional climate protesters blockaded the New York Post’s printing plant in an effort to send an environmental message early Friday — but only wound up attacking press freedom by preventing tens of thousands of New Yorkers from getting their newspapers.
Cops arrested 13 members of Extinction Rebellion NYC, who locked arms to block the entrance to the Queens printing press, which is used by The Post’s parent company, News Corp., to print both The Post and The Wall Street Journal — and also by The New York Times and USA Today’s publisher, Gannett, as well as Newsday.
The group admitted to trying to “disrupt the distribution of these corporations’ flagship daily publications” over what they claimed was a lack of climate-change coverage across major US media outlets.
“This morning’s puerile protest was an attack on press freedom, imposed a wasteful burden on the stretched resources of the New York Police Department, and generated unnecessary emissions that contributed to environmental degradation,” a News Corp. spokesperson said. “The protesters are unashamed polluters.”
The Post was unable to deliver more than 73,000 copies of its Friday newspaper after the protesters prevented delivery trucks from leaving the facility. More than 30,000 copies of The Wall Street Journal failed to go out as well. It wasn’t clear how drastically the Times was affected.
Despite the protesters’ claim that media outlets are essentially ignoring the climate crisis, News Corp. has a goal to reduce its fuel and electricity carbon emissions 60% by 2030 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company’s initiatives resulted in a 36% reduction across operational and supply-chain scopes of emissions last year.
Footage of the ordeal showed dozens of protesters connecting themselves together and blocking the entrance in what’s known as the “sleeping dragon method” — a common tactic in which protesters interlock their arms with metal pipes.
“This was obviously a very well-rehearsed, it was a very well-funded and a very deliberate operation,” said The Post’s assistant general foreman, Mike Moran.
He called the protest “disgusting” and said he’d never experienced anything like it in his 30year career.
The protesters were taken into custody shortly after midnight and charged with obstruction of governmental administration, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, cops told The Post. They were all slapped with desk-appearance tickets.
Those charged include: Jordan Bridges, 23; Holly White, 58; Catherine Bock, 73; William Regan, 43; Sarah Durand, 65; Johannes Vulto, 62; James Gordon, 63; Sibyla Giles, 20; Rory Varrato, 33; Janet Apuzzo, 56; James Merewether, 80; Seward Ogden, 62; and Maria Ogden, 59.
Some of the eco-warriors are aging hippies and professional activists who’ve had previous run-ins with cops at similar unruly demonstrations, according to social media and previous reports.
Varrato is a Ph.D. student at Columbia University who cofounded the group’s New York City offshoot back in 2018, while Regan describes himself on LinkedIn as an “America community organizer” for Extinction Rebellion and that his work with the group “takes up most of my time.”