Woman climbs Statue of Liberty as protesters busted for ‘Abolish ICE’ banner
A woman wearing a “Rise and Resist” shirt scaled the base of the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday — less than an hour after a group of people were busted for unfurling an “Abolish I.C.E” banner on Liberty Island.
NYPD aviation teams were responding to Liberty Island at around 1:33 p.m. after receiving reports about the female climber.
Cops said the woman appeared to be part of the group of protesters arrested for the banner stunt, but organizers claimed that this wasn’t the case.
“The climber on the Statue of Liberty has no connection to our #abolishice action earlier today,” tweeted Rise and Resist NYC, the activist organization that planned the banner demonstration.
The group announced the stunt on social media just moments before carrying it out Wednesday.
“Rise and Resist is at the Statue of Liberty demanding Trump and the GOP #AbolishICE, reunite families now, halt deportations, and end detention as a deterrent,” they wrote on Twitter. “We will fight every day until we end our brutal racist immigration policy.”
At least 10 people were arrested for the banner demonstration on Liberty Island, according to police sources. But all eyes seemed to be on the woman who was climbing.
“There’s a woman climbing the Statue of Liberty behind me!” tweeted one visitor. “Happy 4th!”
Another person said: “A woman is climbing the Statue of Liberty and people are being evacuated from the island. Either that, or I was reading the plot of a Marvel superhero movie when I thought I was reading the news.”
Photos posted on Twitter at around 4:30 p.m. showed cops trying to reason with the woman. She appeared to be dressed in all black, with pink shoes.
“I applaud the woman that climbed the Statue of Liberty,” wrote one Twitter user. “I can’t imagine how hard that was. I get winded after climbing the stairs at my house.”
United States Park Police are working with NYPD aviation teams to get the woman down safely Wednesday. Officials were impressed with how far the woman made it, but weren’t taking the act lightly.
“The facade of the monument there is a granite rock-like surface that the average person wouldn’t be able to scale,” explained National Park Service spokesman Jerry Willis.
“But somebody with some climbing skills would be able to pull it off,” he told The Post. “An extremely dangerous stunt to pull.”
Willis said he felt bad for visitors who traveled to NYC just to see Lady Liberty on the 4th of July, only to get evacuated from Liberty Island.
“I think it’s very unfortunate,” he said. “We have people from all over the world who visit us. For many of them, it’s a once in a lifetime trip… People are moved when they get here. So to have their visit cut short or denied is extremely unfortunate. I’m really sad for people who had to leave the island or who weren’t able to get over here at all.”
Federal government sources said that at the end of the day, park officials are to blame due to the apparent lack of security.
“You don’t need to tower like Lady Liberty to be able to see that there’s a security lapse at the National Park Service,” a source said.
Negotiators were still trying to get the woman down Thursday as of 5 p.m.