Pro-Palestine protester scales statue in Union Square, removed by cops
A Pro-Palestine march from Brooklyn to Manhattan ended with seven protesters arrested, according to a police source — and the removal of one man who had scaled a statue of George Washington.
Protesters with the group Within Our Lifetime gathered at Cadman Plaza West in downtown Brooklyn around 4 p.m. before marching across the Brooklyn Bridge to their final destination at Union Square, where they arrived around 7 p.m.
About 500 people were still at the park when an unidentified man climbed to the top of the 26-foot statue of George Washington on the south side of the park and shouted 'I'm not coming down until there's peace in the Middle East, peace in Ukraine and peace in India!'
'I want peace in the world!' he declared.
The man continued shouting while clinging to the founding father's head until police emergency services went up in a cherry picker forklift and wrestled him off the statue.
The man did not address the crowd after cops brought him down and placed him in a waiting police vehicle.
'He said it was his birthday,' an officer who spoke to the man told the Daily News. 'Funny way to celebrate.'
Earlier in the protest, police arrested seven people, a source told The News. The NYPD could not immediately confirm the arrests.
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