Dear Commons Community,
It was a busier than usual day at the Statue of Liberty yesterday which typically attracts about 20,000 visitors every July 4th. Members of Rise and Resist, a group formed after the 2016 presidential election, hung a banner calling for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 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.”
Later in the day, a woman, Therese Okoumou, started climbing the Statue in support of the Rise and Resist protest. Throughout the afternoon, Ms. Okoumou, waved 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. She was brought down at 6:30 pm by the New York Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit.
Tony
