A man climbing up to the awning of a Chase Bank in Midtown Manhattan fell about 15 feet to the sidewalk during an Extinction Rebellion protest on Friday. He was yelling in pain after hitting the ground. The original plan had been to splash what appeared to be oil or paint onto the bank, but once he hit the ground, the Black substance began pouring out of his backpack and drip into the gutter in a dramatic scene.
An ambulance was requested to the scene and paramedics took the injured protester away in a neck brace.
The protest was originally scheduled to bring attention to big banks in the city who are funding an oil pipeline called Line 3.
Multiple locations in the city had climbers scaling walls and scaffolding to deliver their message.
Nypost said that they spoke to protester’s sister who stated that Kevin Clarke’s “pelvic area has been shattered in multiple places,” and his right elbow is also broken. “He won’t be able to move for several months.”
“What I can tell you is that he was a small business owner in Manhattan whose business was devastated by the COVID crisis,” she said he had joined Extinction Rebellion to fight climate change.
He was charged with reckless endangerment.
Kevin’s family has set up a gofundme me https://www.gofundme.com/f/climate-activist-kevin-clarke-needs-your-help?member=9815988&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
Extinction Rebellion are a climate activist group who do creative performative actions for climate related causes. They often use climate safe materials for their actions, like washable chalk spray instead of spray paint.
Activists were seen cleaning ap after their actions during most of the events we covered over the years.
Information about Pipe Line 3, the subject of the protest, can be found here: http://www.stopline3.org: “Line 3 is a proposed pipeline expansion to bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. It was proposed in 2014 by Enbridge, a Canadian pipeline company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the US. Enbridge seeks to build a new pipeline corridor through untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples, through the Mississippi River headwaters to the shore of Lake Superior. “
Video by Scootercaster and @NewYorkCityPeople
