by Nick Pope
A crowd of climate activists blocked the doors of the Federal Reserve building in New York City on Monday morning, footage posted to Twitter shows.
Scores of protesters locked arms in front of the building to deny employees and officials entry, and the activists chanted protest slogans while blocking the exits, footage posted to Twitter shows. Numerous groups, including Climate Defiance, were reportedly involved in the protest, which came ahead of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly meeting in NYC to discuss climate policy set to occur this week.
“Breaking: as we write we are shutting down the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,” Climate Defiance tweeted on Monday. “Fed Chair Jerome Powell is a climate criminal. He must be brought to justice. Today we stand in the pouring rain, arm-in-arm with dozens of partners, to do so.”
Numerous protesters were arrested for the disturbance, according to Twitter posts from New York Communities for Change. The activists chanted “arrest the real criminals, arrest the climate criminals” as police moved in, footage posted to Twitter shows.
The group also claimed “revolution” was “in the air” and that “it cannot come soon enough,” according to Climate Defiance’s Twitter post.
Climate Defiance is one of a number of disruptive environmentalist protest groups receiving funding from the Climate Emergency Fund (CEF), a U.S. based nonprofit that bankrolls confrontational green activism across the globe. Some of CEF’s prominent donors include Hillary Clinton’s Onward Together organization, Hollywood writer Adam McKay and “Succession” star Jeremy Strong, according to CEF’s 2022 annual report.
While Climate Defiance may not have been the only group targeting the Fed on Monday, it is not the first time that their brand of eco-activism has taken aim at the institution. In August, members of the group traveled to protest the Fed’s meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which resulted in security guards slamming two activists to the floor.
The protest group considers climate change to be “an existential crisis that threatens every fiber of every being in every corner of the world,” according to its website. The group has made headlines in recent months for crashing a House office building, shouting down Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and disrupting an event with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
The Monday protest in front of the Fed followed a large march of climate activists through the streets of NYC on Sunday, according to The New York Times.
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Nick Pope is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Climate Defiance Protest” by Climate Defiance.
