Greenpeace members arrested trying to scale Trump Tower with banner

Greenpeace activists raise a banner on the side of the Trump Tower in downtown Chicago on Friday afternoon. Seven protesters were arrested. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times
Seven people, including at least four Greenpeace activists, were arrested Friday afternoon while attempting to scale the Trump Tower downtown to raise a banner protesting the administration’s stance on global warming.
Five males and two females were taken into custody during a “disturbance” shortly after 1:30 p.m. in the 400 block of North Wabash, Chicago Police said.
Charges were pending “for possible damage to property and trespassing,” police said.

Greenpeace activists hung a banner from Trump Tower Friday afternoon. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

The organization sent out a statement at 1:27 p.m. that “activists with Greenpeace USA are at Trump International Hotel in downtown Chicago, preparing to send a message that the Trump Administration can’t ignore.”It said, “They are pulling a large banner from the ground to the giant ‘TRUMP’ letters on the building,” the advisory continued.
The sign, reading “RESIST DEFEND” was raised about 5 stories before police made the arrests.
In another statement issued after the arrests, Greenpeace said four of its members raised the 50-by-35-foot banner, “but were detained before they could lock it into place.”

Police and building security watch as Greenpeace activists hung a banner from Trump Tower Friday afternoon. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

“This action demonstrates that we will not accept the threats that the Trump administration poses to people here and around the world,” Taylor Blevons, one of the activists who raised the banner, said in the statement.“Ignoring the science of climate change and removing us from the Paris Climate Agreement is just another indication that the billionaires who have hijacked our democracy are putting the short term profit of corporations over people and the planet,” Blevons said.