Fake Blood Covers Streets: Peaceful Protesters Fight for the Climate Policy Reform

Policemen stand near Charging Bull amidst Extinction Rebellion protesters. || Photo credit to Mitchell Manley

On Monday, an organized civil disobedience movement, Extinction Rebellion, descended on Lower Manhattan. The group staged “die-ins” at the “Charging Bull” where 26 protesters were arrested, according to police. The large group then moved north to the corner of Wall St. and Broad St., in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Extinction Rebellion, often abbreviated to XR, is a nonviolent organization whose aims are to fight climate change on the sociopolitical level. Their demands, according to their website are three pronged.

One, “Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.”

Two, “Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025.”

And three, “Government must create, and be led by the decisions of, a citizens' assembly on climate and ecological justice.”

According to a letter sent to the Guardian, XR was founded in late October of 2018, when 94 academics in the UK signed the letter.

Protesters, who were met with a strong but reserved police presence, doused the Charging Bull statue with fake blood, with the implication being that, “all of the blood of the world is on Wall St’s hands,” one XR spokesperson said on live interview. One protester climbed on top of the Bull, standing and waving the organization’s flag.

Fake blood also covered Broad St, in front of the Stock Exchange.

After the trong moved on from the corner of Wall and Broad, a few protesters hung back to clean the fake blood off the street.

“I don’t know what the formula is, but I know it’s biodegradable and comes off with just water,” one man said. “We have to clean it up or else we get fined a bunch of money.”

Jackson Fordyce, a King’s senior, was in the middle of the crowd when the protest started. “They counted down ‘three, two, one,’ and then cried, ‘this is a climate crisis,’ and popped balloons of fake blood on their heads and fell over, pretending to be dead,” he said. It was like a flashmob of some sort, with sign-holding protesters nearby.

CityRyan TurnerOctober 8, 2019ryanturner, Secondary Feature