An Occupy Wall Street protestor who scaled a 70-foot art sculpture in Lower Manhattan early this morning demanded a cigarette, a jacket and Mayor Bloomberg’s resignation before the NYPD plucked him from the structure just after 9 a.m..
Dylan Spoelstra, 24, from Toronto, Canada was brought to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation after voluntarily surrendering to the NYPD. His antics ushered in day of several planned Occupy Wall Street marches and rallies which should take place in Manhattan this afternoon — even though Mayor Bloomberg yesterday warned that police are going to start cracking down on the permit-less events.
Spoelstra, who had been ticketed by the NYPD for public urination at 3:14 a.m., told his protestor pals that he was going to climb the bright red artwork known as “Joie de Vivre” on Broadway on the west side of Zuccotti Park. Shortly before 6 a.m., after eyeing the ring of cops standing nearby for several minutes, he dashed across the street and clambered up one of the large vertical beams, prompting an officer to call for back up.
“He went up like a ring-tailed lemur,” said Patrick Griese, 41, who held Spoelstra’s jacket for him.
The 24-year-old tried to reach the top of the structure but ran out of steam at about 30 feet, witnesses said. He perched on a beam and shouted out a list of his demands, until the NYPD hostage unit was brought in to deal with him.
Spoelstra initially demanded that 15 percent of staffers on the FDNY and NYPD be bisexual, witnesses said, but then changed his mind and said he wanted 15 of the police officers on scene to leave.
He also told cops he wouldn’t come down until Mayor Bloomberg resigned — and asked for a cigarette and a jacket to get warm.
The NYPD and FDNY sealed off the area around the sculpture and placed several airbags below it in case Spoelstra fell or jumped. Spoelstra was given a special cell phone to talk directly with an NYPD negotiator. The youngster, in a bright orange Baltimore Orioles tee-shirt and black pants, chatted amiably with the ESU officer who was sent up on a cherry picker to coax him down, the NYPD said.
“He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” said Griese, who met Spoelstra a few days ago at the rowdy Zuccotti Park encampment that’s now in its second month and causing increasing friction with New Yorkers who live nearby.
“Let him stay up there until next year. Who cares?” shouted one fed up woman who spotted Spoelstra as she walked by.