‘Spiderman’ Alain Robert Makes Political Statement, Scales New York Times Building–Newly Updated
Posted by Jason A. Hendricks on June 5, 2008 |
Alain Robert, or ‘Spiderman’ as he has come to be known in the Press, has allegedly just scaled the New York Times Building in New York City. Robert, a french stuntman, has gained world-wide notoriety for his outlandish stunts of scaling some of the world’s tallest buildings.
I have covered a few of his past exploits, but this is the first time, that I am aware of, that Alain Robert has actually made a huge political statement in the process. He scaled the 52 story Times building using no ropes or harnesses, as is his custom, and was shortly arrested after reaching the top.
Alain Robert ended up carrying a banner to the top with him. The banner read “Global Warming Kills More People Than 9/11 Every Week.” Kind of a gutsy statement to make in downtown New York City. Also, with the New York Times being one of the world’s highest circulated newspapers, you can begin to see why this is such a big deal. Can anybody predict the front page?
At this time, I don’t have any more details to provide. I do know that the area was taped off by police and the sidewalks were cleared in case he would fall, but this is also pretty customary when it comes to his building climbing attempts.
Alain Robert has scaled some of the tallest buildings in the world, including the Eiffel Tower, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and the Sydney Opera House. He was taken in to custody at 12:22 this afternoon, eastern time. When I hear more, I will update.
By the way, of course the New York Times would have a decent VIDEO of the incident–Go check it out! While your at it, you might as well stop by Alain Robert’s own website, which has a bit more info on the cause he is trying to draw attention to.
This article has been recently updated. Click below to go to the update.
It looks like there may be a bit more to this story. I have now seen a report that a second climber has also scaled the New York Times Building. He has also been promptly arrested. A bit odd, ‘Spiderman’ usually works alone.
It is also being mentioned that Alain Robert and his co-conspirator were doing this stunt for “World Environment Day” and to “create support for far greater and urgent action from world leaders on global warming” according to a Press Release from Robert.
New York’s finest aren’t taking to kindly to the publicity stunt. They mention having more important things to do than waste their time on such antics.
Thousands of people flocked to the area to witness the spectacle taking place on the New York Times building. This required massive security to be rushed into place to keep the spectators away. Obviously charges are pending on the Dynamic Duo, but there is still quite the mystery in regards to who the second climber was. It was noted earlier that the man in charge at the New York Times is an avid climber, but the Times reports that they had no idea this was going to take place. Hmm…could this be the guy? Authorities have failed to release the other person’s name.