Indian-origin climate protester who disrupted US Open charged with criminal trespass

New York, Sep 11 (PTI) A 50-year-old Indian-origin climate protester who glued his bare feet to the stadium floor as part of the protest to end the use of fossil fuels during the prestigious US Open here last week has been charged with criminal trespassing along with another activist, according to media reports.

According to the New York Police Department, two men were charged after their protest at the US Open disrupted a tennis match held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 7.

Sayak Mukhopadhyay of White Plains, New York, was charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, and Gregory Schwedock, 35, of New York City, was charged with criminal trespass, NBC News reported.

Mr Mukhopadhyay was among the four environmental activists who disrupted the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands on September 7 interrupting the tennis match between American Coco Gauff and Czech Karolina Muchova for about 50 minutes.

The activists belonged to a group called Extinction Rebellion and wore shirts that read, “End Fossil Fuels.” Police said the two men were arrested and charged on September 7.

Mr Mukhopadhyay told NBC News he glued his feet to the ground to “achieve a significant and sustained disruption that’s going to make people stop and think that business as usual cannot continue.” “There is no tennis on a dead planet. There is no art on a dead planet, everything that we take for granted as our way of life will cease to exist,” Mr Mukhopadhyay was quoted as saying.

Extinction Rebellion, an environmental activist group, took credit for the unusual protest.

Mr Mukhopadhyay moved to New York from his native Kolkata 25 years ago. “India is something I constantly think about because I grew up there and I am keenly aware of how low the level of resource consumption and energy consumption is there,” Extinction Rebellion quoted him as saying.