Arrested Statue of Liberty Climber Identified as Congolese National
Arrested Statue of Liberty Climber Identified as Congolese National
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NYPD via AP5 Jul 20181,387
The woman who climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday is in federal custody and has been identified as a Congolese national.
Therese Patricia Okoumou, 44, who immigrated to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and lives in Staten Island, was taken into federal custody Wednesday night for allegedly breaking a federal regulation prohibiting people from unfurling banners on the monument, the New York Post reported.
Okoumou allegedly engaged in a three-hour standoff with authorities before officers escorted her down from the Statue of Liberty. Authorities arrested six people participating in the demonstration.
The left-wing activist group Rise and Resist NYC, which organized a protest near the statue earlier on Wednesday to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, said she unfurled a large banner with the words “ABOLISH ICE” near the statue’s pedestal.
Members of the group initially distanced themselves from her but admitted later she had been a part of the activist group. The group claims none of its members had been aware she would scale the base of the statue.
Wednesday’s arrest is not Okoumou’s first run-in with the law.
In 2017, she was arrested and charged with allegedly obstructing governmental administration, trespassing, and unlawful assembly for protesting outside a Department of Labor building in downtown Manhattan and refusing to obey police commands.
In 2011, the New York City Department of Sanitation hit her with $4,500 in fines for illegally posting flyers on Manhattan’s utility poles, advertising her services as a personal trainer.
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Trump mocks 'clown' protester who climbed Statue of Liberty
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Therese Okoumou is surrounded by supporters as she leaves Federal court, Thursday, July 5, 2018, in New York. Okoumou, who climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty on a busy Fourth of July in what prosecutors called a “dangerous ...
By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 5, 2018
President Trump called a Congolese immigrant protester who scaled the Statue of Liberty on the 4th of July a “clown.”
“You saw that clown yesterday on the Statue of Liberty,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign rally in Montana.
Referring to the law-enforcement officials who captured the protester, Mr. Trump asked the crowd, “You saw the guys that went up there? I wouldn’t have done it. I would have said let’s get some nets, and let’s wait ‘til she comes down. Just get some nets.”
The president marveled at the law-enforcement officials who captured the woman: “Did you see those guys, the bravery of doing that? What a group. We protect ICE and our border patrol and our law enforcement.”
On Independence Day, Therese Okoumou of the Democratic Republic of the Congo scaled the base of the Statue of Liberty, prompting an evacuation of tourists on Liberty Island. She clung to her perch near the feet of Lady Liberty for hours before being captured by officers from the New York Police Department.
On Thursday, she was charged in federal court with trespassing, interference with agency functions and disorderly conduct. She posted bail.
Referring to the tough job performed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mr. Trump said, “We’re going to protect ICE. They protect us, and we protect them.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...r-mocked-clow/
Who is Therese Patricia Okoumou, the woman who tried to scale the Statue of Liberty t
Who is Therese Patricia Okoumou, the woman who tried to scale the Statue of Liberty to protest immigration policy?
By JOHN ANNESE, KERRY BURKE and JANON FISHER
| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JUL 04, 2018 | 7:00 PM
The woman arrested for scaling the base of the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday as part of a protest against U.S. immigration policy is an immigrant herself and an active participant in the resistance movement against President Trump, according to fellow demonstrators.
Therese Patricia Okoumou, 44, of Staten Island, was born and educated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but she has lived in New York for at least the last 10 years, records show.
She joined the group Rise and Resist, which unfurled an “Abolish ICE” banner at the base of the statue on Wednesday, a few months ago and has been taking part in about one protest a week with the group, according to member Jay Walker.
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Okoumou is helped down from the Statue of Liberty by police after scaling it on Independence Day. (Courtesy NBC 4 New York)
“She’s been an active member of Rise and Resist for four or five months,” Walker said. “She’s participated in quite a few of our actions.”
The group disavowed her lawbreaking stunt on their social media posts, but they expressed concern for her well-being.
“No one in the group knew this was going to happen,” Walker said. “We don’t know if she did it on the spur of the moment or if she had been planning it beforehand.”
He said he could see her at the base of the statue.
“She was standing on the platform, touching her foot,” he said. “I hope when they took her down they didn’t injure her. That’s our main concern.”
She was arrested and charged with federal trespassing, disorderly conduct and other charges. She’s scheduled to be arraigned in Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday.
Okoumou works as a personal trainer by profession, according to a 2009 Staten Island Advance article, and she’s bounced around the city and the Catskills working as a physical therapist.
In August 2017, she was arrested for trespassing, obstruction of government administration and misdemeanor assault during a demonstration against the state Department of Labor on Varick Street. Okoumou, who carried a protest placard, had covered her mouth with tape and refused police demands that she leave the building. She refused to enter an ambulance by lying on the ground, kicking her feet and flailing her arms, according to police. She was charged with misdemeanor assault after one of the cops was hit during her flailing, authorities said.
Public records show that Okoumou has a long history of fighting social justice battles, even her own.
In 2003, she filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit, charging racial discrimination after being fired from a job as a staffer at a battered women’s home called Safe Horizons. Okoumou’s boss complained that she was rude to other staffers and clients at the shelter, according to court records. Her lawyer eventually withdrew from the case and she represented herself, unsuccessfully for the remainder of the case.
She won $1,500 in a 2009 racial discrimination lawsuit against a Staten Island towing company, County Recovery.
She unsuccessfully filed a human rights complaint in 2007 against a group home in Staten Island for racial discrimination.
Neighbors on Staten Island said that they were surprised by her statue stunt, but not by her reasoning.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Tito Rivera, the superintendent of her apartment building said. “She’s very outspoken about the Trump administration.”
A woman who lives in her building said she wears her passions on her sleeve.
“She can be very nice and she can be a b---h,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “When I vacuum, she bangs on the wall. I bang back, and she put a dent in my door.”
The two later reconciled after Okoumou took a liking to the woman’s dog.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...704-story.html
