Six folks have been arrested Saturday afternoon at a Tesla showroom in downtown Manhattan as “highly charged” protests towards Elon Musk proceed in New York Metropolis, throughout the nation and across the globe.
The protests have been slamming Tesla CEO Elon Musk — de facto chief of the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE — over his spearheading of the Trump administration’s authorities jobs- and funding-slashing agenda. There are additionally fears about Musk’s entry to personal information in his new function.
Round 200 to 250 to folks arrived on the midday motion outdoors the Tesla showroom within the Meatpacking District. They have been shortly bolstered by a contingent from the Ladies’s March from Washington Sq. Park who have been rallying for Worldwide Ladies’s Day and opposing the rollback of ladies’s rights.
They shouted chants, together with, “We need clean air, not another billionaire!” and “Elon Musk is not elected! Democracy must be protected!”
“Good crowd, lots of energy, maybe 300 people? It was big. The police shut down Washington St. and 13th St. and we filled the intersection,” mentioned West Village activist and filmmaker Zack Winestine. “The climate groups that organized it did a good job.”
Winestine is a member of the group Rise and Resist, which organized a protest final Saturday on the identical location, at which he was arrested after refusing to go away the swanky electrical automobiles showroom.
This Saturday’s protest — the third on the downtown location — was organized by Planet Over Revenue, and endorsed by Extinction Rise up NYC and Local weather Defenders, amongst others.
5 of the protesters from this Saturday’s motion acquired summonses for disorderly conduct whereas one demonstrator was arrested for resisting arrest, obstruction and violation of native regulation.
“Several people apparently went into the showroom right before the rally started and were arrested,” mentioned Winestine, who arrived after the occasion’s begin.
Final week, on March 1, throughout a second of anti-Musk mayhem, one of many showroom’s glass entrance doorways was smashed; protesters mentioned it was inadvertent and occurred when press photographers have been jostling for photographs and one in all their tools luggage swung into it.
Additionally this Saturday, there was one other anti-Musk protest on the Tesla showroom at Ninth St. and Second Ave. in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Police didn’t instantly have info on whether or not there have been any arrests at that demonstration.
In keeping with the Motion Community’s Tesla Takedown protest tracker, there have been dozens of anti-Musk protests from coast to coast throughout america on Saturday, plus extra across the globe, from London to Lisbon, Portugal, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Reykjavik, Iceland.
Initially Printed: March 8, 2025 at 8:58 PM EST
