CHICAGO — Six people have been charged after they raised a banner proclaiming "Resist" on Trump Tower.
The six helped raise the banner at the building at 401 N. Wabash Ave. about 2 p.m. Friday, police said. They "caus[ed] extensive damage to the building," according to a Chicago Police news release.
Jeremy Alpert, 43, of suburban Glencoe; Wendy Jennings, 38, of Minneapolis; David Khoury, 47, of Leslie, Ark.; and Taylor Blevons, 27, of suburban Deerfield, have been charged with criminal damage to property and reckless conduct in the Chicago incident, police said.
Two others — Jessica Bryant, 31, and Shirley Sexton, 54, of the 4900 block of North Western Avenue — have been charged with reckless conduct, police said.
The six were apparently working with Greenpeace, an environmental organization. That group raised a "Resist" banner near the White House in January shortly after President Donald Trump took office, and in Warsaw it raised a banner saying "No Trump, Yes Paris," on Poland's tallest building to greet Trump.
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Jason Schwartz, a New York-based spokesman for Greenpeace, said Friday the activist organization will be "relentless" in its demonstrations against the Trump administration as it makes environmental policy "expendable."
"This is a message agreed upon by many Americans," Schwartz said.
Greenpeace USA began tweeting images of the banner raising shortly after 2 p.m. The banner was taken down within the hour.
Tourists, news crews and others stopped near President Donald Trump's namesake tower on the Chicago River to gawk at the short spectacle.
The protest drew a pronounced police presence that included a police van, police boat and a slew of high-ranking police officers in white shirts.
In a statement broadcast on Facebook Live, Kelly Mitchell, climate and energy campaign director for Greenpeace, said, "We are here to call for an end to Trump's disastrous policies that are hurting people and our planet."
"In the last couple of months the Trump administration has moved forward a couple of disastrous policies," Mitchell said. "He's pulled the U.S out of Paris climate agreement, abdicating U.S. leadership on perhaps the most important issue of our time. These activists are part of the wave of resistance that's happening across the country challenging those decisions from Trump.
"We are going to defend earth and build a better country in the process," Mitchell said. "This is a very important time. We all need to step up our game right now and figure out how we can resist the Trump administration."
In June, Trump announced he was pulling out of the multi-national accord because he felt the United States was treated unfairly under the agreement to the advantage of other nations.
"We want fair treatment," he said in a Rose Garden announcement. "We don't want other countries and other leaders to laugh at us anymore."
