Earth Day protesters standoff with NYPD, block New York Times printing facility’s paper trucks

COLLEGE POINT, Queens (WABC) — Friday morning, protestors were engaged in a standoff with police outside the New York Times Printing Facility in College Point, Queens.

They were aiming to block trucks full of Friday’s newspaper from leaving the property.

Video showed police removing a man from a post off Linden Place.

More than a dozen people were arrested shortly before 6 a.m.

Officers broke down a tripod apparatus that the protesters erected outside the facility. Other protesters were handcuffed together through metal barriers.

The protesters will be summonsed for obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct, and trespassing.

They were taken to the 109th Precinct for processing, and are expected to be summonsed and released.

They’re with a group called Extinction Rebellion which does protests like this to call attention to the world’s climate emergency.

In this case, they say the media is “failing to cover the climate emergency with the depth and frequency it warrants.”

As we’ve reported, scientists say climate change is already having an effect with rising sea levels, more intense droughts and storms, and they say it’s only going to get worse.

“We’re here to stop distribution of the New York Times and other affiliate papers,” said Will, a protester. “We don’t believe that they’re covering climate change well enough.”

The New York Times prints numerous other newspapers at its 300,000 square foot College Point plant, including the NY Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday. They can print 80,000 newspapers hourly on each of seven large printing presses. The Times also prints about 41% of its own newpapers there, making it by far their largest printing facility.

Former President Bill Clinton joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams Thursday at the Empire State Building for an event calling on other large office buildings to follow its lead.

The New York City landmark was able to slash its carbon footprint by installing thousands of energy-efficient windows and retooling the elevators in a 2010 retrofit that cost $31 million.

Saturday is Car-Free Earth Day. The city is encouraging car owners to leave their cars parked and find some other way to get around.

Citi Bike is offering free one-day passes and Open Streets is back. More than 80 city streets will go car-free for the summer.

ALSO READ | Earth’s forest cover could drop by half by 2100; NatGeo explores how humans can protect these trees

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