70 Arrested During Climate Protest Outside NYT Building

MIDTOWN, NY — Dozens of people were arrested during a climate change protest in Times Square outside The New York Times building on Saturday.

Demonstrators staged a die-in in front of the newspaper building and hung a banner on the facade. The Guardian reported that the protest briefly blocked Eighth Avenue between Port Authority and the Times building.

Photos and videos posted to social media showed a group of people lying on the ground outside the newspaper's office. Some protesters climbed on the awning of the Times building to hang signs.

Amanda Holpuch, a reporter for The Guardian, noted that the sign hung outside the Times building demanded that the paper refer to climate change as a "climate emergency," a term recently adopted by the Guardian.

The protest was led by a group called "Extinction Rebellion," which is committed addressing the issue of climate change.

On its website, the group has a number of demands for the media in covering the climate crisis, inclduing use terms like "climate destruction" or "climate emergency" as opposed to "climate change." The group also says that stories about the climate crisis should be on the front page daily.

An NYPD spokesperson told Patch that 70 people were arrested during the protest by city and Port Authority police. Charges against the demonstrators are pending, the spokesperson said.

According to a post on the Extinction Rebellion NYC Twitter page, the group was scheduled to meet at noon in Bryant Park.

Nine people were arrested at a previous protest organized by the same group in January.