‘Free Nick!’: Miami climate change activist arrested at Black Friday mall protest
Fresh off a climate change-related hunger strike, Miami activist Nicholas Vazquez was arrested Friday afternoon at the Dadeland Mall during a protest.
Nearly 40 protesters, mostly young people, swarmed the mall for a planned protest Friday morning for government action on climate change. They dropped a banner inside the mall that read “end consumerism before it ends us” and staged a “die-in,” where activists drop to the ground and symbolically “die” for a cause.
The teens were quickly chased to the sidewalk outside by mall security and Miami-Dade police officers, said 17-year-old Elijah Ruby. They continued their chants of “fossil fuels have got to go” and “the Earth is on fire,” before Vazquez, 22, walked into the middle of the intersection and sat down.
Ruby, a member of the Miami chapters of climate activist groups the Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion, said Vazquez was warned by police that if he did not move, he would be arrested. Four officers eventually carried him to a police car around noon.
Vazquez was charged with resisting an officer without violence. Police records also show he had an outstanding warrant for failing to obey a police officer and/or firefighter. Miami-Dade police did not immediately respond to questions about the warrant.
He was given a $1,500 bond.
“This is an incredible amount of money for that kind of action. I was surprised by that from Miami-Dade police,” Ruby said.
Vazquez is a member of Extinction Rebellion, a new climate action group that has grabbed international headlines for its dramatic protests and mass arrests. Vazquez was on a hunger strike for three days last week waiting for the city of Miami to declare a climate emergency, which it did on Thursday.
This protest was one of 80 across the nation and hundreds across the globe organized by the Climate Strike Coalition on Black Friday, a few days before world leaders will gather in Spain for an international meeting on climate change.
A “Free Nick!” GoFundMe had already raised nearly $700 of the $1,500 bond by 5 p.m. Friday.
“What we’re seeing is an upcoming crisis and the only way to react to that is a wide social movement,” Ruby said. “We need people like Nick if we’re going to have climate justice and climate action.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 6:06 PM.
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