Conservative artist handcuffed during pizza-tossing protest outside New York City Hall
Fox News
“F*** you Mayor Adams!”
Those are the defiant words of conservative artist and activist Scott LoBaido seconds before he was driven away in a police van after being cuffed for protesting new pizza-making rules in New York City.
Seconds earlier, LoBaido had hurled several pizza slices over a fence and into the grounds of New York City Hall to protest the new environmental rules which will require wood and coal-fired stoves to cut carbon emissions by 75%.
The mandate requires affected pizzeria owners to install a filter, then hire an engineer to regularly inspect the carbon emissions.
NEW YORK CITY TAKING A SLICE OUT OF ICONIC PIZZA SHOPS WITH NEW GREEN RULE
LoBaido, a Staten Island resident and enthusiastic Donald Trump supporter, says that the rule is just the latest example of government overreach and will impose unnecessary costs on struggling pie-makers and bakers. He says that New York City Mayor Adams should be focused on more pressing issues like illegal immigration and migrant crime instead of targeting small business owners with Draconian rules.
“This invasion of illegal aliens that are beating the cops up, raping, killing and slaughtering,” LoBaido said to a small group of supporters and a media scrum that had assembled outside the location before his demonstration.
“He’s worried about pizza because he hates the small business owner. He hates you New Yorkers,” he added.
LoBaido then compared the pizza-throwing act to that of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, where colonists in Massachusetts dumped 342 chests of tea imported by the British East India Company into the harbor at Griffin’s Wharf. The move was a demonstration aimed toward Britain for imposing taxes on colonists without them having representation in parliament.
“Those Bostonians loved their tea. They worshiped their tea. That’s all they had some of them and they sacrificed and threw it in the harbor,” LoBaido roared.
“And that’s what we’re doing here today. You gotta make sacrifices to make history, to make f***ing change. And that’s what us New Yorkers are here to do, we’re New Yorkers period.”
NEW YORK CITY TAKING A SLICE OUT OF ICONIC PIZZA SHOPS WITH NEW GREEN RULE
LoBaido and another man then grabbed several slices of pizzas from pie boxes stacked outside City Hall.
As they walked to the fence with pie slices in hand, a group of police officers race after them – and once they hurled the pizzas into City Hall they were collared by NYPD officers.
“How is he being arrested for littering, littering is a fine,” another man could be heard saying. “This mayor is corrupt… this is not an arrestable offense and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for following his orders,” the man barks.
The pair were then put into an NYPD minivan.
Prior to the protest, LoBaido had said he was going to feed pigeons with the pizza. It is not illegal to feed pigeons, but a violation or summons may be issued for failing to clean up unsanitary conditions that result from the activity.
The NYPD tells Fox News Digital that the pair were not arrested or charged.
Some city businesses have already coughed up more than $600,000 for new smoke-eating systems in anticipation of the expected mandate, the New York Post reports. About 130 Big Apple businesses will be affected by the new rule, the publication reports.
LoBaido had been calling on pizzeria owners and bakeries throughout the city to join him in the protest to push back against the rule, but it appears few backed him up.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) rule, which will take effect April 27, applies to restaurants with cook stoves installed before May 2016. Advocates of the plan argue that carbon emissions from the ovens are helping cause the earth to warm. Fox News Digital reached out to the mayor’s office for a statement but did not immediately receive a response.
It is not the first time LoBaido has flung pies onto the grounds of City Hall, the painter carried out the same feat in June protesting the new rules.
“They handcuffed me for f***ing throwing pizza and feeding the pigeons,” Lobaido told Fox News Digital after being released from custody Wednesday. “Last year, I did it, and they just gave me a summons. This year the mayor made sure that I got cuffed.”
“It’s ridiculous. And what is New York known for? Pizza and Bagels. It’s just it’s insane. It’s bulls***.”