Climate activists vandalized the iconic Wall Street Bull with green graffiti declaring “Greed = Death,” but quickly scrubbed it clean before police officers arrived at the scene.
Members of the environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion defaced the bronze statue early Monday during an Earth Day demonstration, the New York Post reported.
The vandals spray-painted their organization’s symbol alongside the anti-capitalist messaging on the bull while hysterically reciting climate alarmist slogans.
The activists also attempted to create an image of the bull defecating on a cutout of Earth by hanging debris-filled brown stockings near the rear of the statue.
The group took credit for the act on X, writing, “Good morning from the resistance. We came to Wall Street to call out the bullshit. Bullshit told by the 1% who gamble with our futures. Bullshit to bailouts for those who wrecked our economy. #GreedIsDeath #ActNow.”
“We spoke the truth, we called them out — and the city’s elite laughed. But the joke isn’t so funny now, when it’s their stocks and wealth getting screwed.”
After one cop ordered an activist sitting on the bull’s neck to dismount, the activists seemed to panic, hastily scrubbing away their graffiti before more police officers even approached the scene, according to the New York Daily News.
As more cops arrived on the scene, they casually watched as the activists finished cleaning their graffiti off the bull, making no immediate arrests.
The 7,100-pound Wall Street Bull, installed in 1989, has long been a symbol of American financial prosperity and a frequent target for anti-capitalist protesters.
The bull has repeatedly been targeted by left-wing protesters, who see the statue as a symbol of corporate “greed” and the evils of capitalism.
In 2019, a Dallas man bashed what appeared to be a heavy silver guitar into the statue while screaming “F**k Trump!,” damaging one of its horns before he was arrested by the NYPD.
