Picture Credit: Twitter
An Indian-origin man, Sayak Mukhopadhyay , glued his feet to the stadium floor and disrupted the US Open 2023 semi-final between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova on September 7. The protestor caused a long 50-minute delay to the game, which Gauff won 6-5, 7-5.
According to reports, 50-year-old Mukhopadhyay, along with two other members of Extinction Rebellion NYC, stood up shouting, “No tennis on a dead planet”, and “End fossil fuels,” before he removed his shoes and glued his feet to the floor, making it difficult for police to remove him. In an interview with NBC News, Mukhopadhyay explained that he glued his feet to the ground to create a significant and sustained disruption, intending to prompt people to stop and think that business as usual cannot continue.
Mukhopadhyay told the New York Post, “The climate change movement has tried everything from writing and lobbying for legislation to demonstrating and blockading banks, but none of that has been as effective as communicating directly to the public by going to public institutions like museums and sporting arenas.”
Sayak is a member of a group called Extinction Rebellion, which is a UK-headquartered global environmental movement that aims to draw attention to the climate crisis and demand urgent action from governments. Sayak Mukhopadhyay lives in White Plains, New York, and was charged with trespassing by the New York Police Department. Mukhopadhyay moved to New York from his native Kolkata 25 years ago.
