To get Biden’s attention, this artist and gun reform activist climbed a crane outside the White House
Manuel Oliver climbed a 150-foot-tall crane near the White House Monday to hang a banner
Artist and activist Manuel Oliver climbed a 150-foot-tall crane near the White House Monday to hang a banner calling attention to gun violence with an image of his son Joaquin, who was killed in the Parkland shooting four years earlier to the day.
Oliver said on Twitter that he requested a meeting with President Joe Biden but hadn’t gotten one, so the banner was how his son would make a statement. Oliver was arrested and charged with unlawful entry, according to WUSA, and he posted a photo in police custody on social media and wrote, “A father’s job never ends.”
Cranes are one of the highest-profile spots to make a political statement in town, and in 2017, Greenpeace used a construction crane in view of the White House to hang a “Resist” banner.
Oliver’s group Change the Ref has called on Biden to nominate a new director to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and to take executive action to respond to gun violence. Oliver has used art to speak out against gun violence since the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, including painting a mural of his son in El Paso, Texas, that was updated before it was unveiled because of a shooting there in 2019.