The Inauguration Tree-Climber Has Been Arrested

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Well here's one way to make a few thousand enemies. An anti-abortion protestor climbed to the top of not-very-stable looking tree in a ticketed area of the yesterday's Inauguration ceremony, forcing security to close the entire section to ticket-holders.

Throughout the event, the man kept up a relentless string of anti-abortion rhetoric, shouting things like "Democrats are baby killers!" and " This is the American Holocaust," making it pretty much impossible for those near him to hear the speeches and/or Beyonce.

Several hundred cold, cranky Inauguration-goers were booted out of the area because of this foolio (including us), and were none too pleased about it.

Irritated spectators invited the protestor to "suck on this" and "go ahead and jump."

As crowds bottlednecked after the ceremony and exiting stalled briefly, we heard one person say they might make use of the time to force the protestor to get down "the hard way."

After the ceremonies concluded, a SWAT team convinced the protestor to climb down and he was promptly arrested by Capitol Police, CNS Maryland reports. Attendees crowded around the tree and police had to barricade the area to ensure that the protester was safely removed from the scene.
· Anti-Abortion Protestor Arrested After Disturbance During Inauguration [CNS Maryland]
· All Inauguration coverage [Racked]