Naomi Wolf, the feminist activist and author, was arrested outside the 2011 Huffington Post Game Changers Awards last night, even though she is a regular Huffington Post contributor and attended the event as a guest.
Wolf became collateral damage when she emerged from the awards ceremony and saw police officers ordering a group of about 50 Occupy Wall Street protestors off the street outside the event, Time reports.
The protestors were upset by the fact that Gov. Cuomo was being honored as the Game Changer of the Year. Wolf came to the protestors’ defense, and was cuffed and detained along with Avram Ludwig, smiling for the cameras.
Wolf took to Facebook to address the arrest this morning.
“The protesters were being told that they needed to leave the sidewalk outside of the Huffington Post event because ‘Huffington Post had a permit’ to control the use of the sidewalk. I have a chapter in Give Me Liberty on NYC [on] permits so I knew that could not be accurate. Sidewalks are public spaces and can’t be leased by private entities. I asked for a copy of the permit,” she wrote. “Some press reports say that I was arrested because I ignored police warnings to get off the sidewalk or that I was arrested for using a megaphone without a permit. Both of these are untrue. I told the protesters that the NYC permit requirement that states that using a megaphone is illegal.”