Early this morning, ANIMAL New York revealed that a group of artists had secretly installed a statue of NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden on the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park. The artists told ANIMAL that they did it in tribute to Snowden and others who “sacrifice their safety in the fight against modern-day tyrannies.”
Unlike the living, breathing Ed Snowden however, who has thus far escaped capture by the government, this Snowden statue wasn’t a moving target, and was brought down by the Parks Department this afternoon. Without the Snowden statue silently shrieking at us about all manner of government intrusions in our private lives, will Brooklynites once again blithely send their Tinder dick pics as if no one is watching, or will we send them wearing our red hoods of protection? Probably the former, to be honest.