NEW YORK -- Suddenly, in the middle of the New York night, Edward Snowden's face appeared - deep in a public park.
A
4-foot-high, 100-pound sculpted bust of the whistleblower now exiled in
Russia was sneaked into Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park on Monday before
dawn.
Animal New York, a city news website
that first reported the incident, said the mysterious perpetrators were a
small group of artists - admirers of the former contractor who had
leaked classified information from the National Security Agency to the
media.
The activists hoisted the bust to the
top of a Revolutionary War memorial, adding his name to a column,
according to Animal New York.
The website says
the group allowed it to document installation of the statue on the
condition that it not reveal the identities of the artists.
Snowden's artistic appearance was short-lived.
At
daybreak, police said city parks officials ordered the sculpted Snowden
removed. And by evening, his bust was being held at Brooklyn's 88th
Precinct pending an investigation.
The idea
for the tribute was conceived by two New York City-based artists, joined
by a West Coast sculptor, Animal New York said.
In
a statement to the online outlet, they said they had "updated" the
memorial to American POWs who died during the Revolutionary War "to
highlight those who sacrifice their safety in the fight against
modern-day tyrannies. It would be a dishonor to those memorialized here
to not laud those who protect the ideals they fought for, as Edward
Snowden has by bringing the NSA's 4th-Amendment-violating surveillance
programs to light."
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