Surrender Dorothy! Prankster(s) Replace American Flags Atop Brooklyn Bridge

brooklyn bridge
(Photo courtesy of abclocal.go.com.)

If you haven’t caught wind of this already, an unknown number of persons slipped past the NYPD‘s ever-vigilant anti-terror surveillance grid before dawn Tuesday morning, climbed up to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge towers and replaced the American flags flapping there with white surrender flags, an act being called, “one of the most stunning security breaches in the city’s history,” by the NY Post.

One officer stated in response to the mysterious, daring act:

“We’re lucky they just put flags up there — and not a bomb. It’s an embarrassment … It could have been terrible. Who knows how much damage it could have done.”


What, flags? I shudder to think. No, let’s instead keep pretending it was a bomb they found just in time and talk about it that way. That will help freak people out about a simple stunt that helps shed some egg on the face of Homeland Security, now won’t it? And that’s just how they want to keep you — scared. It helps ensure compliance and job security in the same way the Drug War does for our modern “justice system.” Who puts a bomb on the top of a tower, anyway? It would do far more damage in a place more critical to the overall bridge’s structure. Let’s be somewhat reasonable.

Authorities are guessing the stunt was pulled off by four or five people, likely working in teams simultaneously, but they are still shaking their heads and throwing up their hands in confusion as to how these pranksters slipped by police in four patrol cars assigned specifically to watch over the bridge, as well as several security cameras focused on the towers. In addition, even more officers typically park close by on Tillary and Old Fulton St. in Brooklyn, occasionally driving up and down the Brooklyn Bridge to monitor for any issues. No one knows how these folks were able to not only slip by police ninja-style, but clamber up hundreds of feet of suspension cables and even block out the spotlights above the towers without anyone noticing, although sources do say, according to the NY Post that the tops of the towers are not clearly visible to officers parked on the bridge, itself.

Perhaps the police should question the officers assigned to the bridge, themselves, then, eh? Why rule out anyone. Whoever is responsible for this harmless act of silly defiance also managed to get past locked gates and climb the ladders leading to the top of each 276-foot tower.

Some obvious questions come to mind right there. Were the locks cut? Is there a means for bypassing the locks altogether? If so, what good are they but for show? Why lock anything if you can simply maneuver around it? And if the locks were not cut and unable to be slipped around somehow, who might have keys to said locks? Bridge workers? Police? The mayor? Batman? I mean, if we’re going to pretend this was as dangerous as the imagined bombs that could have been up there, why not consider whether Batman may have been involved. You just can’t trust vigilantes.

In order to stay hidden as he/she/they carried out this action, authorities say zip ties were used to secure lasagna pans over the floodlights cast on the flags.

No one noticed the Brooklyn Bridge go dark in the middle of the night despite multiple officers being assigned to watch over the bridge? Sounds like a demotion may be in some officers’ future.

To the best of their knowledge, police guess (but state with authority) that the bridge went dark at 3:29 a.m. on the Brooklyn side and 13 minutes later on the Manhattan side, suggesting the culprits could be Brooklyn-based. But, the glaring question is, if officers claim to know the exact times and span between both towers going dark, why weren’t those oddities investigated in the moment? Sure, one floodlight might burn out, but all of them on both towers within 13 minutes, and no one gets curious as to how that might be, the sheer chances of that?

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence John Miller said:

“This may be somebody’s art project, or it may be somebody’s attempt at making a statement … We haven’t seen a credible claim of responsibility.

“For someone to compromise that gate by going around it and continue to the top of the tower, have the right size cover to put over the light, there’s some indication of some good deal of pre-operational planning, perhaps some indication that they have experience climbing construction or in bridgework, or that they may have actually been up there before looking at the dimensions.”

No one had much of a clue what was going on, despite the alleged “precise” times noted above until just after dawn, around 5:30 a.m. By then, the 11-by-20-foot white surrender flags had been flying above NYC for two hours. They remained until Emergency Service officers could take them down and sail the American flag again around 11 a.m.

Department of Transportation bridge worker Nick Krevatas said:

“It amazes me nobody saw anything … I’m upset.”

Krevatas was one of the crew members called in to replace the surrender flags with American flags. He continued:

“Our big boss called. He told us someone put white flags up and we had to replace them immediately. I said, ‘Okay, no problem. We’re on our way.'”

Krevatas went on to lament:

“Isn’t there a better way to express yourself? Couldn’t they have used social media?”

In many ways, they did, though!


Making light of the situation and offering a bit of well-grounded humor over a harmless act that actually helps authorities recognize a glaring hole in security, Deputy Commissioner Miller stated:

“[We’re] not sure if this is Betsy Ross’ long-lost nephew doing extensive work.”

As knee-jerk, over-reactionary as police can often be (right or wrong), it’s always good to see authorities who remain human and keep a solid head on their shoulders. Kudos to those who pulled this caper off, and kudos to Miller for not letting his head run away with hypothetical bombs to scare the public. The world is filled with “what ifs,” but we can’t have all the possible scenarios for tragedy red-tape us into legal hells even Kafka couldn’t imagine.

Now, perhaps the Brooklyn Bridge will install locks that folks can’t simply sidestep, and New York will be that much safer.

H/T NY Post.


Dylan HockDylan Hock is a writer, professor, videographer and social activist. He earned an MFA in Writing from Naropa University in 2003 and has been an Occupier since Oct., 2011, both nationally and locally in Michigan. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound included in the anthology Star Power: The Impact Of Branded Celebrity due out July of 2014 by Praeger. He is also a contributing writer for Take Ten, Addicting Info and Green Action News. Follow him on Google+! Hire him for freelance writing and editing projects through Elance.