Disney Heiress Arrested During Protest in New York

Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, who co-founded The Walt Disney Company with his brother Walt Disney, was arrested on Friday, July 14, while protesting in front of the regional East Hampton Airport in Wainscott, New York, with other climate activists.

The 63-year-old joined New York Communities for Change, the Sunrise Movement and Reclaim Our Tomorrow at the airport to protest wealthy people's use of private planes and highlight how it negatively contributes to climate change.

According to The Independent, Disney and other activists glued their arms inside PVC piping and came together to form a human chain so that no one could enter or exit the airport.

Police reportedly warned the protesters to leave twice before using a power saw to cut through the PVC and arrest them. Disney was handcuffed before being fingerprinted and given a mugshot.

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New York Communities for Change tweeted a video from the protest as the police used a saw to free Disney's arm from the PVC, adding, "A perspective you don’t often get: Climate activists and Abigail Disney took over the East Hampton airport today in a protest over private jets and taxing the rich. This is what it took for the Hamptons police to break through the pipes that activists locked themselves to."

Disney also took to social media to talk about the experience, writing, "At 63 I still had not popped my fingerprint/mug shot cherry so I did this. Because the last thing this planet needs is billionaires spewing greenhouse gases to get to their palatial beach homes. Just so wrong."

She spoke about her own privilege and how it's affected her perspective in a statement released over the weekend: "As a person who has been privileged enough to use private jets, I know it’s hard to give up a luxury that is special. But I also know that the time has passed for spewing greenhouse gasses like this merely for our personal comfort."

"The events of the past week alone, with Earth’s average temperature hitting an all time high, drought and fatal heat waves across the country, floods in Vermont and New York, and ocean temperatures around Florida well over 90 degrees, should remove all doubt once and for all," Disney added.

The statement continued, "The wealthiest 1 percent uses as much greenhouse gas as the entire bottom 50 percent. It is time for real change and this is the most obvious place to start."

Along with the protest at East Hampton Airport, the activists reportedly continued their climate change protests over the weekend, including a "Tax the Rich for Climate Justice" march on Saturday.

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