Six people were arrested Saturday afternoon at a Tesla showroom in downtown Manhattan as “highly charged” protests against Elon Musk continue in New York City, across the country and around the globe.
The protests have been slamming Tesla CEO Elon Musk — de facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — over his spearheading of the Trump administration’s government jobs- and funding-slashing agenda. There are also fears about Musk’s access to private data in his new role.
Around 200 to 250 to people arrived at the noon action outside the Tesla showroom in the Meatpacking District. They were shortly reinforced by a contingent from the Women’s March from Washington Square Park who were rallying for International Women’s Day and opposing the rollback of women’s rights.
They shouted chants, including, “We need clean air, not another billionaire!” and “Elon Musk is not elected! Democracy must be protected!”
“Good crowd, lots of energy, maybe 300 people? It was big. The police shut down Washington St. and 13th St. and we filled the intersection,” said West Village activist and filmmaker Zack Winestine. “The climate groups that organized it did a good job.”
Winestine is a member of the group Rise and Resist, which organized a protest last Saturday at the same location, at which he was arrested after refusing to leave the swanky electric vehicles showroom.
This Saturday’s protest — the third at the downtown location — was organized by Planet Over Profit, and endorsed by Extinction Rebellion NYC and Climate Defenders, among others.
Five of the protesters from this Saturday’s action received summonses for disorderly conduct while one demonstrator was arrested for resisting arrest, obstruction and violation of local law.
“Several people apparently went into the showroom right before the rally started and were arrested,” said Winestine, who arrived after the event’s start.
Last week, on March 1, during a moment of anti-Musk mayhem, one of the showroom’s glass front doors was smashed; protesters said it was inadvertent and happened when press photographers were jostling for shots and one of their equipment bags swung into it.
Also this Saturday, there was another anti-Musk protest at the Tesla showroom at Ninth St. and Second Ave. in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Police did not immediately have information on whether there were any arrests at that demonstration.
According to the Action Network’s Tesla Takedown protest tracker, there were dozens of anti-Musk protests from coast to coast across the United States on Saturday, plus more around the globe, from London to Lisbon, Portugal, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Reykjavik, Iceland.