Council Members Propose Ban on Building Climbers

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A daredevil’s climb up the New York Times’ 52-story headquarters this month brought out dozens of police officers and got the climber arrested.

But it wasn’t a crime, according to the grand jury that declined to indict him.

Saying the city needs more legal muscle to clamp down on such skyscraper shenanigans, some City Council members are proposing to outlaw climbing or stunt-jumping off even modest segments of the skyline.

“This would provide a much more effective tool to prosecute these thrill-seekers,” the chairman of the Public Safety Committee, Peter Vallone Jr., said as the panel weighed the idea yesterday.

The committee didn’t vote on the proposal, which would make it a misdemeanor to scale or use a parachute or other lifesaving device to leap off any structure more than 25 feet tall. Violators would face as much as a year in jail or a fine of up to $1,000. There could be exceptions for stunts staged with police and the property owner’s permission, as in a film shoot.

Proponents say the bill would help authorities make criminal cases against antics they call a danger to the public and a distraction for police. But high-rise adventurers’ advocates say they take pains to make sure no one is at risk and their quests are harmless, even praiseworthy.

“It doesn’t make sense to criminalize behavior that is both awe-inspiring and remarkable,” Daniel Arshack, a lawyer who represents professional climber Alain Robert, one of two men who scaled the Times tower.


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