Even a fake Edward Snowden can’t spend a day in NYC before getting carted away by authorities.
A 100-pound bronze bust of the infamous whistleblower was erected early Monday morning on top of Fort Greene Park’s Prison Ship Martyrs monument, which pays homage to Revolutionary War soldiers.
Two anonymous artists took it upon themselves to modernize the monument by sneaking into the park at 4 a.m. and adhering Snowden’s plaster head to the top of a pillar.
“We have updated this monument to highlight those who sacrifice their safety in the fight against modern-day tyrannies,” the artists wrote in a statement to ANIMAL New York.
“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,” they added. “All too often, figures who strive to uphold these ideals have been cast as criminals rather than in bronze.”
The artists worked with a West Coast sculptor for a year to create the 4-foot-tall replica. They devoted a lot of time to matching the monument’s original aesthetic and figuring out a way to seamlessly adhere it in case city officials removed it.
Their attention to detail proved invaluable to the Parks Department, who raced to the scene and immediately covered the statue with a blue tarp.
Workers spent at least two hours strategizing how to remove the $30,000 statue and a plastic plaque bearing Snowden’s name in block letters before taking both down just after 2 p.m, leaving behind a thin layer of glue on the monument.
The Parks Department didn’t immediately respond to questions from The Post as to the statue’s future, but the NYPD did confirm it was investigating the incident.
Fort Greene residents were seething with the city after the statue was removed.
“Watching them take down the statue of Snowden reminds me of the Italians taking down the Mussolini statue at the end of World War II,” said Katie Raffa, who lives nearby.
“Why was this not recognized as art?” asked Kyle Depew, a 29-year-old activist in Bed Stuy. “I’d like to know the reasoning for why they took it down as quickly as they did.”
Depew also wondered whether the statute was tied to Snowden’s appearance Sunday evening on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.”
“I am sure to install something like this you need to have your ear to the ground of all things Snowden,” he said. “Maybe they were just piggybacking off the show.”
Funnyman John Oliver sat down with the 31-year-old former government contractor last week in Moscow. The British comedian pressed him on the stakes of his leak, what he misses about America and if the government can see Americans’ nude pictures.
“The good news is there’s no program named ‘The D—k Pic Program,’” Snowden said. “The bad news is that they are still collecting everyone’s information, including your d—k pics.”
Snowden admitted that he had never thought about NSA surveillance “in the context of your junk,” but that the government does have access to people’s naked photos.
“Whenever you send your junk through Gmail, that’s stored on Google’s servers,” Snowden added.
Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Moscow two years ago to avoid espionage charges in the US stemming from the classified documents he gave to journalists that revealed the NSA was spying on Americans.