SAN FRANCISCO — On Tuesday morning, a man who calls himself “Pro-Life Spiderman” on social media was seen climbing the 60-story Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, a chaotic sight captured on video by witnesses.
He was taken into custody at 11am after reaching the top of the roughly 1,000-foot-tall skyscraper.
People who saw the climber atop the city’s highest building alerted police at about 9:20am, according to Officer Robert Rueca.
During the ascent, the climber, whose Instagram handle is Maison DesChamps, wrote on his Instagram story that “things were going good” although, he wished he had some water. He also claimed that he was “kinda trippin’.”
Nearby streets were closed, and medics were dispatched to 415 Mission Street.
In a statement on Twitter, the San Francisco Fire Department said that the climber “is placing firefighters lives and the [public’s] safety at risk. AVOID THE AREA and join us in condemning this action.”
By 11am, Pro-Life Spiderman had been apprehended while rising to the roof, where cops had been waiting for him.
The climber has both supporters and detractors on social media.
One woman remarked on how risky it was for the man to climb a tall structure such as the Salesforce Tower, but added that she “LOVED his spirit.”
“Well look at that, he had the CHOICE to climb the tower,” another woman sarcastically posted on Facebook.
Though it was impossible to speak with the climber in the middle of his ascent, it’s safe to assume that he would support the Supreme Court overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which legalized abortion nationwide. This would quickly divide the country into states that allow abortion and those that don’t.
He then ranted against Washington, D.C. based Dr. Cesare Santangelo, who has done abortions in the past and has been a target of the religious right.
Democrats in California’s state legislature and governor’s office issued a joint statement late Monday saying that they would attempt to modify the state constitution to enshrine abortion rights.