00:00What you're looking at are live pictures at the top, the tippity top of the Empire State Building, where two
00:08people have climbed all the way up there on the antenna spire.
00:13And you see them and they're holding a banner.
00:16And what that banner says is, when the power of love beats the world of power, the world knows peace.
00:23We are in New York. How many blocks, John Berman?
00:26It's really just a few avenue blocks over. Warren Hudson Yards, which is 33rd and 10th.
00:30That's basically, you know, between 5th and 6th in the same area, past Madison Square Garden.
00:35Hopefully we can put the pictures back up as we talk about this.
00:36By the way, a lot's going on in this area over the next few days.
00:39I mean, this is where we think Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift are getting married at Madison Square Garden.
00:43I'm not trying to make a joke. I'm just trying to tell you, it's in the very same neighborhood that
00:46a ton is going on, just a short distance from here.
00:51The Empire State Building is 102 stories tall. I think with the spire, it's 103.
00:56I'm trying to look to see if they even have any kind of harness or anything of the sort.
01:011,400 feet. 1,400 feet up in the sky.
01:04It does not look like it. As somebody who has severe anxiety about heights, it's honestly even hard for me
01:10to imagine this.
01:12And as you said, it's important not to make a joke. I mean, obviously, these are protesters.
01:17They're trying to make a point. They're trying to get seen. They are. This is quite a dramatic way to
01:22do it.
01:22But they appear to be making their way down in a few years.
01:26It is a long way down there. But to get to the area where you can even reach the spire,
01:32you have to take all kinds of elevators, go through lines.
01:35If they went there as tourists, I wonder if they bought tickets and got up to the observation deck, which
01:39is the 102nd floor as tourists.
01:41You've got to go through all kinds of security even to get there.
01:45So one wonders how they managed to get that far without being noticed or apprehended.
01:50Still a ways to go.
01:51Look at that.
01:52Yeah, that zoop.
01:53It's hard to see. It's hard to see with that with that, you know, the perspective with the with the
01:57ship behind.
01:58That's the Hudson River there. Yeah. That is where cruise ships dock.
02:02They come up the Hudson. They dock there. So you can just see how far that giant cruise ship is
02:07beneath them.
02:07Right. You can see it. And I mean, it's hard to see the perspective of just how tall the Empire
02:12State Building is.
02:13In any event, Juliette, as somebody who is a specialist in homeland security, what are those of us who are
02:20not certainly in this time, this type of security thinking of?
02:26I'll be honest with you. I mean, and you can hear my anger is.
02:32They have chosen to do this. It is a risk.
02:36So I'm going to assume that they know it's a risk.
02:38If one of them were to fall, if one of them were to drop something, if the flag were to
02:43drop, that is a public safety issue for the people on the ground who have not decided not to do
02:50something like this.
02:51So that's my first thought is I don't mean to be rude about them.
02:55They need to be safe. They look they look like they're climbers.
02:58Look at them. They know what they're doing.
03:00But so that's the first thing is I'm worried about what's below.
03:03The second is, of course, whatever breach of security happened between them.
03:09I'm getting texts from people who work for the building security below in terms of their access to this part
03:18of the building,
03:20which which is not accessible to the public for obvious reasons.
03:24So there's already a trespass breach.
03:26There's going to be other legal claims against them.
03:29The final, though, as you as you all were saying before, is we're just in this world of like performative.
03:36Everyone pay attention to me.
03:38And that is what they're doing.
03:40That is how we respond, whether it's terrorists who, you know, have manuscripts and manifestos or it's people who know
03:50that this is the most media centric city in all of the country.
03:55I have no idea what they're doing. Right. I mean, there's reporting about some Instagram posts that, you know, about
04:04Earth and protecting Earth.
04:06But as you said, look, our buildings are and skyscrapers like this are also they're not just real estate.
04:16They are holders or possessors through lease through leases of critical infrastructure capacity. Right.
04:22So whether it's being able to land a helicopter or in something like this, satellite displays.
04:28And so the city will have or the city certainly knows what what is what could be impacted by them.
04:38But they're you know, I don't know, you know, they're they're they are doing stuff that is making us watch
04:45right now.
04:45But that's exactly right. This is not just a building.
04:49I'm putting them aside. I hope that they're safe.
04:52They they they you know, they look like they're fit, that they can handle this.
04:55I'm worried about them making mistakes and impacting the city or some sort of sabotage against the satellites.
05:03And he looks like he's proposing.
05:06Well, you can see that there was that they put it looks like a selfie stick up there.
05:15Yeah. Yeah. OK. It looked like there was just a proposal.
05:18Yeah. OK. Yeah, that's exactly right.
05:21This is this is this is the generation that cannot do anything without everyone watching.
05:28Can we just stop for a second? Hold on one second, Juliette.
05:31So we saw a selfie stick clearly looks like a selfie stick go up.
05:37He goes on where somebody went on one knee.
05:40And we don't know what the gender of these individuals went on one knee look like a proposal.
05:46They hug and it looks like it's just being captured.
05:51By somebody's cell phone there.
05:52Yeah, well, it's probably streaming somewhere.
05:55Yeah, it's probably streaming somewhere live right now.
05:57I'm not I'm not able to access it.
05:59I've been given some links about who they are, but we'll let the reporters figure out who they are.
06:04But, yeah, I mean, this is performative and and, you know, I am all for love.
06:12I am all for romance.
06:14Let me just tell you, this is egregious for about 10,000 reasons.
06:20And these people will end up in jail for their wedding as they should.
06:25Shimon Prokupes, you've covered your native New Yorker.
06:29You've covered incidents in New York more times than we can count.
06:35Also, are they wearing costumes?
06:37Yeah, well, it looks like they did at one point have both of their faces covered.
06:41But she's the woman there now clearly is showing her face now.
06:46So there was something on her head when we saw her earlier at the top of the building, at the
06:51top of this antenna, this transmitter.
06:53And it looks like now she's showing her face.
06:56And I can't really make out the man's face.
06:59But, you know, this is good.
07:00This is one of these things for the NYPD.
07:02And look, they train for this kind of stuff in many different ways.
07:07This is also a situation where the police are not going to want to put themselves in any kind of
07:11danger and hope that somehow they could communicate with these individuals and negotiate with them and get them to come
07:18down.
07:18At some point, they will hopefully come down and come down safely.
07:22But I don't I wouldn't expect anything aggressive at this point from the police department.
07:28There's really no point in being too aggressive here.
07:31This is the Empire State Building.
07:33I mean, this is the center of Manhattan, of New York City.
07:36This sits on 34th Street, just off of 6th Avenue.
07:41It is the center.
07:42It is a building that when you come into New York City, when you fly over New York City on
07:48your way to the airport here, you see it.
07:51And no doubt this is a landmark.
07:53And it will be a security risk because there's going to be a lot of questions about how these individuals
07:59were able to do this.
08:01And clearly they probably studied this.
08:03These two individuals that they figured out a way how to do this.
08:06They've probably learned that they've been to that building and they were able to do some reconnaissance and figure out
08:12how to get up there.
08:12But there are layers of security in the Empire State Building from the from the ground floor into the elevators
08:19up to the observation desk, up to the observation deck.
08:24There's security layers there.
08:26There are supposed to be gates and other layers and layers of security to try to prevent this kind of
08:32stuff.
08:33But that's a whole separate issue here, obviously.
08:36But this is something that is going to get a lot of attention and is getting a lot of attention.
08:41Just because of the brazenness of this, the minute that the NYPD police officers and Empire State Building security staff
08:51can get their hands on these individuals safely, they're going to do it.
08:56And they're going to do it aggressively once they can do it.
08:59But there's no way at this point that any police officer would climb that and put themselves in harm's way
09:09for no reason.
09:10Right. Like other than being on that building, these two individuals, it does not appear are causing any kind of
09:16a security concern.
09:18And so you sort of kind of got to wait this out and see when they get tired.
09:23It looks like somebody is climbing up.
09:25Perhaps it's law enforcement.
09:27Yeah. And it looks like people, I can't see.
09:29I kind of think I saw some safety harness around some of them.
09:34So this would be if it is, it would be the emergency services officers.
09:38And look, they also do need to get someone up there.
09:40If they're not able to communicate with them, they may want to try to get someone as high up as
09:46they possibly can.
09:47And look, you're putting officers at risk here unnecessarily.
09:52But they're going to do it if they if they have to do it.
09:54And they will get as high as they can safely to start talking to them.
09:59But I don't I don't know what you say to these individuals.
10:02I mean, they're going to do what they want to do.
10:03I would think you're under arrest might be part of.
10:05Yeah, I mean, CNN's John Miller joining us right now.
10:09John, I know you're in touch with all of your sources across the city, your law enforcement enforcement sources.
10:13As Boris mentioned, there are two members of the emergency service unit now making their way up that tower.
10:19Have you learned any more about who they are or how they managed to get there as we look at
10:23these live pictures?
10:26Well, this call came into 9-1-1 at 12 noon and 48 seconds.
10:32So almost a minute after 12 noon.
10:34So this has been going on for an hour.
10:36Units from the Midtown South Precinct responded and started climbing their way up towards the the observation deck and beyond.
10:45When they got to the 104th floor, they reported that the locks there had been broken so that it appears
10:53that that may be part of this incident.
10:56But then you saw these two people literally at the tippy top, the very top, apparently from what we can
11:04see, without harnesses or protective equipment, basically freestyling with the when the power of love overcomes the love of power,
11:16the world will know peace banner.
11:18And then that proposal, who they are, what their message is beyond, what's the banner, what's on the banner, whether
11:26this was to surround a marriage proposal.
11:31The message of love is impressive.
11:33But the message that they're going to get in a few minutes, because the officers from the emergency service unit
11:40are making their way up the tower to meet these two on the way down, they're going to probably face
11:47charges of reckless endangerment for the hazard they caused, criminal trespass for being in the area and not for the
11:56purposes that area is designated, burglary, if in fact those locks were broken by them.
12:03So, whatever the message is, it's going to be a mixed message by this afternoon.
12:10No doubt.
12:11And WABC is now reporting that the two are in custody.
12:16We're working to get more information on their status, but that is what WABC is reporting, that these two who
12:22pulled off this stunt are now in custody.
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