It was his second big fall.
An eco-warrior who fell on the sidewalk while climbing a Chase bank during what some called an “anti-capitalist” protest – he himself is a small Manhattan businessman who suffered an overwhelming pandemic setback, his sister told the Post.
Now Kevin Clarke, 32, is screaming for painkillers and handcuffed to his hospital bed in Bellevue, his pelvis broken by the 30-foot dive captured in the video, Sister Nicole Clarke said by telephone from Los Angeles.
Clarke’s “pelvic area has been shattered in several places” and his right elbow is also broken, his sister said. “He will not be able to move for several months.” Authorities did not immediately confirm the extent of the injuries.
The video of the scene shows another demonstrator disfiguring the building with spray paint during Clarke’s doomed climb. Streams of black ink flowed from the fallen climber’s backpack as he lay dying on the sidewalk, the video shows.
Online observers called ersatz Spider-Man an “anti-capitalist protester”, but his sister insisted the next day that he had joined an Extinction Rebellion protest group because he wanted to fight climate change.
“It was not an anti-capitalist protest,” she said of the group’s participation in the demonstration within capitalism, on Madison Avenue, between 47 and 46 East streets.
Chase was targeted because “he is the largest funder of fossil fuel investments in the world,” she said.
Clarke grew up in Oregon, attended high school in Wichita, Kansas, and has lived in New York for the past decade, she said.
His sister declined to describe his business, saying only that he has no employees. She would not respond if her brother was a pro-capitalist.
“What I can say is that he was a small businessman in Manhattan whose business was devastated by the COVID crisis,” she said.
Clarke was accused of reckless danger for the feat, police said.
He was accused of reckless danger by the action, according to the police, who did not confirm whether Clarke was chained to a bed.
“Except in very limited circumstances, a hospitalized prisoner will be handcuffed,” said a New York Police Department spokeswoman.