Nearly two years ago, a performance of the Broadway production An Enemy of the People starring Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli was briefly disrupted when climate activists who identified themselves as members of the group Extinction Rebellion stood up from their seats in the audience and shouted comments calling out societal and governmental inaction on climate change. “No theater on a dead planet” and “The water is coming for us” were among the statements yelled out.
The activists were ushered out of the Circle in the Square venue by NYPD officers (the theater company did not press criminal charges). The actors on stage stayed in character as they continued a scene set at, suitably enough, a rowdy town hall meeting.
But a newly published New York Times investigation (among other similar media reports) suggests that Extinction Rebellion, a global environmental group, and other climate change activist organizations have not gone unnoticed by the Trump Administration and the Trump-era Department of Justice and FBI.
Today’s Times article presents an unnerving incident – corroborated by the activist group (see statement below) – in which a former member of Extinction Rebellion identified only as a “middle-aged man” living 200 miles north of New York City was recently visited at his home by two FBI counterterrorism agents who said they wanted to talk about Extinction Rebellion. The man declined to answer questions.
A month prior to the February 6 door-knock, the man received a call and a text from one of the FBI agents saying she was standing outside his home (she actually was standing outside his old address hundreds of miles away). “A few weeks later,” the Times reports, “the same agent and a colleague were standing outside the mud room of his current home.”
“This door knock marks a significant escalation,” Ronald L. Kuby, the man’s lawyer, told the Times. “The fact that they went to the wrong address of a member who has not been active suggests that they are starting an investigation. They are digging.”
In addition to the Broadway production, Extinction Rebellion has staged disruptions at the U.S. Open, a PGA golf tournament in Connecticut, and at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, among other events and places.
In the social media post this week, Extinction Rebellion Global stated that the recent visit to the former member of Extinction Rebellion NYC by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force “is not an isolated situation.”
“On March 6, 2025,” the organization stated, “FBI agents with Massachusetts State Troopers in tow visited six activists affiliated with Extinction Rebellion Boston. Two weeks ago the DOJ opened an investigation into our friends at Climate Defiance for a viral peaceful protest. The administration has escalated to a new focus…the climate movement.”
The organization, which describes the New York branch as “a nonviolent, decentralized group of artists, small business owners, parents, retired teachers, and everyday New Yorkers,” stated, “We are not terrorists!…This is an escalation against the climate movement as a whole, and the next phase of this
administration’s crackdown on dissent that many of us have been expecting. Trump is weaponizing the DOJ to attack peaceful protesters in order to appease the multi-trillion-dollar fossil fuel industry that got him elected.”
The statement also described the latest focus on climate activists as “a distraction, at a time when thousands of documents are being released about a deep web of child sex trafficking involving the most powerful people in the world, the DOJ is instead using its resources to target our group of creative non-violent environmental activists.”
In its report today, The Times said it received a statement from The Department of Justice pledging to “continue to hold accountable any individual that crosses the red line between peaceful First Amendment activity and obstructing, impeding or attacking federal law enforcement agents. No matter the cause, no one is above the law.”
At the Broadway action on March 14, 2024, the first protester to stand yelled, “I object to the silencing of scientists. I am very, very sorry to interrupt your night and this amazing performance. I am a theater artist, I work in the theater professionally and I am throwing my career…” at which point Imperioli, staying in character as a corrupt 19th Century Norwegian mayor presiding over a town hall, said, “You need to leave. You’re interrupting.”
After the show, Imperioli posted a message on Instagram (with a screen capture of Deadline’s breaking coverage) noting, “Tonight was wild….no hard feelings extinction rebellion crew. michael is on your side but mayor stockmann is not. much love. m @anenemyplay @extinctionrebellion.”