Woman Busted in Scuffle Over NYC 'Savages' Ad

Tries to spray-paint over anti-Islam ad, as another defends it with her body
By Liam Carnahan,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 26, 2012 4:00 AM CDT
Woman Busted in Scuffle Over NYC 'Savages' Ad
FILE - In this March 8, 2012 file photo, shows Egyptian American activist Mona Eltahawy, who was recently arrested for spray painting an ad in a NYC subway.   (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

New York City's controversial subway ads equating jihadists to "savages" did not take long to incite a scuffle: The New York Post has gotten its hands on footage of an intense encounter between two women. The video shows a woman who proudly identifies herself as Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy, who last made headlines here, spray-painting over one of the ads. A second woman, Pamela Hall, approaches her with a mounted camera and attempts to put herself between the ad and the paint.

"Mona, do you think you have the right to do this?” she asks. “I do, actually. I think this is freedom of expression, just as (the ad) is freedom of expression," Eltahawy replies. The scene escalates from there, with Hall getting spray-painted for her trouble as a crowd gathers. Eventually an MTA official and a police officer with a K9 unit show up and arrest Eltahawy. She's carted away shouting, "This is what happens happens in America when you nonviolently protest." (More jihad stories.)

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