Lawyer: Tourist Sorry For Brooklyn Bridge Climb

A French tourist was just trying to get a better vantage point to take sweeping city photos when he walked out onto the beams over traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, his lawyer said Monday.

The tourist was charged Monday with reckless endangerment and criminal trespass. He posted bail and was released and must surrender his passport after he climbed over a fence on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway around noon Sunday. He was standing on beams connected to the tower when police arrested him, before he managed to take the picture.

Saying he will seek jail time for the daredevil feat, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said such conduct is dangerous and won’t be tolerated.

“This defendant’s foolish and unlawful conduct is a breach of security and a danger to himself and others,” he said.

The defendant’s attorney, James Medows, described his client as simply a clueless tourist unaware of what the act meant in a post 9/11 New York.

“He did something that, as New Yorkers, we know is a foolish thing to do,” he said. “But he didn’t have the intent to scare society. He was just acting stupidly.”

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the November 18th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.