NYT: The Perpetual Protester (An artist turned him on to Noam Chomsky)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/nyregion/28protester.html?ref=nyregion


Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Robert Lesko at a rally this month on the Upper East Side. His sign read: “Straight Guy Protesting the NYPD’s False Arrests of LGBTG People.”

“Straight Guy Protesting the NYPD’s False Arrests of LGBTG People,” read the message, a comment on a spate of arrests by vice squad officers of gay men on charges of soliciting for sex in video stores. The sign was in the hands of Robert Lesko, who wore a bright red jacket. He shrugged when asked his reason for being there.

“It’s a good way to spend a day,” said Mr. Lesko, his page-boy haircut obscured by a black cap. “There’s another protest at 3 in Union Square.” He added: “I believe it’s every New Yorker’s duty to stand up for the rights of others.”


Frances Roberts for The New York Times
Mr. Lesko protesting in costume in 2005 at a union demonstration in front of a Starbucks in Union Square.


When he’s not working, there’s a good chance that Mr. Lesko, 48, will be standing up for some cause. While not alone in perpetual protest, he is certainly among the more ubiquitous activists at Manhattan rallies. Each week, Mr. Lesko scours NYProtest, a listing of street demonstrations distributed by e-mail by a fellow activist, and chooses three or four that match his leftist political leanings.

He is known on the scene as a colorful character who often wears costumes that attract news photographers. Several years ago, to protest the presence of Coca Cola products on the New York University campus, where he is a secretary in the George H. Heyman Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, Mr. Lesko wore a Coke-can costume that he had made; he also dressed as a barrel of crude oil in 2004 to protest the invasion of Iraq. Other get-ups include Patrick Henry (for a Patriots Against the Patriot Act demonstration in 2004) and a life-size latte (to protest Starbucks in 2005 — “They tell me it appeared in a newspaper in China,” he said).

“You have to figure out what will work,” he said at another rally a week after the vice squad protest. “Today I couldn’t think of anything.”

FULL story at link.