Israeli Tourist Busted For Climbing Brooklyn Bridge For A Selfie
Tourists walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on May 5, 2016. / AFP / Getty Images Image by Getty Images
(JTA) – Police in New York arrested an Israeli tourist who climbed the Brooklyn Bridge to take a selfie there.
The tourist was an 18-year-old man whom the New York Post identified as “Shivel Dikstein.”
Unlike Shoval, Shivel is not a common Israeli name.
He was arrested at 7 p.m. after he allegedly jumping a fence on the Brooklyn side, the report said.
“He jumped up to get a selfie with the skyline behind him,” the Post quoted a witness as saying.
The man was charged with criminal trespass.
The Israel’s arrest comes days after a group of youths nearly died while taking a selfie on thin ice on a pond in Central Park.
Deaths related attempts to take self portraits with smartphones are increasing worldwide.
In Iran, a man in his 40s was killed after he tried to take a selfie in front a dam as it burst during freak weather conditions in the southeastern city of Jirof, the Evening Standard of London reported earlier this week.
Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, registered its first known selfie-related fatal incident this week. Fourteen-year-old Adnan Mehraj Mir of Khanyar died after he was hit by train near Nowgam Railway Station when he was taking a selfie on the railway track, police said.
In Dubai, a Russian model and popular user of the Instagram social network risked her life for a selfie last month illegally, prompting authorities to declare she may be permanently banned from re-entering that state.
Viki Odintcova, 23, dangled down from a top floor of the 1,000-foot tall Cayan Tower while holding on to a male assistant’s arm.
And in Argentina, a group of tourists last month dragged a dolphin calf out of the water in the city of San Bernardo south of Buenos Aires to pose for selfies with it, resulting in the animal’s death, Argentine newspaper La Capital reported.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
