The mayor of London compares him to Osama
bin Laden. He's been dubbed a "menace"
holding a city for "ransom," as well as a
lunatic and an extremist.
What has a middle-aged window washer named
David Chick done to arouse such anger? He
loves his little daughter, from whom he's
been forcibly separated, and he had the
courage to do something about it.
|
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"[My
daughter] is
the most
precious
thing in my
world. I was
there for
the scans
when she was
still in the
womb.
I was there
for her
birth. I fed
her, bathed
her, got up
in the night
with her,
cuddled her
when she
cried.
|
"Now
I'm
just
another
statistic--another
dad
who
has
no
part
in
his
daughter's
life.
For
me,
it
is a
living
bereavement." |
|
-David
Chick
(aka
"Spiderman") |
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Chick launched a world famous,
traffic snarling, six day,
one-man protest atop a 150 foot
high crane near the Tower Bridge
in London in November
2003. Dressed as Spiderman
because he is his little
daughter's favorite comic book
character, Chick had been to
court 25 times and spent the
equivalent of $30,000 in
unsuccessful attempts to get
English courts to enforce his
visitation rights.
Facing a prison sentence for his protest,
Chick was acquitted by an English jury, some
of whom were reportedly moved to tears by
his testimony. In 2003, Chick came in
second
in the Evening Standard London
Personality of the Year contest and was the
runner-up Political Personality of the Year
on a major English television station.
In September 2004, Spiderman struck again,
climbing the
London Eye, an enormous 450-foot-high ferris wheel on the banks of
the River Thames. Chick spent 18 hours
there--one hour for every month that had
passed since he had been able to see his
little daughter. Nearly 20,000 people were
prevented from visiting the attraction
because the police closed it down during the
protest.
Popular still, a London jury again
acquitted Chick of causing a public
nuisance.
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"Every
decent, loving father who has been driven to the
margins of his children's lives by the family
law system should do what David Chick did..."
|
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-Glenn
Sacks, American columnist and syndicated
talk show host |
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