Actor taken away by police following altercation at the site of his He Will Not Divide Us art installation, which is planned to run for Trump’s first term

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Shia LaBeouf has been arrested at the site of his permanent protest against new President Donald Trump. The actor, 30, was handcuffed by police on Wednesday evening, reportedly after a disagreement which involved LaBeouf assaulting a man with divergent political opinions.

The exact circumstances remain hazy. On a fan Twitter feed for #HeWillNotDivideUs, the name of LaBeouf’s art installation protest, where the arrest took place, a 13 second video shows the actor briefly shoving a man who addresses the camera with the words “Hitler did nothing wrong”.

#HeWillNotDivideUs (@HWNDUS) Shia LaBeouf has been arrested by NYPD, because of this video #HeWillNotDivideUs #FreeShia pic.twitter.com/Sj8RqP7uGm

“Hey,” says the man. “Why did he attack me?” Later tweets from the same account expand the report by saying: “Shia was attacked by a Nazi. Shia got arrested. Nazi got away.” This echoes a later video of fellow protesters who say: “Shia took a hit for us. There were all these Nazis here, he came out and tried to protect us.”

Play Video 0:22 Shia LaBeouf arrested at his art installation in New York



The site TMZ claims that LaBeouf scratched the man and grabbed his scarf.

Law enforcement officials from the NYPD have been posted at the site since Monday. “He will not divide us” was co-created by LaBeouf, along with Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner, and aims to run for the next four years – or as long as Trump is in office.

It involves a camera mounted on a wall outside the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York. Passers by are invited to stand for as long as they wish in front of it repeating the phrase. The results are live-streamed.

On Sunday LaBeouf shouted down another protester by repeatedly yelling “He will not divide us” into his face.