Appearing without his usual placard, sandwich board activist Danny Lim raised his fingers in a ‘V’ sign to two police in the Downing Centre on Wednesday morning, to which one of the officers replied "peace".

Minutes later inside one of the courtrooms a vastly different scene was on display as footage of the diminutive, elderly man's arrest showed him yelling for help while police took his one of his signature billboards and handcuffed him in a CBD shopping area.

Sandwich board protester Danny Lim outside the Downing Centre on Wednesday. Credit:Renee Nowytarger

"Please help, please. You cannot take my sign," Mr Lim, 74, is heard yelling on body-worn camera footage as he is taken towards a police vehicle in Barangaroo on the morning of January 11 this year.

Witness Laura Hough, who described Mr Lim as "very well-known, very respected" said she "just watched as they physically grabbed Mr Lim and started taking off his sign".