WILKES-BARRE — City police on Friday arrested activist Gene Stilp after he tried to deface a Ku Klux Klan brick that was placed on a city-owned monument.

Police and City Administrator Rick Gazenski repeatedly warned Stilp against taking his hammer and chisel to the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire brick that was prominently placed on the monument, but Stilp persisted with his plan despite the threat of arrest.

"We're here today to help the city clean up a problem they have," Stilp said before being handcuffed. "That problem is that the nice monument there has been defaced by the city by putting an abhorrent brick on there — the brick by the racist group the KKK and their affiliate. And so today, I'm going to take that brick down and clean up the monument for the city."

For $35, members of the public can purchase bricks and have them engraved and affixed to the sides of the monument, which was erected in 2008 and has the city's beehive symbol mounted to the top. One of those tiles was placed three weeks ago under the name of the East Coast Knights group, the local chapter of the KKK that has a history of recruiting in the city.

As the crowd on Public Square grew larger late Friday morning, City Administrator Rick Gazenski arrived on scene and urged Stilp to reconsider his illegal plan, saying the KKK has a right to space on the city-owned monument just like everyone else.

"This city was built on the bedrock of the United States. We have freedom of speech," Gazenski told Stilp. "I wish you the best here today, and please consider not doing it."

Prior to ascending his wooden ladder, Stilp also informed several awaiting police officers about his intent. They informed him he would face criminal charges if he tried to remove the brick.

"It's not his job to take it down," Wilkes-Barre Police Officer Kirk Merchel told an unhappy crowd of Stilp's supporters. "I cannot stand here and allow Mr. Stilp to commit any kind of crime while our officers are standing here, because if I allow him to commit a crime in our presence, then maybe this gentleman wants to commit a crime in our presence."

After delivering a speech at the base of his ladder reiterating his belief that he was helping clean up the monument, Stilp climbed up and took a hammer and chisel to the brick. But before he could strike the chisel, Merchel grabbed it out of his hand.

Stilp asked for someone to pass him another chisel as the crowd began booing.

"You have to understand, there's ways to do things, and this is not the right way to do things," Merchel said.

Stilp then descended the ladder and told police they would have to carry him away. Merchel, however, said he did not plan to arrest Stilp because Stilp had not yet committed a crime.

"So I'm not being arrested?" Stilp asked in disbelief. "My intent is to take that down today, OK. So can I have my tools back?"

Merchel said he would not return the tools and allow Stilp to commit a crime, but that he could retrieve them from headquarters.

"This is insane," Stilp said. "Let me figure this out."

Stilp then picked up a bucket of roofing cement, climbed back up the ladder and tried to smear the black substance over the face of the brick.

"We have to at least cover the name," Stilp said as officers pulled him down and placed him under arrest.

Police said Stilp would be cited for disorderly conduct and criminal mischief, and that he was released after being processed at police headquarters.

Reached for comment later in the day, Stilp said the officers returned his tools "with the understanding I wouldn't go back to the square and knock it off."

"They were very gracious," Stilp said.

Stilp, a public policy specialist, has a history of conducting high-profile publicity stunts including placing a 25-foot inflatable pig in the Capitol Rotunda and burning a combined Nazi/Confederate flag outside the Luzerne County Courthouse.