'Resist' Banner Activists Returning to Bay Area

Four of seven Greenpeace activists will return to the Bay Area next week after they were arrested for scaling a 270-foot crane to hang a massive banner reading “Resist” just blocks from the White House on Wednesday.

The activists unfurled the banner a day after President Donald Trump issued executive orders to restart the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects. The protest also comes after the Trump administration placed new restrictions on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including a media blackout and a halt on the awarding of new grants and contracts.

The seven environmentalists were arrested on their descent Wednesday night and charged with misdemeanor offenses in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

San Francisco Mission district muralist Nancy Pili Hernandez was among those arrested.

“It was us sending a visual message to not only the new administration that we will not just roll over and accept the injustices we see in front of us, but also to the people who are feeling fear and feeling divided because of this current administration,” Pili Hernandez said on Friday.

In a Facebook Live video she posted on Wednesday, Hernandez showed viewers her perspective of Washington, D.C. from atop the crane.

Despite the arrest -- and her fear of heights -- she says she sticks by her decision to volunteer to hang the banner.

“We felt like it was important to inspire others, to hold our heads up high and not give up, and to figure out how we can resist racism, resist social injustice, and resist anybody who chooses to attempt to destroy the planet,” she said.

Pili Hernandez will return to San Francisco on Monday where she will resume her job as a Latino youth educator of in the Mission district.

Pili Hernandez is a also social justice muralist, according to KQED Arts, and she's one of the subjects in a series of short documentaries called "Real Hood Heroes." She’s also a member of the artist collective Trust Your Struggle.