DRASTIC MEASURES

Activist Found Burned to Death in ‘Protest Suicide’ in Brooklyn Park

David Buckel, a well-known gay rights attorney, reportedly left a note saying he’d taken his own life to protest fossil fuels.

A prominent gay rights attorney and environmental activist reportedly set himself on fire in a Brooklyn park early Saturday as a “protest suicide” to call attention to the harm being done to the planet. David Buckel, 60, left a note for police near where his charred remains were found in Prospect Park early Saturday, according to the New York Daily News. “My name is David Buckel and I just killed myself by fire as a protest suicide. I apologize to you for the mess,” the hand-written note reportedly read. In a separate note, he said his “early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.” “Here is a hope that giving a life might bring some attention to the need for expanded actions, and help others give a voice to our home, and Earth is heard,” the note reportedly read. Buckel’s remains were found by a jogger early Saturday, and police have closed off part of the park while investigators process the scene.