Susan Sarandon Arrests: A 27-Year Timeline of Her Activism

Susan Sarandon was detained by the New York Police Department on Thursday, September 24, 2026, during a protest outside United Nations headquarters in Manhattan. The 79-year-old Oscar winner was photographed in handcuffs as officers led her away from a demonstration held ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the UN General Assembly.

It was the fourth documented arrest of Sarandon’s life, and the pattern connecting all four stretches back 27 years to 1999. Her history of civil disobedience reaches back even further, to a 1982 detention in New York City.

For an actress with an Academy Award, more than four decades of film work, and one of the most recognizable faces in American cinema, Susan Sarandon has built a parallel public identity as one of Hollywood’s most persistently arrested activists. Each arrest came from a different cause. Each followed the same basic pattern: she refused to move when police ordered a crowd to disperse.

Here is the complete timeline of Susan Sarandon’s arrests, the causes behind each one, and what they reveal about her approach to political protest.

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The Four Documented Arrests at a Glance

An earlier detention in 1982 in New York City, over the demolition of the Morosco Theatre on Broadway, predates this list and is discussed separately below.

1982: The Morosco Theatre Protest That Started It All

Susan Sarandon history of civil disobedience began in 1982, when she was detained in New York City while protesting the planned demolition of the Morosco Theatre on Broadway.

The Morosco, along with the Helen Hayes Theatre, was slated for destruction to make way for a hotel development in Times Square. The demolition became a rallying point for the New York theater community, drawing actors, playwrights, and directors who saw the loss of the historic venues as an attack on Broadway’s cultural heritage.

Sarandon was among the performers who participated. The protest failed to save the buildings, which were demolished in 1982, but it established a template she would return to repeatedly: physical presence at the site of a dispute, willingness to be removed by police, and acceptance of the legal consequences.

She has also spoken publicly on multiple occasions about being arrested in high school for protesting the Vietnam War, though details of that incident are not part of the documented public record.

1999: The Amadou Diallo Protests in New York City

The first of Sarandon’s four fully documented arrests came in 1999, during one of the largest civil disobedience campaigns in modern New York City history.

The background: On February 4, 1999, Amadou Diallo, a 22-year-old unarmed immigrant from Guinea, was shot at 41 times by four New York Police Department officers outside his Bronx apartment building. He was struck 19 times and died at the scene. The officers said they believed he was reaching for a weapon. He was reaching for his wallet.

The killing triggered sustained protests across New York. Demonstrators staged repeated acts of civil disobedience outside One Police Plaza, deliberately courting arrest to keep public attention on the case. Over the course of the campaign, approximately 1,200 people were arrested.

Sarandon’s involvement: She was among 219 people arrested during one of the mass demonstrations. The arrestees included some of the most prominent figures in New York public life: former Mayor David Dinkins, NAACP director Kweisi Mfume, city council members, and religious and union leaders.

Speaking to reporters at the time, Sarandon framed her participation as a matter of obligation rather than optics.

“If we’re not here today, then we’re saying that what happened is acceptable and normal, and I think that does a disservice to the other police,” she said. “I think it’s time we focus on this issue, and racial profiling is not acceptable. I don’t think we want to be made safe at the expense of our civil liberties.”

The four officers involved in the shooting were tried and acquitted of all charges in February 2000.

2018: Women Disobey and the Family Separation Protest

Nineteen years passed between Sarandon’s Diallo arrest and her next one. It came on June 28, 2018, in Washington, D.C., during one of the largest acts of civil disobedience Capitol Hill had seen in years.

The background: The Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy at the southern border, which treated all illegal crossings as criminal offenses, had resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents. Photographs of children held in detention facilities, wrapped in foil emergency blankets, circulated widely and generated national outrage.

Although President Trump signed an executive order ending family separations the week before the protest, roughly 2,000 children remained separated from their families at the time.

The protest: Organized by the Women’s March and the Center for Popular Democracy, the “Women Disobey” demonstration brought hundreds of women to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building and then into the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Protesters staged a sit-in at the foot of Alexander Calder’s “Mountains and Clouds” sculpture in the Hart atrium. Many wrapped themselves in silver thermal blankets, deliberately mirroring the images of detained migrant children. Their banners demanded an end to detention camps, and they chanted “We care,” a pointed response to the jacket First Lady Melania Trump had worn on a visit to a detention facility the previous week, which read “I really don’t care, do u?”

The arrests: U.S. Capitol Police arrested approximately 575 people, including Sarandon and Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington state. All were charged with unlawfully demonstrating, processed on scene, and released.

Sarandon posted on Twitter from the protest: “Arrested. Stay strong. Keep fighting. #WomenDisobey.”

Roughly three hours later, she was posting again: “Powerful, beautiful action with hundreds of women saying we demand the reunification of families separated by immoral ICE policy. This is what Democracy looks like.”

2023: The One Fair Wage Protest at the New York State Capitol

Sarandon’s third arrest, in May 2023, came in Albany at the New York State Capitol and involved the smallest group of any of her arrests.

The background: New York had been moving toward a minimum wage increase, but the proposed legislation excluded tipped restaurant workers from the raise. The advocacy organization One Fair Wage argued that this exclusion disproportionately harmed women and single mothers of color, who make up a significant share of the tipped workforce.

The protest: Sarandon appeared at the Capitol alongside members of One Fair Wage. The group occupied an area inside the building and refused repeated requests from state police to clear the space.

Reporting at the time indicated the activists had specifically asked to be arrested, using their detention as a deliberate tactic to draw press attention to the wage exclusion.

The outcome: Eight activists, including Sarandon, were taken into custody by state police. Each was charged with a single count of disorderly conduct, processed, and released.

The 2023 arrest is notable for its scale. Where the 1999 and 2018 arrests placed Sarandon among hundreds of people, the Albany action involved just eight. Her presence in a group that small meant her name carried a much larger share of the media coverage the group was seeking.

2026: The Netanyahu UN Protest and Her Most Recent Arrest

Sarandon’s fourth arrest came on Thursday, September 24, 2026, outside United Nations headquarters in New York City.

🚨NYPD ARRESTS Susan Sarandon.

“That’s @SusanSarandon there.” –@JordanChariton reacts to NYPD Arresting her at an anti-Netanyahu protest outside the United Nations in NYC pic.twitter.com/nEYZeTusbU

— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) September 24, 2026

The background: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to address the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. The protest was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish activist organization that supports Palestinian rights. Demonstrators called for an end to U.S. military support for Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

The scene: Roughly 250 people participated in the protest where Sarandon was detained, with larger demonstrations taking place elsewhere in the city throughout the day. Protesters sat in the street, blocking traffic along First Avenue near 39th Street, a few blocks south of UN headquarters.

According to an NYPD spokesperson, the department’s Community Affairs Bureau issued warnings first. “Members of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau issued warnings, advising participants that they should leave,” the spokesperson said. Officers then moved in and detained activists who remained seated on the pavement.

Who else was detained: Sarandon was one of several recognizable figures taken into custody. Others included Hannah Einbinder, the Emmy-winning star of Hacks, Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, and New York City council member Chi Ossé. More than a dozen elected officials and candidates were reportedly among the protesters.

Comedian Caleb Hearon and Saturday Night Live cast member Sarah Sherman were also reported to be in the crowd. Actress Cynthia Nixon attended the protest, but a representative confirmed she was not detained.

Reports on the total number arrested varied, with figures ranging from at least 30 to roughly 100 people taken into custody. Charges against the group had not been finalized as of the initial reporting.

Inside the UN: As Netanyahu took the stage, dozens of international delegates and diplomats walked out of the General Assembly Hall. Netanyahu used his address to defend his government’s military campaigns and respond to growing international criticism.

The Professional Consequences of Her Recent Activism

Sarandon’s 2026 arrest did not occur in isolation. Her pro-Palestinian advocacy over the preceding years has carried professional costs that she has discussed openly.

She was dropped by her talent agency, UTA, following comments she made at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York in November 2023. She later apologized for the specific phrasing she used at that event while maintaining her broader position.

At a press conference during the Venice Film Festival in 2026, Sarandon spoke publicly about losing film roles as a result of her support for Palestine. She has continued to appear at industry events, including an INK Tastemaker screening in New York on September 17, 2026, one week before her UN arrest.

Sarandon was also among roughly 4,500 signatories from the film and television industries who signed a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions. Hannah Einbinder, arrested alongside her at the UN protest, was another signatory. Einbinder characterized the pledge as targeting institutions rather than individuals.

This intersection of activism and career consequence is a more recent feature of Sarandon’s protest history. Her earlier arrests, over the Diallo shooting, family separation, and tipped wages, generated headlines but do not appear to have carried comparable professional fallout.

The Pattern Across All Four Arrests

Looking at the four documented arrests together, a consistent methodology emerges.

She participates in organized, planned actions. Each arrest came at a demonstration coordinated by an established organization: the Citywide Coalition for Justice, the Women’s March, One Fair Wage, and Jewish Voice for Peace.

The arrests are the point, not an accident. In each case, the tactic was deliberate non-compliance with a dispersal order. The 2023 Albany activists explicitly asked to be arrested. The 2018 Hart Senate Building sit-in was designed to result in detention. These are not protests that went unexpectedly wrong.

The charges are consistently minor. Disorderly conduct in 2023. Unlawfully demonstrating in 2018. Civil disobedience charges in 1999. These are the lowest-level offenses available, typically resulting in processing and release on the same day.

Her causes vary widely. Historic preservation in 1982. Police violence and racial profiling in 1999. Immigration policy in 2018. Labor and wage policy in 2023. Foreign policy in 2026. There is no single issue that defines her activism.

She uses her visibility deliberately. Sarandon’s presence guarantees media coverage that a group of anonymous activists would not receive. In 2023, with only eight people arrested, her participation was arguably the single largest factor in the protest generating national attention.

A Complete Chronological Timeline

How Sarandon Compares to Other Activist Celebrities

Sarandon occupies an unusual position among celebrities who engage in political protest. Many public figures attend rallies, make statements, or lend their names to causes. Comparatively few repeatedly accept arrest as a tactic across multiple decades and multiple unrelated issues.

The closest parallels in American public life tend to be figures like Jane Fonda, who was arrested repeatedly during her Fire Drill Fridays climate protests in 2019, or Martin Sheen, who has been arrested dozens of times at protests over several decades.

What distinguishes Sarandon’s record is its breadth. Fonda’s arrests clustered around climate policy. Sheen’s have largely concerned nuclear weapons and military policy. Sarandon’s span theater preservation, police accountability, immigration, labor economics, and foreign policy, with no single organizing theme beyond a consistent willingness to be physically present and physically removed.

Her arrests also span an unusually long period. The 44 years between the 1982 Morosco detention and the 2026 UN arrest represent nearly her entire adult life and her entire film career, from before Bull Durham through decades past her 1996 Best Actress Oscar for Dead Man Walking.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many times has Susan Sarandon been arrested?

Sarandon has four documented arrests: in New York City in 1999, in Washington, D.C. in 2018, in Albany, New York in 2023, and in New York City in 2026. She was also detained in 1982 in New York City, and she has spoken about being arrested in high school during Vietnam War protests.

Why was Susan Sarandon arrested in September 2026?

She was detained outside United Nations headquarters in Manhattan on September 24, 2026, during a protest organized by Jewish Voice for Peace ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the UN General Assembly. Protesters were blocking traffic on First Avenue and remained seated after police issued dispersal warnings.

What was Susan Sarandon’s first documented arrest?

Her first fully documented arrest was in 1999, when she was among 219 people arrested during civil disobedience protests over the police shooting of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. Her earliest known detention was in 1982, protesting the demolition of the Morosco Theatre on Broadway.

Who else was arrested at the 2026 UN protest?

Others detained included Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, and New York City council member Chi Ossé. More than a dozen elected officials and candidates were among the protesters. Cynthia Nixon attended but was not detained.

Was Susan Sarandon dropped by her talent agency?

Yes. UTA dropped Sarandon as a client in November 2023 following comments she made at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York. She later apologized for the specific phrasing she used while maintaining her broader position.

What charges has Susan Sarandon faced?

Her arrests have consistently involved low-level offenses. In 2023, she was charged with a single count of disorderly conduct. In 2018, she and the other Women Disobey protesters were charged with unlawfully demonstrating. In each case, she was processed and released the same day. Charges from the 2026 UN protest had not been finalized as of initial reporting.

Has Susan Sarandon ever been jailed long-term?

No. There is no public record of Sarandon serving any significant jail time. Her arrests have resulted in same-day processing and release, which is typical for the low-level civil disobedience charges involved.

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Last Updated on September 25, 2026 by 247 News Around The World