Notable Incidents
On 17 December 2008, Queens resident and Amtrak employee Stephen Millies, a protestor at a meeting of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City (MTA), tried to throw his shoe at the CEO of the MTA with the statement, "This shoe is for you!" Millies managed to shake off his left shoe before being stopped and detained by MTA Police.
On 20 December 2008, protesters in Montreal and Toronto threw shoes at posters of George Bush in front of their respective U.S. consulates to support Muntadhar al-Zaidi, to demand his immediate release, and to celebrate his gesture. The shoe tosses took place in −24 °C weather during protests against the U.S. military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and against Canada's involvement in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. At the shoe toss event in Toronto, Ahmed Habib, a refugee from Baghdad, said "We don't think of Muntadhar al-Zaidi as a criminal but, in fact, we think of him as a hero. The only war criminal is George Bush and his buddy Stephen Harper, so shame on the both of them."
On 20 December 2008, Ukrainian reporter Ihor Dmitriv pelted a Ukrainian politician with a shoe when he became angered by the politician's sexist remarks. Speaking in NATO accession, Oleh Soskin, said NATO membership was more favored by the Ukrainian women as they were "the more intelligent" part of the body politic. Dmitriv said his attack was motivated by the Ukrainian leadership's "craziness" and said "a shoe is going to become a leading means (for common people) to influence their leaders."
The anti-war group Code Pink pelted shoes at an effigy of U.S. president George W. Bush outside the White House on 17 December 2008. Protesters presented their shoes at U.S. Embassies around the world to show their support for al-Zaidi.
On 12 January 2009, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made fun of the incident and "threatened" to throw his shoes at reporters when visiting Couromoda 2009, a shoes event held in São Paulo.
On 20 January 2009 protesters in the United States shoed an inflatable replica of George W. Bush in replication of al-Zaidi's shoe-throwing incident.
On 2 February 2009, a German protester threw his shoe at Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao as he gave a speech at Cambridge University. The shoe landed on stage a few feet from the premier and the protester was quickly hustled away by security guards.
On 5 February 2009, Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan was hit by a protester's shoe while speaking about the 2009 Gaza War, the shoe throwers reportedly chanted "murderer!" and "intifada!".
On 17 March 2009, Canadian protesters in Calgary used shoes as props during their demonstrations, even going so far as to create a "shoe cannon".
The incident has also inspired several online shoe-throwing games, and on the Late Show with David Letterman, the "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" segment included flying shoes aimed at other presidents (via digitally-altered stock footage).
On 7 April 2009, Union Home Minister of India P. Chidambaram was shoed by Jarnail Singh, a Sikh journalist during a press conference in Delhi. Singh, who works at the Hindi daily Dainik Jagaran was dissatisfied with Chidamabaram's answer to a question on the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
On 16 April 2009, Indian Leader of Opposition and Prime Ministerial candidate of National Democratic Alliance, L K Advani was shoed by his own party member, Pawas Agarwal, a former district vice-president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Katni Town in Madhya Pradesh.
On 8 October 2009, a shoe was hurled at Clifford D. May by a student named Muhammad Hussain who is also the class representative of his class at Karachi University I.R. Dept. Pakistan.
On 23 October 2009, supporters of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threw their shoes at opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi as he visited Tehran during the 2009 Iranian election protests. A fight broke out between supporters of Ahmadinejad and Karroubi and one of the Ahmadinejad supporters threw a shoe at him, which hit him in the face and resulted in his turban falling off.
In December 2009, al-Zaidi was himself ironically shoed by another Iraqi journalist in Paris, who accused him of "working for dictatorship in Iraq". The incident occurred while al-Zaidi was speaking about his experiences during the Bush shoeing and its aftermath.
In February 2010, a 26-year old Kurd with Syrian citizenship tried to shoe Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sevilla, the shoes however missed Erdogan. While throwing the shoes the man called "long live free Kurdistan".
On 7 August 2010, Shamim Khan Threw a shoe at the President Of Pakistan in his address to Pakistani community in Birmingham UK. Shamim Khan said that he threw the shoe at him because Pakistan is fighting with the worst flood and its aftermath in 80 Years and He (Mr. Zardari) being president of Pakistan has been enjoying a trip in Europe since last week. Mr Shamim Khan is being treated as National Hero in Pakistan due to ongoing hatred against Zardari in Pakistan. The NBC series Kings imitated the shoe throwing incident in the episode The New King (Part 2).
On 6 June 2011, an attempt was made by a journalist identified as Sunil Kumar, a scribe from Nav Sanchar Patrika of Rajasthan to hurl a shoe at Indian National Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi after apparently upset with the way Congress handled using tear gas at peaceful demonstrations in Delhi on the night of 4 June 2011 against corruption.
Read more about this topic: List Of Shoe Throwing Incidents
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