Today was a journey for the protesters that have been showing up daily to say no to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The rally began promptly at 12:30pm in front of the Barrett Prettyman Courthouse. They chose that spot not just for oddly perfect name but as it’s where Judge Brett Kavanaugh currently works. Organized by the Women’s March, with the support of dozens of other groups. co-founders Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour took the lead in preparing the protesters for the day which was going to be a long and hot one.
After a short visit from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who cheered on the crowd and took selfies with the protesters around her, the protest began to march. I couldn’t confirm if they had a permit to march as the police were harassing them all the way – unlike the incredible steps that they took a month ago to accommodate Jason Kessler and his small band of racists. Eventually after some zig-zaging across the Mall and by the Capitol the marchers arrived at their first destination, the U.S. Supreme Court.
At the Supreme Court the survivors of sexual assault took stage, each one identified their Senators. First from Alaska then Maine they called on Senators Murkowski and Sentaor Collins to listen to them – to heed their calls to not confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Linda Sarsour, once again took the stage to update the crowd that “The police went and barricaded the entire Capitol building, but what they don’t know is that women got plan b, c, d, e, f… I got about a hundred plans in my pocket.” Police surprisingly confirmed that they closed off the entirety of the East front of the Capitol Building specifically to stop protesters from going there.
The plan b, she laid out was to head over to on of the Senate’s office buildings. Hart. If you’ve been seeing the mass arrests and protests that have been happening over the last several weeks – it was in the atrium of this building. That’s where we were joined by actress and comedian Amy Schumer, who was there to join in the planned civil disobedience.
Roughly 1,000 people were crammed into the atrium as the mic check was called for people from Alaska and Maine go and “order pizzas” at their Senators office – the rest were told to either go to the higher levels or stay on the bottom floor to start the sit-in. Chanting “No to Kavanaugh” over the megaphones of the police, one by one each protester was pulled from the floor and arrested. Over 300 in all were first given bracelets and then taken to the park across the street for processing.
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