April 2016

On the 15th of April, the Democracy Spring protests included the DC Statehood issue and the count for civil disobedience arrests rose to nearly 1,000 for the week. In a few cases police have been getting out of line. On April 15, one of the last protesters to be arrested was tackled and pinned to the ground after dancing a bit just before arrest. Also, there is a report that at least ten spurious charges of "assaulting a police officer" were filed by police, only to be immediatly dismissed in court. Usually police file that charge when they are the ones using violence e.g hitting a cop on the club with your head can draw an ASPO charge.

RT'syoutube video including rough arrest for dancing in the street

On the 13th of April, Black Lives Matter and other Ward 8 organizers led Democracy Spring's 3rd march on the US Capitol. The lead banner was from the Save Barry Farms organizers advising people to refuse to move, blocking displacement. When the march arrived at the Capitol, the third sit-in in as many days followed. As police arrested the folks in the sit-in, they also put police lines around the support people after moving them back behind the first police line. At one point they were told they too were subject to arrest,unknown if any arrests other than voluntary ones resulted from this. The final arrest total for the three days so far has now climbed to in excess of 700.

Update Day 4, April 14: Support protesters becoming more determined in holding ground when police threaten arrests demanding they move, unknown if this was part of the April 14th arrest totalDay 4 video by Cassandra Fairbanks originally uploaded to Twitter

Video of Democracy Spring march led by Anacostia and Black Lives Matter activists, and Sit-In #3

On the 11th of April, a solid week of civil disobedience protests began with a massive sit-in on the Capitol East Steps and in front of them. Democracy Spring is demandng that the campaign cash and bribery used by the wealthy and corporations to effectively own and operate Congress, regulatory agencies, etc be shut down entirely. Bus after bus had to be brought up to handle arrestees, and a little after 3PM police ran out of space and had to temporarily stop arresting people according to one report.

Update Day 2: hundreds of elders sit-in at the US Capitol, more arrests

Video of the first Democracy Spring sit-in on the Capitol East Steps

On the 10th of April, the Democracy Spring march arrived in DC, many of the participants having marched all the way from Philidelphia. They are here to demand a total end to corporate and "one percenter" cash and bribery in US elections. Beginning on April 11 there will be daily sit-ins on Capitol Hill for this demand.

Stirring video with music of Democracy Spring's entry into DC