Arrests follow protests at Georgia state Capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More than 40 people were arrested Tuesday in a string of protests targeting Gov. Nathan Deal’s decision not to expand Medicaid in Georgia under the Affordable Care Act.
Dr. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor, was among those placed in handcuffs by Georgia State Patrol troopers. Warnock and a group of supporters staged a sit-in outside of Deal’s office Tuesday afternoon. They were arrested without incident and led away as the remaining crowd of protesters sang “We Shall Not Be Moved.”
“It is no exaggeration to say that we are here on a matter of life and death,” Warnock told a group of about 100 supporters.
Warnock was the last of a series of speakers in the Capitol rotunda, including two Democratic state senators, criticizing Deal and Republican leaders on a range of issues from education to abortion rights to voting rights. But the governor’s position on Medicaid expansion was the centerpiece of Tuesday’s action by a coalition of liberal groups organized under the name Moral Monday.
Protest organizers said 10 others were arrested with Warnock. Following those arrests, another 13 protesters were arrested when they attempted to block the door to the Senate.
Earlier in the day, Capitol police removed 16 people from the Senate gallery after they began a staggered wave of protests urging Deal to reverse course.
“Our lives matter,” one group chanted. “Medicaid expansion.”
The protesters — most of them senior citizens — were quickly handcuffed and hauled to a basement conference room by Georgia state troopers and Capitol police. The protests disrupted the Senate floor action for about 15 minutes.
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/protesters-disrupt-state-senate/nfFwg/
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