John Nichols (The Nation): "Well-Intentioned"--And Arrested

[Jack Rabbit]

From The Nation
Dated Monday September 26

"Well-Intentioned"--And Arrested
By John Nichols


Amid chants of "Arrest Bush," hundreds of antiwar activists participated in a peaceful but boisterous sit-in outside the White House Monday, as part of a day of protests that saw Cindy Sheehan and others taken into custody.

Sheehan, the California woman whose 24-year-old son Casey was killed in the Iraq War, drew international attention in August when she camped out near George Bush's ranchette in Crawford, Texas, as part of an effort to secure a face-to-face meeting with the President. Over the weekend, the woman whom Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Lynn Woolsey, D-California, praised for "waking up America" brought her demand to Washington, where she participated in the mass demonstration against the war on Saturday.

On Monday, more than 1,000 people gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Code Pink activists stretched a huge "Mothers Say No to War" banner across Pennsylvania Avenue, and early in the afternoon several hundred members of the crowd, including Sheehan, approached the northwest entrance of the executive residence. Holding a picture of her son in his US Army uniform, Sheehan again requested an opportunity to talk with the President about the Iraq War.

After about ten minutes, Sheehan joined a sit-in along the fence outside the White House. As the group chanted "Stop the War!" and "The whole world is watching!" she was the first arrested by US Park Police. Like the others who were taken into custody, she was charged with demonstrating without a permit, a misdemeanor that carries a $50 fine. (In addition to the roughly 200 people who joined the sit-in near the White House, another forty-one--including a number of members of the group Veterans for Peace--were arrested earlier in the day near the Pentagon.)

Read more.