Protesters Link War, Warming
Latest Rally Tied to IMF, World Bank Meetings Focuses on Climate Change
Some of those protesting on Capitol Hill were on bicycles. Above, a Capitol police officer attempts to clear a protester from the street.
(By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007; Page B01
Trish Comstock, 77, and Jane Califf, 67, sat side by side on the sidewalk outside the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill yesterday, their hands cuffed behind them with plastic wrist ties.
They were among 59 people arrested by Capitol police yesterday during antiwar and global warming protests that temporarily blocked the entrances to the office building and disrupted morning traffic for about an hour on Independence Avenue just south of the Capitol.
But they stood out among the 200 or so mostly youthful demonstrators who swirled in and around the office building on foot or on bicycles, some locking arms in the middle of Independence to impede traffic. Both women said they hail from Bloomfield, N.J. Comstock said she was a retired college writing teacher and Califf, a retired education professor.
"I have a granddaughter," Comstock said as she sat waiting to be taken to a police van. "And I don't want her coming into a world like this. It's just very painful for me."
Califf said: "I'm very frightened about the climate crises that we're facing. I think we have to get away from fossil fuels and gas and oil and to clean energy . . . I stopped teaching because what's the point of having perfect lesson plans. . . . and you have no world to teach in."
Yesterday's protest was the latest of four rallies in the District since Friday aimed at an array of issues that included government immigration policy, international economic policy, the war in Iraq and climate change. They coincided with meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
There were no reported injuries or damage yesterday, police said, and traffic was rerouted at the height of the disturbance.
Many of those arrested had to be dragged or carried by officers from the street or sidewalk, their bodies limp or rigid in protest. Police said two of those arrested were younger than 18.
One handcuffed demonstrator said he was 14. "I'm here to show that there are other people my age out here," the youth said as he sat waiting to be taken to a police car.
"Are you going to walk to the car, or are we going to have to carry you?" a police officer asked him.
"Carry me, man," the 14-year-old replied.
The arrested were taken away in police vehicles and charged with unlawful assembly or incommoding -- blocking an entrance.
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