President Barack Obama’s 98th day in office turned into a day of protests Monday.
Environmentalists unfurled a 600-foot banner from on high, five U.S. lawmakers were arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy, and nearly 100 people in wheelchairs chained themselves to the White House fence.
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About 350 people who came to Washington to support talks between the Obama administration and representatives of people with disabilities wound up demonstrating after the group learned the president was not going to support parts of a bill he had promised to support during the campaign.
Amber Smock, of Chicago, said she was frustrated because Obama was a co-sponsor of the Community Choice Act, that would give people with disabilities on Medicaid an alternative to living in nursing homes.
“There’s been a lot of putting forth and taking back,” Smock said. “He made a lot of promises, and he’s failed to live up to those promises.”
Ninety-one people, most of whom were in wheelchairs, stationed themselves against the black iron fence surrounding the White House and refused to move. U.S. Park Police arrested them on charges of demonstrating without a permit. Police issued citations instead of hauling the demonstrators away in handcuffs.
Earlier that day, five members of Congress, including Rep. Donna Edwards, of Prince George’s County, were arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy. The group was protesting the country’s expulsion of aid organizations in response to an international court’s issuing an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president on charges of killing tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.
Edwards urged Obama to use “sticks and carrots” to hold Sudan accountable. “Words are no longer enough,” he said in a statement.
The day of demonstrations got off to an early morning start. Seven Greenpeace activists were arrested after hanging a 600-foot banner from a construction crane near the U.S. State Department.
The environmental protesters closed 23rd Street NW between C Street and Constitution Avenue and hung the banner to send a message to world leaders who were attending a meeting on climate change, protest organizers said. The banner showed a picture of the Earth and read, “Too Big To Fail: Stop Global Warming, Rescue the Planet.”
The display tied up morning rush-hour traffic.
