D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray says his being arrested is just the beginning of the war for the District’s freedom from federal control.
“I frankly have no problem being arrested, but being arrested is not the only strategy that’s going to work,” Gray said after a news conference Tuesday afternoon. “This has to be a sustained, mutlipronged approach,” he said, calling his arrest a “spark” that would lead to further outcry
Gray has been comparing the plight of D.C residents in the federal city to that of citizens in Egypt and Libya.
“It’s time for us to stand up for ourselves,” he told the audience Tuesday at the Urban Land Institute’s annual real estate conference. “How can we look around at… what is happening in Egypt… send our [forces] over to Afghanistan and Iraq, and come back to the District of Columbia — and there they are second class citizens.”
Gray and six council members were among 41 people arrested Monday evening when they refused to leave Constitution Avenue near the U.S. Capitol building in a protest against federal oversight of the city’s spending choices. Their anger boiled over three days after President Obama offered to ban the District spending local taxpayer dollars on abortion to help broker a deal on the federal budget with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called Obama’s handing over of the District’s abortion spending a “tough decision. … The choices that had to be made in this negotiation were not easy ones.”
The official recognition of the deal might only further enrage Gray, who said Tuesday morning on WTOP that “people have to understand the District of Columbia is not a pawn in a political game.”
Congress gave D.C. approval to spend local tax dollars on abortion in 2009, though the city didn’t start to do so until August. Since then, the city has paid about $188,000 for 190 abortions. That spending won’t be allowed once Congress passes its budget bill.
Gray told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he’s working with D.C. Vote, the group that organized Monday’s protest, to develop a plan that goes beyond singular events like his arrest.
A D.C. Vote spokeswoman said the group is planning another protest for Friday with the goal of tapping the energy of college students who have expressed interest in D.C. rights since the mayor was arrested.
At-large D.C. Councilman Michael Brown was the first of the 41 arrested Monday night.
“This was arguably the biggest event in the city’s history related to democracy since home rule,” Brown said. Gray’s arrest, he said, opens the door for the District to be as “aggressive as we need to be in the fight for autonomy.”
There are those who question the mayor’s motives. Gray’s administration has been awash in scandals over his hiring decisions and claims of impropriety by top members of his mayoral campaign.
“It’s irresponsible smoke and mirrors that’s distracting from the budget and governing issues that must be dealt with,” said police union chief Kris Baumann.
When asked Tuesday about those who are critical, Gray said “there’s a legitimate issue here and I’d invite them to address the legitimate issues.”
Examiner Staff Writer Liz Farmer contributed to this report.
