Demonstrators skipped, swayed and shimmied at the Jefferson Memorial in a protest of a ban on dancing there, a week after five people were forcefully arrested for dancing.
U.S. Park Police officers cleared dozens from the memorial’s rotunda Saturday and pushed the demonstrators to the memorial’s steps, but no one was taken into custody.
The at-times raucous crowd danced and cheered on the steps for more than hour. Many carried signs that read “I’m only dancing” or had quotes attributed to Jefferson, like “A free people claim their rights.”
The man carrying that sign, Larry Maxwell, said he first thought last week’s demonstration was silly, but later became upset abouy how police responded to the dancers.
“You didn’t have to throw people down to the floor,” he said. Online videos surfaced last weekend, showing police pushing a protester to the floor and grabbing his throat.
The demonstrations have been in response to a recent D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld a ban on dancing at the memorial. Park Police are investigating whether officers acted too aggressively in arresting last week’s protesters.
The federal appeals court ruled last month that dancing “falls into the spectrum” of activities banned by memorial regulations after a woman arrested for dancing in 2008 had challenged her arrest. Dancing “stands out as a type of performance, creating its own center of attention and distracting from the atmosphere of solemn commemoration,” the appeals court wrote.
Alex Cohen was passing out necklaces with hot pink tags that said things like “Dance for democracy.” She said her bosses were two of the people arrested last week and she doesn’t understand the Park Police regulations.
“It’s just dancing,” she said.
About 20 minutes after the dancing started Saturday, police directed people outside of the rotunda. Some continued to boogie in a circle around the statue of Jefferson, but only a dozen or so remained after about 15 minutes. Some people became angry at the officers and the crowd shouted chants of “TJ-TJ-TJ,” but no one was violent. Ten minutes later, they swayed their hips and swung their arms as they exited the rotunda.
Officers warned people they were violating the regulations and gave them three warnings, said Sgt. David Schlosser, a Park Police spokesman.
“They opted to leave,” he said.
Click here to see a photo slideshow from the demonstration.
