Mia Farrow was perhaps too weak from her 21-day hunger strike to make it to Monday morning’s Darfur protest as scheduled, so lawmakers found another way to get media attention — by getting arrested.
Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., John Lewis, D-Ga., Donna Edwards, D-Md., Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., were arrested for crossing the police line Monday morning outside the Embassy of Sudan. The Democratic lawmakers were there to express outrage at Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s removal of nongovernmental organization aid groups from Darfur and were met by almost as many police officers as there were protestors.
While being led off in handcuffs, Lewis conceded to making a statement. “You have to find a way to dramatize an issue,” the civil rights activist stated.
The arrest was nothing new for McGovern — he was briefly thrown behind bars at another protest on Darfur in 2006. And giving it away that the arrest was also part of his plans, McGovern did not wear a tie or belt, knowing they would be confiscated by police.
Top, John Lewis, and bottom, Jim McGovern, are led away in handcuffs from the Sudanese Embassy on Monday.
Photo: Carrie Devorah
