U.S. Capitol Police arrested hundreds of people protesting campaign finance laws outside the Capitol on Monday afternoon in what has been called the largest-ever arrest on Capitol grounds.
More than 400 protesters who turned out at the Democracy Spring event on the east steps of the Capitol were arrested, including leaders of national liberal groups. Those arrested have been charged under D.C. Code 22 1307 for crowding, obstructing, and incommoding, according to a police statement to the Washington Examiner.
Several thousand people had said they would join the week-long sit-in, according to the organizers.
Capitol Police were on scene and law enforcement used buses to transport those arrested to booking stations. Demonstrators chanted “one person, one vote” as well as “where is CNN?” in response to the cable network’s lack of coverage at the event. Capitol Police said the protesters were arrested when they refused to leave the steps.
The 10-day march and protests were supported by dozens of progressive groups and individuals. But unlisted on Democracy Spring’s website was the name of main organizer 99 Rise, a 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for certain social welfare views.
The group has called for four reforms: overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that legalized unlimited campaign contributions by outside groups such as companies and labor unions; updating voter registration procedures; developing a public campaign financing system; and restoring a provision of the Voting Rights Act that would allow Southern states to approve their own voting procedures.
Among those arrested were Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green, who called on lawmakers to immediately amend laws he believes make citizens powerless.
PCCC’s @AdamGreen arrested at #DemocracySpring, standing up to get money out of politics. H/t @CenkUygur for the pic pic.twitter.com/mDLZoHYcl2
— BoldProgressives.org (@BoldProgressive) April 11, 2016
“The state of our nation’s corrupt campaign finance system and rigged voting laws represents a crisis for our democracy. Big-money influence and rigged voting laws make it harder to win progress on every other issue — from Wall Street accountability to climate change to education to criminal justice reform,” Green said. “Today, I join others in non-violent civil disobedience in order to help focus the nation’s conversation on these key democracy issues — and the public needs politicians to start acting now.”
The Democracy Spring movement started last week as 3,650 pledged participants marched from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to Washington D.C. to demand Congress take action to keep dark money and super PACs out of campaigns.
The mass sit-in is expected to continue through the week.
