{"id":479066,"date":"2022-01-20T21:29:18","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T21:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=87b23bd2c34212ef6bfe7ccc6801fb5c"},"modified":"2022-01-20T21:29:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T21:29:18","slug":"police-arrest-rep-jamaal-bowman-during-voting-rights-protest-at-the-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/20\/police-arrest-rep-jamaal-bowman-during-voting-rights-protest-at-the-capitol\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Arrest Rep. Jamaal Bowman During Voting Rights Protest at the Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/police-arrest-rep-jamaal-bowman-during-voting-rights-protest-at-the-capitol\/\"><img width=\"200\" height=\"131\" src=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-200x131.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y holds a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to urge the Senate to pass voting rights legislation on January 19, 2022.\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-200x131.jpg 200w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-400x261.jpg 400w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-1200x783.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-800x522.jpg 800w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-1536x1003.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-2048x1337.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-2400x1566.jpg 2400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol Police arrested progressive lawmaker Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-New York) after he joined a demonstration for voting rights at the Capitol on Thursday, according to his office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Today, Congressman Jamaal Bowman joined a voting rights non-violent direct action at the North Barricade of the U.S. Capitol Building and was arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police,&#8221; said Marcus Frias, Bowman\u2019s director of communications. &#8220;We will provide more information and updates as we gather them.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to police, protestors had begun to block one side of a barricade. The department claims it has arrested <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/20\/politics\/jamaal-bowman-arrested\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">over two dozen<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> people in relation to the protest. Un-PAC, the organization behind the protest, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LetsUnpac\/status\/1484218286866849792\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said that many of those arrested are young<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> protesters, and that police <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LetsUnpac\/status\/1484230650915872769\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have arrested them before<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for similar demonstrations.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JamaalBowmanNY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JamaalBowmanNY<\/a> engages and thanks a group of of us fighting for voting rights outside the Capitol, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CapitolPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CapitolPolice<\/a> cuff him and put him under arrest with the group. Thanks for always standing with the people! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/VotingRightsNow?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#VotingRightsNow<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LetsUnpac?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LetsUnpac<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/peoplefor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@peoplefor<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Py2YHNAMUL\">pic.twitter.com\/Py2YHNAMUL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Markus Batchelor (@MarkusforDC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkusforDC\/status\/1484222934717808644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bowman, who is Black, had <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JamaalBowmanNY\/status\/1483902699594817541?s=20\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">visited protesters on Wednesday<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ahead of a crucial vote to amend Senate rules in order to pass legislation to expand and protect voting rights. \u201cOur democracy is on the line, and the Senate must act and pass voting rights immediately,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe\u2019re outside the Senate steps sounding the alarm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bowman is one of a string of other Black Democratic lawmakers who have been arrested in demonstrations for voting rights over the past year. Representatives Al Green (Texas), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Hank Johnson (Georgia) and Joyce Beatty (Ohio) <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/20\/politics\/jamaal-bowman-arrested\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">were arrested<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in separate voting rights protests last summer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bowman had joined strikers on the eighth day of their Hunger Strike 4 Democracy on Thursday when he was arrested. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cToday\u2019s action was a means of making a statement and taking a stand against political corruption. Despite 52 of our senators standing aside as our democracy crumbles, we will not,\u201d Shana Gallagher, executive director of Un-PAC, told <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Truthout<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYoung people don\u2019t have a choice but to keep organizing to fix our broken democracy by getting big money out of politics, banning partisan gerrymandering, and protecting our freedom to vote,\u201d Gallagher continued. \u201cWe will remember which side of history our Senators stood on, and which of them worked to deliver for their constituents, rather than for their ultra-wealthy mega donors and special interests.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Twenty-eight protesters for voting rights <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/dc-md-va\/2022\/01\/18\/voting-rights-protest-arrest-capitol\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">were arrested<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earlier this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the second hunger strike for voting rights by Un-PAC demonstrators. Last month, the Hunger Strike 4 Democracy demonstrators <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gen.medium.com\/hunger-striking-4-democracy-3447bf43b625\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">traveled from Phoenix<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to D.C. after striking in front of the capitol building of their home state to no avail. The group, made up of university students, expressed frustration that Congress has failed to act on voting rights. Their first hunger strike lasted 15 days and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/dc-md-va\/2021\/12\/17\/dc-protest-hunger-strike-voting-rights\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was extremely taxing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the protesters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The goal of the strike is to push Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act. The bill would overhaul current election laws by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/freedom-vote-act\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">making voting more accessible<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> across the country with mail-in ballot expansions, implementing automatic voter registration and increasing transparency around campaign finance. Lawmakers had proposed a filibuster workaround to pass the legislation, but conservative Democrats Senators Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) joined Republicans in blocking the effort on Wednesday night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy question for Senator Manchin is: what is it going to take for you to actually represent your constituents?\u201d said hunger striker and West Virginia University student Rylee Haught in a statement. \u201c[W]e are desperate to end political corruption and for a functional, accountable democracy. Yesterday, you failed to deliver that, Senator Manchin. You are standing aside as our democracy crumbles. I will not give up on West Virginia like you did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/police-arrest-rep-jamaal-bowman-during-voting-rights-protest-at-the-capitol\/\">Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/police-arrest-rep-jamaal-bowman-during-voting-rights-protest-at-the-capitol\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"131\" src=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022_0120-jamaal-bowman-200x131.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y holds a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to urge the Senate to pass voting rights legislation on January 19, 2022.\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">The progressive lawmaker had joined hunger strikers on the eighth day of their protest.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35387,35331,7004,4,35,3668],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479067,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479066\/revisions\/479067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}