Jane Fonda, Sam Waterston Arrested at Green New Deal Demo

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From left: Actress and activist Jane Fonda; Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker Naomi Klein; and Annie Leonard, head of Greenpeace USA. Oct. 11, 2019, Washington, DC (Photo courtesy Jane Fonda)

 

WASHINGTON, DC, October 20, 2019 (ENS) – Actors Jane Fonda and Sam Waterston were both arrested Friday in Washington, DC, during a demonstration protesting government inaction on climate change and a Green New Deal outside the U.S. Capitol building.

Fonda, 82, and Waterston, 78, were put in plastic handcuffs by the U.S. Capitol Police, according to photos posted by NBC reporter Frank Thorp Friday.

Co-stars in the American comedy series “Grace and Frankie,” Fonda and Waterston were among 17 people taken into custody by the Capitol Police for allegedly demonstrating unlawfully, said Eva Malecki, speaking for the Capitol police.

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From left: Actress and activist Jane Fonda; Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker Naomi Klein; and Annie Leonard, head of Greenpeace USA. Oct. 11, 2019, Washington, DC (Photo courtesy Jane Fonda)

All 17 were charged with crowding and obstructing or incommoding, Malecki said.

This is the second consecutive Friday that Fonda was arrested while protesting at the Capitol.

On Friday, October 11, Fonda was among 16 people arrested for allegedly unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of the Capitol.

That Friday, the protesters took action, according to the Capitol Police, “…on the steps of the Capitol Rotunda blocking the stairway, singing, chanting, displaying images and disrupting the normal flow of business of the U.S. Capitol Building. The Suspects were warned to cease and desist with their unlawful demonstration activities, but they failed to do so.”

All 16 were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding. They were held for several hours and released after each paid a $50 penalty, Fonda said.

Fonda is a long-time activist and said it was not her first arrest, although it was Waterston’s first arrest, he told NBC’s Thorp. Now Fonda says she intends to get arrested as many times as it takes to get government action to curb climate change.

“I will be on the Capitol every Friday, rain or shine, inspired and emboldened by the incredible movement our youth have created,” Fonda wrote on her website.

“I can no longer stand by and let our elected officials ignore – and even worse – empower – the industries that are destroying our planet for profit. We can not continue to stand for this,” she wrote.

Fonda’s two arrests are part of a longer-term action she calls “Fire Drill Fridays.”

“This has all come together very fast,” Fonda wrote on October 11. “I only moved to D.C. 2 weeks ago. The idea came to me over Labor Day weekend in Big Sur, [California]. “I was with my pals Catherine Keener and Rosanna Arquette and I started reading Naomi Klein’s new book, “On Fire: The {Burning} Case for a Green New Deal.”

“Everything Naomi writes rocks my world but this one really brought home to me the urgency of our situation,” Fonda wrote. “The young, Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, who started the Friday School Strikes for Climate in front of the Swedish Parliament, has said, ‘This is a crisis. We must act as if our house is on fire…because it is.'”

“That’s why I’m calling these actions Fire Drill Fridays, wrote Fonda. “You can go to our website, Firedrillfridays.com or follow our Thursday teach-ins on Facebook at 7 pm EST. @firedrillfriday. This will be live-streamed with the celebs, scientists and folks most impacted by climate change who live in frontline communities. We will discuss in more depth the issues we will focus on the next Friday morning and take your questions.”

This week, Fonda appears in a Facebook Live Teach-in video on her website with Waterston and Rhiana Gunn-Wright, 29, policy director for the New Consensus think tank, Yale graduate, Rhodes scholar and co-architect of the Green New Deal. They discuss this Congressional proposal for comprehensive legislation governing climate change.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2019. All rights reserved.

 

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