Now take a look at what one commenter had to say:WASHINGTON - On the eve of World AIDS Day Saturday, the U.S. Park Police arrested 40 demonstrators outside the White House as they chanted for sweeping changes to the George W. Bush administration’s domestic and global AIDS policies.
The protesters were part of a larger rally in Lafayette Park just across Pennsylvania Avenue before they broke off and walked up to the perimeter fence on the north side of the White House and sat down in a line.
After three public warnings stating that their demonstration permit had been revoked and asking the crowd to disperse from an area cordoned off with police barricades and yellow tape, the protesters were arrested for disobeying an official order.
The arrestees, mostly college students, responded to the warnings by chanting, “Warning one, warning two, warning three, warning eight. We won’t leave ’til you cut the red tape,” before being cuffed with plastic ties, and carted away in Park Police
wagons.
The larger rally — co-sponsored by Africa Action, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the Global AIDS alliance and several other organisations — hoped to raise awareness and suggest changes to what the groups felt were inadequate and misguided policies.
The speakers called for drastic adjustments, including boosting global funds to combat the spread of the disease through prevention by shifting the focus of U.S. AIDS funds in Africa away from the Bush administration’s emphasis on “abstinence only” prevention education.
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“Abstinence-only prevention measures don’t work. It’s been proven time and time again if you look at journals,” said third year medical student Dan Murphy, the legislative director of the American Medical Student Association, who was subsequently arrested on the White House sidewalk. “As the future doctors of America, we know that HIV prevention has to be based on science and based on evidence.”
Yeah, I would too.Isn’t it interesting that it very likely takes an inordinate amount of time to obtain a permit to assemble, which of course is supposed to be a Contitutionally guaranteed right, but it seems to take just minutes to “revoke” the permit? This is all assumption. I would certainly like to know why and how the permit was revoked.
There permit was revoked because they (apparently) were told when they got the permits that it is against the law to cross Pennsylvania avenue and conduct any "stationary demonstrations" on the North sidewalk of the White House. That's what a cop described it as on the scene.
ReplyDeleteHow? It was revoked just how I said: over the PA of a police cruiser.