Above: Whytney Joy Blythe locked down during action
Totally floored by this. We were told by an insider who had talked with the officer in charge of yesterday’s action that he was moved by a conversation he’d had with one of the people locked down that he decided not to arrest them. Whytney gave us the run down of the conversation that she had with the officer that moved him so much that he decided not to arrest her at the action:
[The officer] said, “I think you wanted to get arrested today,” I said, “It’s not that I want to get arrested, it’s that when I decide to take an action I accept that that’s a possible consequence, but I decide it’s worth the risk.” He said, “Have you been to jail for this kind of thing before?” I said, “Yes,” so he asked me, “What else do you protest?” And I said “Police brutality.” And he said, “Where?” And I said “Everywhere. My father was murdered by a cop when I was 14. I don’t want what happened to us to happen to anyone else, anywhere.” And he said, “I have a 16 year old daughter. If she lost me, she’d be devastated. I’d be devastated if I lost her. If something like that happened to me, she probably would be in there chaining herself up too.”
The Action
Two protesters with Blackland Prairie Rising Tide have locked down inside of the Hilton Anatole Hotel this morning at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual national convention. ALEC is a conglomerate of politicians and multi-millionaire business executive that work in tandem to draft legislation that destroys protection of the environment, fills private prisons, annihilates immigrant rights just to name a few. To learn more about ALEC check out: www.alecexposed.org
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