[ad_1]
Congressional Black Caucus chairperson Representative Joyce Beatty was arrested Thursday on Capitol Hill along with eight activists demonstrating for the right to vote.
“You can stop me. You can’t stop me. You can’t silence me, ”Ms. Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, wrote in a tweet after his arrest by United States Capitol Police in the atrium of a Senate office building. A journalist on site noted on Twitter that her hands had been tied with zippers before she was taken away.
Capitol Police said in a statement that protesters violated a Washington law against overcrowding or blocking streets or certain spaces in public buildings. The protesters were warned before their arrest, police said.
Ms Beatty and a group of activists were protesting the languishing of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and For the People Act in Congress. Both bills aim in part to protect and expand access to the vote, but both have a good chance of becoming law.
Democrats, who have narrow majorities in Congress and need Republican votes to overcome a Senate obstruction, have expressed frustration for months over their inability to pass their sweeping electoral revisions as Republican state legislatures rush to pass laws that restrict voting rights across the country.
President Biden this week called the fight against restrictive election laws “the most important test of our democracy since the Civil War”, although he seemed to acknowledge that the legislation had little hope of being passed.
In a statement after her arrest, Ms Beatty remained defiant.
“I stand in solidarity with black women and their allies across the country in defending our constitutional right to vote,” she said. “We have gone too far and fought too hard for everything to be systematically dismantled and restricted by those who wish to silence us. “
[ad_2]
Source link