Actress Jane Fonda and others were arrested Friday after protesting climate change on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building.
The 81-year-old “Grace and Frankie” actress led other climate activists — many of whom WUSA9 reported aren’t old enough to vote — in her new civil disobedience campaign “Fire Drill Friday,” calling for lawmakers to do more in the “existential threat” against climate change.
“We have to be sure that the crisis that is climate change remains front and center like a ticking time bomb,” Ms. Fonda said. “We don’t have very much time, and it’s really urgent.”
According to WUSA, Ms. Fonda said her campaign will “be here *every* Friday into 2020 — demonstrate, get arrested, repeat.”
“Change is coming by design or by disaster,” Ms. Fonda said. “A Green New Deal that transitions off fossil fuels provides the design. They say it’s not realistic, that it’s socialism. That’s what they said about Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and we got Social Security and a middle class.”
Ms. Fonda’s campaign announced she moved to D.C. to participate in more climate change protests, adding she will be protesting on the Capitol steps every Friday until at least January.
“She will be joined at every ’Fire Drill Friday’ through at least mid-January by celebrities, scientists, economists and people from impacted communities who will speak and some of whom will invite arrest,” a “Fire Drill Fridays” press release said, according to Entertainment Tonight.
“Inspired by the growing movement of young climate strikers, Fonda decided to move to the nation’s capital for four months to take up their baton,” the release said.
The U.S. Capitol Police released a statement about the arrest.
“Today, the United States Capitol Police arrested 16 individuals for unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol. All were charged with D.C. Code §22-1307, Crowding, Obstructing or Incommoding,” they said.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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