SILVER SPRING, Md. — Protesters briefly shut down the inner loop of the Capital Beltway in Maryland on Monday morning and state police said seven people were arrested at the scene.
Images from the scene showed people in yellow vests sitting on the highway near the U.S. 29/Colesville Road interchange in the Silver Spring area, blocking all inner loop lanes and others holding signs on a nearby overpass. News outlets reported that some of the demonstrators carried signs for Declare Emergency, a group that previously shut down Washington, D.C.-area highways to demand that President Joe Biden declare an emergency to address climate change.
The group tweeted that people were stopping traffic on the beltway on Indigenous People’s Day and calling on the president to “end fossil fuel extraction on #Indigenous land.”
State troopers responded to the scene around 10:30 a.m. and seven people were arrested, Maryland State Police spokesman Ron Snyder said. Troopers and Montgomery County police officers asked the protestors to leave so they could be issued a criminal citation and after several warnings, those who didn’t comply were arrested, state police said in a news release.
They were charged with obstructing or hindering the free passage of another in a public place or on a public conveyance and failing to obey law enforcement attempts to prevent a disturbance to the public peace, police said. Those charged ranged in age from 32 to 74 and were from Vermont, Oregon, Maryland, North Carolina, New York and Michigan, police said.
During the protest, traffic was diverted off the beltway until the road could be cleared. The highway was reopened around 11:15 a.m., police said.
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