Police Arrested 4 Student Protesters Outside Paul Ryan's D.C. Office
The protestors said their sit-in was "a message for common sense gun control."
By Lucy Diavolo
Four high school students were arrested Wednesday, April 18, outside of House Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-WI) Washington, D.C., office, according to a tweet from News2Share news director Alejandro Alvarez. Alvarez broadcasted part of the protest live on Periscope, showing nearly a dozen officers making the four arrests; he said during his broadcast that there were initially about 10 protestors, but only a few were arrested after several left following police warnings. Alvarez's tweet said the students were holding a sit-in for gun control and showed the students lying in the hallway and being removed from the premises of the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill by police, including U.S. Capitol Police officers.
In the Periscope video and a YouTube video uploaded by News2Share, all four of the student identified themselves as under the age of 18. In his video, Alvarez identified them as members of a local chapter of Students Demand Action. As they were being removed, one of the students said they engaged in the protest "because we need to send a message for common sense gun control." In the YouTube video, one of the other protesters said the action was "for gun control protest" when asked why she had participated in the sit-in.
Also on the broadcast and in the YouTube video, an officer was overheard saying they were sending the protesters to a juvenile detention facility, and the arrested students were loaded into the back of a police van.
Alvarez took to Twitter again to share updates on the story, writing that the students had been released after being charged as minors for "blocking passage in Capitol hallways." He also shared a list of demands from Students Demand Action, including bans on assault rifle and bump stockss, universal background checks, and funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research gun violence.
Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg also tweeted about the arrests, writing, "I don't know about you but a government that doesn't listen to it's children and puts the profits of special interests over lives sounds pretty tyrannical to me."
Teen Vogue has reached out to the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and the United States Capitol Police. This report may be updated with any information they provide.
Paul Ryan announced his retirement on April 11, saying he would finish his current term but not seek reelection in the 2018 midterms. Wisconsin gun control activists said they believed they had a role in pressuring Ryan to step down. "I think that our march was that last straw. It was that last thing to say that his beliefs were no longer the beliefs of the majority of [Wisconsinites]," 18-year-old Katie Eder told Teen Vogue.
https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/986703654752276481
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Related: 100 8th Graders Refused to Take a Photo With Speaker Paul Ryan
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