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26 AIDS Activists Arrested In White House



Jul 9, 2009 8 Comments ›› Erik Wong

World AIDS Day Protest

TIME Magazine:

(WASHINGTON) — A group of AIDS activists was arrested Thursday for unlawfully demonstrating in the Capitol rotunda, a Capitol Police spokeswoman said.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said 11 men and 15 women were charged with unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct. Their names and ages were not immediately released.

Schneider said the group entered the rotunda, located beneath the Capitol dome, and linked themselves together with a white chain at about 10 a.m. The area is usually crowded with tourists, but police restricted the traffic while they made arrests.

The activists carried signs in support of funding for needle exchange, HIV/AIDS housing and programs aimed at fighting AIDS. They chanted, “Fight global AIDS now,” and, “Clean needles save lives.” They marched in a circle before lying down on the floor.

Police bound the activists hands together and dragged some of the demonstrators to their feet as they arrested them.

The activists were part of a coalition of five AIDS groups from Washington, Philadelphia and New York. They included ACT UP Philadelphia, DC Fights Back, Health GAP, New York City AIDS Network and Housing Works.

Omolola Adele-Oso of DC Fights Back questioned why lawmakers were bailing out financial institutions instead of devoting more dollars to AIDS programs.

“HIV is not in a recession,” Adele-Oso said in a written statement from the coalition about the demonstration.


  • GregGS

    YEAH STOP AIDS! Stop sodomy and wash your own fucking needles.

    • Vehement

      I agree.
      “Whaaa, poor me look at my suffering because of my own stupidity, whaa. Where my handout? WHHAAA!”

      If you got AIDS/HIV because of your own stupidity, PISS OFF!

  • Jeff

    Fighting to prevent AIDS and get AIDS prevention programs noticed is a good cause but not when you make yourself look like a bunch of idiots and get arrested.

  • Cold Dead Hands

    Not trying to be a jerk, but the headline is completely fucking wrong and misleading. How in the hell did anyone come up with “arrested IN WHITE HOUSE”???? It was in the rotunda of the Capitol dome.

    • Vehement

      yeah thats what i was thinking

  • grumpy mechanic

    Erik got it “Wong”. :lol:

    • Vehement

      Hey that’s not wight! Its wong to make fun of wrong! :lol:

  • Walt

    I thought only Liberals blamed the wrong people for things. Looks like Conservatives are just as guilty.

    Actually the writers of articles do not write the Headlines. Once they submit their story they are out of the loop of what actually shows up in print. Headlines are written by people hired just to skim through a story and come up with a Headline. Obviously not the highest of intelligence since many headlines do not match their stories well.

    So don’t blame the Authors, blame the people who hire the low intelligent headline writers.