Activists Arrested For A Peaceful Protest At Senator Sinema’s Phoenix Office

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Karoli Kuns at CrooksAndLiars blog reports, Activists Arrested Protesting Filibuster In Arizona:

Arizona activists have gathered at Kyrsten Sinema’s office to send her a very strong message: Ditch the filibuster and ditch it now. Because they are outside in the Arizona desert sun marching at the building her office occupies, exercising their First Amendment rights, they are being arrested and taken away.

The video did not embed, so here is Griselda Zetino from KTAR 923 Radio in Phoenix.

Here is Zetino’s report (h/t graphic above). 10 arrested during anti-filibuster protest at Sen. Sinema’s Phoenix office.

They could have been doing any number of things today, but what they chose to do was stand up for democracy – actually a sit-in – even at the risk of being jailed for it.

At the same time this is happening, Senate Republicans are busy filibustering the For The People Act, the legislation passed by the House which would cement voting rights nationwide and make sweeping changes to how dark money is handled and how voting mechanisms are handled nationwide.

And by “busy,” I mean they raised their hand and objected to the bill being debated. They didn’t have to actually say anything or even do anything at all. They merely had to object while sitting in their cushy offices. An email will take care of the rest. And then at some point, they will go to the Senate floor and cast a vote against opening debate on the bill. As a consequence of that vote, the Senate will choose NOT to debate the bill because the final vote will be 50-50 with VP Harris casting the tie-breaking, but not filibuster-busting, vote.

They won’t even debate it. At all.

UPDATE: The cloture vote on the For The People Act just ended in a 50-50 tie. All 50 Republicans are too afraid to even begin debate on GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression bills in the state legislatures, and the voting rights bills in Congress.

Kyrsten Sinema voted with the Dems to debate it but will not consider ditching the filibuster because she wants “durable, lasting results” — something that won’t be forthcoming if they can’t even get a bill to the debate stage. A bill to PROTECT DEMOCRACY.

A bill to protect those people going to jail for speaking their minds [at her Senate office].

Call your senators and demand they get this done. We owe it those people baking in the hot Arizona sun to defend our democracy.

To the activists: Rep. John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be proud of you. Keep up the pressure.





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