Washington, D.C. Mayor Arrested On Capitol Hill

Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray was arrested on Capitol Hill yesterday, along with six city council members, for protesting cuts to city funding as part of last week’s last-minute budget deal. The cuts in the deal affect local (not federal) funds for several programs in the D.C. area, leading Gray to feel like a pawn in federal negotiations, Politico reports.

Of course it is a favorite pastime of D.C. police to arrest the boisterous black mayors (remember Marion Barry?) but it is unclear why a peaceful protest would result in dragging the city’s leader away in handcuffs. However, Gray told the media that he is proud of arrest and that the budget battle between Congress and the city has only just begun. The cuts would affect the way local D.C. funds would be applied for organizations like Planned Parenthood.

“District residents are being treated as colonists of the Congress of the United States and we are absolutely outraged,” District Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said last week.

It is true indeed that a small, but audible uprising is brewing among residents of the nation’s capitol over a lack of congressional representation and the way the District’s governing is negatively affected by their non-statehood. Mayor Gray becoming a political prisoner will only deepen residents’ disdain for the federal government’s intrusion in District matters and strengthen the local cause to rally against them.

Gray was released from jail this morning.

###

http://atlantapost.com/2011/04/12/washington-d-c-mayor-arres ted-on-capitol-hill/

      Print Friendly