Why Ben and Jerry were arrested

[Askold]

http://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/ben-and-jerry-arrested

Normally when a company makes an official announcement on the subject of their bosses getting arrested you are likely to see all kinds of weasel-speak and avoiding the actual reasons. This time it's different and the short version is roughly speaking:

"The news agencies seemed awfully quiet about the protests in Washington DC so Ben and Jerry joined the protest because if hundreds of people getting arrested isn't newsworthy, then perhaps to white, male billionaires getting arrested is something the news will report on."

We spoke to them just before it happened. “The history of our country is that nothing happens,” said Ben, “until people start putting their bodies on the line and risk getting arrested.”

Of course, over the years Ben & Jerry’s hasn’t been shy about taking a stand on issues that we care about, even when they’re controversial. You could say that our passion for social justice has been baked right into everything we’ve ever done. We launched Save Our Swirled last year to bring awareness to climate change. In honor of the Supreme Court’s decision last summer to recognize the right of all couples to marry, we changed the name of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough to I Dough, I Dough.

Interesting story. Then again, I don't think the protests are suffering from a complete news blackout, but this certainly should help give it a bit more coverage.

[ironbite]

Not just them.  They also grabbed Rosario Dawson and a few others.

Ironbite-guess Capitol Police never heard of the First Amendment.

[mellenORL]

Yes, I think protest permits are bullshit infringements and cowardly impediments to free speech and assembly under the First, too. But, don't diss the Capitol Police on this. It was very mild mannered and civil. They just briefly cuffed and wrote up people - who actually stood on line to come up to the cops to be arrested. All the protesters were released either on site or nearby the same day. This is everyday routine for the CPD any time a sit in or other peaceful demonstration happens where the intent is to get arrested for better news coverage. CPD actually helped the protesters to get media coverage, even though it was involuntary as they were just doing their jobs. The cops cited typical shit like lack of permit, blocking pedestrian and/or vehicle access, failure to comply with a police order to move, etc. They've done the exact same thing with religious protesters and tea party protesters and you name it protesters who held their demonstrations in the same place and manner.

[pyro]

So instead of weasel words etc, they're blatantly self-aggrandizing.

I don't think that's an improvement.