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Posted on 07/15/2004 7:40:03 PM PDT by mhking
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush was arrested Thursday during a protest rally at the Sudanese embassy accusing the government of the African nation of practicing genocide.
Rush was led away in handcuffs by U.S. Secret Service officers to a police van after having blocked the embassy's entrance while shouting, "Power to the people! Power to Sudan!"
Within 30 minutes, the Chicago Democrat was released from a Metropolitan Police Department station on $50 bond, said the congressman's spokeswoman, Tasha Harris.
Rush was booked on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, Secret Service spokeswoman Ann Roman said.
Earlier this week, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) was arrested for unlawful assembly in a similar protest.
Embassy spokesman Abdelbagi Kabeir said Thursday it was difficult to understand the motive behind the campaign against the Sudanese government that some members of Congress are waging.
"There is no genocide," he said. "There is improvement."
Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the Darfur region of western Sudan in the past year-and-a-half, and an estimated one million people have been driven from their homes.
"People are dying because they can't get the humanitarian relief they need right now," Rush said, blaming the problem on the Sudanese government practicing genocide on the basis of ethnic and religious grounds.
Rush said the Bush administration should urge the United Nations to send a military peacekeeping force to Sudan.
"All we need is 2,000 troops and we can stop this," he said.
Rush, a six-term House member and one of a handful who are ministers, said Thursday's arrest was his first since several decades ago when he was a Black Panther activist and jailed repeatedly.
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WTG Rush!
Bravo for a congressman that believes - and ACTS - in his principles!
The Panthers called for and in some cases carried out assassinations of police and public officials as well as horribly brutalizing its own members if they didn't toe the party line.
Rush spent 6 months in prison in 1969 on a weapons charge.
To anyone's knowledge, Rush has never disowned or repudiated his past with the Black Panthers.
Leni
I am of the belief that angry protests in a representative republic simply reveal the impotence of the protestor. He's a congressman, but I don't see any bills hitting the fore and it certainly wasn't a hot topic at the NAACP convention.
I really don't believe that Defense Minister Rush is out for anyone but himself.
Must be he's up for reelection. How long has the problem in the Sudan been going on, and this is the first that people like Rush and Rangel have had any voice on the matter. Too little, too late in my estimation.
What about those of us, who have protested at the Embassy of Sudan long before the CBC got their late asses involved.
At least he's drawing attention to the horrors here.
What do they care? They possess no WMDs. There is no link to 9/11. They are not a threat to us. They are only killing their own. I thought it's none of our business.
Try living in Chicago, in his district. He is an embarrassment. Is Rush trying to beat Photo-op Jesse Jackass at his own game?
You get no photo op or headlines, but the undying admiration of this FReeper.
That depends on what your motivating factors are for doing it.
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