Eva Russo/Richmond Times-Dispatch
The picture above shows how Virginia State Police greeted protesters for reproductive equality this weekend. On Saturday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, 31 people were arrested for marching to the Capitol and sitting down on the steps, where they were faced officers in riot gear.
Blue Virginia has video, updates, etc., and posts this statement from Democratic Delegate Scott Surovell:
Women fought for decades to achieve equality with men and the right to control their personal medical decisions. My mother was legally prohibited from attending most Virginia universities or professional schools, was unable to buy a car without the signature of a man, or choose when she wanted to have a child when she reached adulthood in Virginia in 1962. Thanks to the victories won by women over the last forty years, my three daughters will have choices and opportunities in life that my mother, my grandmothers, and their predecessors could have never dreamed of founded. These opportunities are founded upon economic equality and the right to decide when to give birth to a child.
Delegate Surovell's full statement is after the jump.
Virginia Democratic Delegate Scott Surovell writes:
Women fought for decades to achieve equality with men and the right to control their personal medical decisions. My mother was legally prohibited from attending most Virginia universities or professional schools, was unable to buy a car without the signature of a man, or choose when she wanted to have a child when she reached adulthood in Virginia in 1962. Thanks to the victories won by women over the last forty years, my three daughters will have choices and opportunities in life that my mother, my grandmothers, and their predecessors could have never dreamed of founded. These opportunities are founded upon economic equality and the right to decide when to give birth to a child.
Forcing women who have been diagnosed as carrying an anecephelatic or non-viable fetus to undergo a second ultrasound and place a picture of it in her medical records for seven years or longer is state sponsored torture.
These arrests vividly evidence the depth of the anger, betrayal, and dismay that Virginians feel by the passage of House Bill 462 by both chambers. Earlier this session, the Republican majority in the House of Delegates refused to schedule the Equal Rights Amendment for a hearing even after it has been passed by the Virginia Senate. The Commonwealth's decision to send in police with riot gear and arrest unarmed peaceful protestors demonstrate the depth of paranoia that Virginia Republicans continue to feel about women given equal rights to men in the law. The arrest of women and men exercising their Constitutional rights on the steps of the Capitol of the state that is the home for the author of the First Amendment is especially ironic.
The protests and arrests are also evidence that there will be electoral consequences in Virginia in 2012 and 2013 for anyone who voted in favor of ultrasound or anti-contraception legislation this session.
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Damn right there will be dire consequences for those who voted for these odious bills.
As well as for whoever sent the police to make these arrests!
Let US hope that the women and men of good conscious in Virginia will remember whom to fire come the elections in November.....
YES! And the GOP pundits want the divisive language of 'War on Women' to stop cuz it's just not TRUE! Thank you for this!
Looks like they have declared War to me!
They declared war ON you!
Police in riot gear facing down women who are protesting their reproductive rights? We've not seen ham handed optics like this since Archmedes was slain by a Roman centurian for doodling in the dirt.
One more time…
When will personhood begin for women?
Nice to see these brave policemen enforcing unjust laws. Nice to see the police willingly allowing themselves to be used to suppress lawful speech and assembly. Wonderful to see these big, brave policemen hauling away physically small women with more moral courage than any of those cowardly immoral order taking police will ever know. Wonderful to see the state use the full power of its violent potential against peaceful protesters. The police have chosen whose side they are on and it is not the side of their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters or lovers, the police have chosen to take the side of the oppressors of the women they profess to care for, that is one hell of a dilemma for a cop to cope with.
Policemen AND policewomen doing their job, calmly and with no overreaction nor any excessive force. It seems the protesters violated the conditions of their permit, ignored the order to disperse, and got arrested. The protesters overdid it. The reality is: there is now visually appealing way to arrest someone who doesn't wish to BE arrested. The protesters wanted to get noticed. They got noticed. The men and women on duty as cops were not the sinister monsters some would make them out to be that day.
Sure they are, Americans have the right to peaceably assemble, permits be damned, those women were nothing if not peaceable. Those cops were ordered to violate the Constitution, and they did. It's as simple as that.
The permits exsist for a reason. So do, the rules that govern police use of force. You and the protestors may say "permits be damned." The police acted within the rules. You are entitled to your opinion.
I do not, as so
somemany on the right, pretend to speak for him, but I cannot help but believe Mr. Jefferson would be aghast at the thought of heavily armed quasi-military police on The Grounds much less their preventing citisens from acessing their house.Simply appalling -- and very, very sad. The governors employing arms to protect themselves from the people they are sworn to serve.
Oh come on! Its been sprinting in this direction since Scott Walker threatened to call in the National Guard!
Wait...I have a link for this, gimme a second to dig into my pocket.
Here. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/police-militarization-use-of-force-swat-raids_b_1123848.html?ref=tw
I am waxing misty about Mr. Jefferson's Grounds.
Unbelievable that we're back to being 2nd class citizens.
And sick that citizens are prevented from expressing their constitutionally granted rights. The rights the GOP loves to espouse, and then deny.
The GOP; a bunch of @!$%#ers every one.
We can only become second class citizen's if we allow them to make us that way! Voting out the bums is our only way to show them we will not take this kind of treatment!! Vote!
Mary is absolutely right. We who believe that women's rights are endowed by their creator just as are men's, must vote to assure that our beliefs become reality. Women's rights are being eroded. Vote to stop the erosion!
Mary is right! We who believe that women's rights are endowed by their creator just as are men's must vote to assure that our beliefs become reality. Women's rights are being eroded! Vote to stop and turn back that erosion!
Why is any one surprised by this. We sat around while they did it to the OWS protest because they were just a bunch of dirty unemployed homeless people. Well who the hell did you think would be next. Did you think they would stop there. Hel...l no you let them get away with it once who's going to stop them now.
What you are seeing is a natural escalation of the current policy of state, local and federal agencies. It will only get worse. Did all of you forget the 60's and 70's. Laugh all you want but history is repeating itself. Everything that was fought for then is having to be fought for all over again. Women's right, abortion rights, equal rights, all are under attack by the right. The anniversary of one of the most pivotal events of the day is coming up soon and I would bet most don't even remember what it is.
It really is no surprise when you take into account how many people in this country don't vote. They say I don't vote because my vote don't count. Then they bitch about what the government does. Well this is what you end up with when you don't vote. Oh and by the way if you don't vote don't bitch you have no right to because you did nothing to help avoid this. You gave up your voice when choose not to use it. Just think if everyone that says I don't vote cause my vote don't count would just one time stand and vote they world would cahnge.
I agree Mary and I hope the women all over this country turn out in large numbers to speak their mind. What scares me is the number of women who find nothing wrong with what the legislature has done. They are so blinded in their quest to stop abortion that they do not see this as a threat to their freedoms. Who in the state of Virginia is going to take care of all the babies that will be born because of this law or do they just hope these women will try to self abort and the whole problem will then go away with the death of the mother and child. Birth control and abortion are still much more economical than unwanted unloved children who grow up to be a real problem for society.
Thanks ever so much for posting this. For some reason this reminds me of 1965. Or Danville, Virginia, in 1963. Or . . . .
See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQXjsEGTeEU&feature=youtu.be
Gov. McDonnell's jackbooted friends. This must be the 2012 version of the Nazis. Absolutely NUTTY!
He is a disciple of the Michael Bloomberg school of crowd control.
Join http://www.facebook.com/UniteWomen - Lets unite to make sure we stop this GOP nonsense.
Lest we forget HR 347 that denies the Freedom of Speech, Assemble, and Redress
Why are Americans surprised that our Congressturds are afraid of the voters. Congress is the repository for all that is the worst of America, it always has been and always will be. Once or twice a century something useful comes out of Congress, but otherwise its pretty much a cesspool of crime that Americans have chosen to segregate from normal society. We Americans know how incompetent, how corrupt and how useless our federal and state governments are, we survive in spite of them and when they get too out of hand we spank them a bit, but in the long run Americans tend to believe it is cheaper, more efficient and more effective to let the really serious criminals in our society prey upon each other, rather than prey upon us too much.
Yes! The anti-occupy and anti-protest laws are bi-partisan and VERY scary! Our Democracy is again in jeopardy! Please everyone, VOTE! And support peaceful protests. We don't want to be sent back 50, 100, 200 years. As citizens, we have an obligation to exercise our rights to protest and vote or loose them. Our soldiers have and do loose their lives for us. We must do our part and stay involved. "No room for apathy!"
Alas, the protesters weren't really doing it right. If you really want to raise a stink about something, you really need to round up a few thousand people who are willing to get arrested, and then GET ARRESTED. Then insist on being taken to jail, and then REFUSE TO LEAVE (What are they going to do, arrest you again?). If they throw you out, hang around outside the police station/jail. If they ship you someplace else, come back. I guarantee there is no city or state police force in the country equipped to deal with protesters clogging the jails. Arresting people works because people are afraid of jail, but in truth its a serious weak point/bottleneck in the system. It doesn't take all that many people to completely jam it up and totally shut down the criminal justice system.
Why is this tactic making me think of Hunter S. Thompson?
Virginians are just doing what comes naturally to them, setting lousy precedents. Remember that Virginia introduced slavery into this continent and we are still dealing with that legacy. Virginia's sterilization laws were a model for the Nazi euthanasia laws. Soon the motto on Virginia's license plates will read "Virginia where guns are better protected than women"
The ramping up of quasi-military police units will come in handy when there is a generation of hungry, disenfranchised people looking hungrily at the mansions of the 1%. Not so sarcastically, if the Virginia protesters would dress up like nuns and priests the cops would not know whether to sh-- or go blind.
Hey as a Virginian who is disgusted by what is going on in my state I need help from you all. Please help us by calling the Governor and let him know how awful his bill really is. PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO CALL THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE TO LET HIM KNOW THAT THIS WAR ON WOMEN IS HIS RESPONSIBILITY AND ONLY HE HAS THE ABILITY TO STOP IT NOW - 786-2211. Hold him accountable! At the moment live people are answering and it is not on a machine!
Virginia has long been known as a state to move to when you want to divorce your wife. They have laws that permit lawyers to lie in court filings so that the woman comes out broke. I have tapes and papers that show what they do. It is the most anti-woman state in the country. The FBI needs to step in and clean it up. Police are more than accommodating when it comes to filing reports and when the woman is being stalked by her ex. Funny how what happens never ends up straight in a police report. They are experts at hurting women.
"Bye bye Miss American Pie . Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry..."
In wake of the VA debacle, “Please continue to spread the word and DO NOT EVER FORGET the fact that this absurd Amendment that the republicans tried to pass that would allow your boss to deny you healthcare of any type if it went against their morals, was named The Blunt-RUBIO Amendment. Not just the Blunt Amendment that republicans would love for you to refer to it as. Yep marco rubio the guy that's supposed to automatically bring floods of Latino votes to the republicans, was behind that crazy amendment. And remember rubio is also selling out Latinos by not supporting the Dream Act. He's behind mitt romneys admitted policy to make life so miserable for latinos to stay in the US that they decide to "Self Deport" themselves. And yes he did say that phrase himself on camera. "Self Deportation" He explained it by saying that "there will come a time when things will just become too unfavorable for them to stay in the US so they will have no choice but to Self Deport themselves!" So mitts a phony who is not Latino friendly, rubio is a sell out and the transvaginal probe guy in Va. has no chance of being a VP now. So its slim pickens for the repub VP choice.”
Here is a photo I took at the Virginia Capitol protest on Saturday (I was one of the last 40 people standing.sitting on the stairs, but I decided to get up JUST before they started arresting people - you have to choose your battles carefully).
This photo is one of my favorites: it shows two of my friends, Eileen Davis (progressive blogger) & Vivek Jain (who is running against Eric Cantor as an Independent), matching our level of "force" (a notebook and a pen) against the SWAT team's. The government's show of force was quite unnecessary, which is especially obvious when compared side-by-side to ours.
— in Richmond, Virginia.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3178057364413&set=a.3178026203634.145117.1054988338&type=1
Reproductive equality? What the heck does that mean? It sounds like women want equality in reproducing. I'm sorry but hot women are more likely to reproduce than the ugly, hairy ones at these protests. Sorry..