2 PERSONS ARRESTED IN RALLY ON CAPITOL STEPS
By Retha Hill
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 27, 1987
; Page A07
Two men were arrested yesterday at a rally on the steps of the U.S. Capitol
that called on Congress to impeach President Reagan, Vice President Bush and
Attorney General Edwin Meese III.
The rally of about 300 protesters was one of several weekend activities
organized around the National Mobilization for Peace and Justice in Central
America and South Africa demonstration that drew 75,000 marchers Saturday.
Protesters planned to block the entrances to CIA headquarters in Langley
today.
Speakers at the rally, organized by the two-month-old National Impeachment
Coalition, blasted the Iran arms affair and charged that the Nicaraguan
rebels, with help from Bush and Lt. Col. Oliver North, financed their war
against the Nicaraguan government from the import and sale of cocaine and
crack in the United States.
"Reagangate gave us not just selling arms to Iran, Reagangate is pushing
humankind closer and closer to nuclear nightmare," said Father Phillip
Berrigan, a veteran of the civil disobedience movement who is expected to
participate in the Langley action today.
Just as Berrigan began to speak, police officers who had stood watching the
rally moved in to arrest two men amid chants of "See the First Amendment
trampled underfoot." Police were surrounded by protesters as they seized a
shoe box filled with "Impeach Reagan" buttons and a stack of leaflets and
newspapers. Pushing and shoving followed.
Ben Masel of Madison, Wis., and Bill Paddock of East Lansing, Mich., were
charged in connection with selling literature and buttons on the Capitol
grounds, which is against D.C. and federal law, a police spokesman said.
Distributing them without costs is legal, he said.
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington
Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
Return to Search Results