Climate change protesters block downtown D.C. streets in hours-long protest
The events were led by the same coalition that organized a September event in which protesters set up blockades at 15 downtown intersections and chained themselves to the hull of a boat blocks from the White House, culminating in 32 arrests. Blocking traffic during rush hour has become an increasingly common tactic among D.C. activists, who have snarled commutes about half a dozen times in recent weeks.
And they’re off. This group, led by @XRebelDC, is heading to the World Bank headquarters, where organizers said they’re planning to cause “as much traffic disruption as possible.” #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/I2iKpsFOVh
— Marissa J. Lang (@Marissa_Jae) December 6, 2019
Nick Brana, a spokesman for the climate activists’ coalition known as Shut Down DC, said protesters decided to target the World Bank to demand that it “fully divest from fossil fuels immediately.”
About 9 a.m. Friday, a group of demonstrators sat in the road at 21st and K streets NW, blocking all lanes as police tried to make way for cars to pass through. Along part of Pennsylvania Avenue, some cars made U-turns to avoid the protesters.
Hours later, they marched along K Street, New York Avenue and other busy downtown thoroughfares, bringing rolling street closures as they moved. Organizers said they hoped to disrupt traffic as much as possible and direct commuters’ attention to the earth’s warming climate.
This group stopped again at 21st and K St, where are some demonstrators sat down to block all lanes of traffic. Police, trying to open a path for cars to pass, tried to pick them up and move them out of the intersection, physically. #ClimateStrike #DC #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/Ba48k8ug0b
— Marissa J. Lang (@Marissa_Jae) December 6, 2019
Groups stretched banners across intersections as cars honked, drivers yelled out their windows and police attempted to reroute traffic away from protest locations.
“What do we want?” activists chanted.
“Climate justice!”
“When do we want it?”
“Now!”
“If we don’t get it?”
“You make us late for work, that’s what you do,” shouted a passerby, who said the disruption caused her bus to stop and let people off several stops from her destination.
At University Yard on the George Washington University campus, organizer Russell Gray, 25, addressed the group Friday morning with a megaphone before demonstrators set off: “We are going to shut down the World Bank to make sure they know there are people out here who know what they’re doing,” he said, saying they would “disrupt as much traffic as possible.”
The crowd cheered.
But commuters, who have sat through several rush-hour protests recently, seemed to have lost patience with the demonstrations.
A woman in a black SUV idling on the corner of L and 21st Streets NW rolled down her window as demonstrators, blocking the street,declared: “We are Extinction Rebellion … We are ordinary people. We are scared. We care about you and your children.”
“Enough already,” Courtney Walter, 35, shouted from her car. “Move!”
Walter, a tech firm recruiter who said it typically takes her 20 minutes to drive to work from Arlington, said the rally doubled her commute time.
“The thing is, I agree with them. We should do more about climate change,” Walter said. “But this is just not considerate. It’s making people more angry and frustrated than anything.”
As police attempted to move one group out of the center of K Street NW, a man walking past tapped an officer on the shoulder.
“Throw them in jail,” he said.
Police at 19th and K St. have ushered demonstrators out of the intersection. “Sidewalk!” the officers commanded. “Is this a warning,” protesters asked. No one was arrested. They begrudgingly have regathered on 19th and out of the middle of K St. #ClimateStrike #DC pic.twitter.com/NSHxlDKzLh
— Marissa J. Lang (@Marissa_Jae) December 6, 2019
As small groups of activists marched toward Franklin Square, they chanted: “We’re doing this for you! It’s your planet, too.”
Participants carried signs adorned with fake fire department seals and flames. Some dressed up as polar bears. They chanted about polluted rivers and smoggy air and fires in the Amazon rainforest.
One demonstrator, Michael Russell, 28, wore a green gas mask and a bright red Santa suit, with a gray bag marked “coal” slung over his left shoulder. He was joined by a handful of self-described elves, whose faces were painted like skeletons.
“See, Santa was able to secure a gas mask and survive the apocalypse,” explained Allison Guy, 34. “But we’re just elves. So we had to suffer.”
Guy carried a sign that read, “World Bank: You’ve been naughty. Stop funding climate chaos.”
Natalie Boland, 25, said the group thought that, given the season, it would be particularly poignant to see Santa warning against the most dire consequences of pollution and a perceived lack of action on climate change.
“Around the holidays, we all get consumed with buying gifts and going to parties and eating a lot of food,” Boland said. “And we forget that humanity is driving itself off a cliff right now.”
Friday’s demonstration, which is part of the national student-led Youth Climate Strike, converged with activists’ weekly Fire Drill Friday protest, at which actress Jane Fonda has become a fixture. Outside the BlackRock investment firm’s Washington headquarters, Fonda stood with a fist raised as hundreds chanted, “can you hear us?”
Commuters seem way less patient this time. At past rallies, some yelled, “thank you!” or shrugged off the traffic. Today, as police moved protesters out of K St., one man yelled, “throw them in jail!”
— Marissa J. Lang (@Marissa_Jae) December 6, 2019
Demonstrators are chanting, “We’re doing this for you! It’s your planet, too.” pic.twitter.com/UWLggJLTbB
The demonstration targeted financial firms, but BlackRock was just the start. Activists also confronted Chase and Wells Fargo in a rolling protest through downtown D.C.
Actresses Kyra Sedgwick, Maura Tierney and Taylor Schilling joined Fonda and several faith leaders at the demonstration.
“These financial institutions are profiting off the fossil fuel industry and investing in immigrant detention centers,” said the Rev. Noel Andersen of Church World Service. “We have to call it what it is — a crisis.”
Andersen said he would risk arrest in a show of solidarity with those who are “most affected” by the effects of climate change.
Scores of cameras and reporters clamored around Fonda as the crowd pushed forward. Among them was portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz.
“I want to thank the young people,” Fonda said outside the BlackRock building. “They have shown us that this has to become the new normal. … Don’t stop, and we won’t stop either.”
Fonda, who in October committed to being arrested at the weekly rally every week for four months, stopped risking arrest in November after spending a night in the District’s jail. She moved to the District for the weekly protests, which are slated to continue until January.
At a Wells Fargo branch Friday at 13th and I Streets NW, seven protesters sat, their hands chained together, creating a human blockade. D.C. police officers surrounded the group as demonstrators cheered.
Fonda, who tipped a megaphone over yellow police tape, commended the demonstrators for their willingness to be arrested.
“I want to thank you for your bravery,” she said.
The protesters who spilled into the street, carrying large inflatable globes and banners that stretched for yards, chanted, “Wells Fargo, hey you! We deserve a future, too!”
Activists said getting arrested in front of banks and corporate office buildings would force them to pay attention to their message: divest from the fossil fuel industry.