David Swanson: Civil Resistance at the White House

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With the delegation at the gate for about 10 minutes, a loud chant of "The Whole World is Watching" caught on.

There was also "Ain't no power like the power of the people, and the power of the people is now!"

At about 1:10, the delegation of potential arrestees moved east along the fence of the White House to the are directly in front of the building. The crowd chanted "Stop the War!" Many more wanting to be arrested moved in behind clearly there would be hundreds of arrests. Still, the media probably out-numbered the non-media.

At 1:14 Sekou started a chorus of "This Little Light of Mine."

At 1:15, everybody not holding a camera or a gun sat down on the sidewalk.

At 1:16, the police ordered the media to move off the sidewalk and into the street, and warned everyone else they would be arrested.

At 1:18, Code Pink marched in from the east, along the fence, and joined the protest.

By 1:20 there were hundreds of people, some sitting, some standing, most singing, all refusing to leave.

By 1:22 many of the corporate media cameras were gone, and the independent and small media seemed to dominate. But they and onlookers were pushed further out in the street, as the police brought in their horses. The chant from the street then became "Get those animals off those horses!"

By 1:26, the dominant chant was "Arrest Bush." This chant came back again and again over the next 30 minutes. Another was "No more of a class war!"

By 1:30 they moved the horses out and brought in the police vans. But they only had a few teeny little vans. There was no way they could hold everyone.

Chant: "A liar, a coward, say it a little louder!"

One guy with a megaphone shouted "Hey Bushie Boy, we know you've got a lot of oil 'cause your boys are leaving the engines running. Did you fight a war for this oil?"

At a quarter to 2 they brought in a Metro bus faster by far than they'd gotten busses into New Orleans. As the arrests started, the crowd yelled: "The Whole World Is Watching!"

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David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. (more...)

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