Capitol Hill Police ‘Football Tackled’ Hip Hop Activist Rev. Lennox Yearwood at Petreus Hearing
UPDATE: I am told that they are planning to charge him with attacking an officer. Please see the video for yourself. He is in the hospital recovering. I will keep you posted on details as they develop.
WASHINGTON - September 10 - Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, was attacked by six capitol police today, when he was stopped from entering the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, where General Petreaus gave testimony today to a joint hearing for the House Arms Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee on the war in Iraq.
After waiting in line throughout the morning for the hearing that was scheduled to start at 12:30pm, Rev. Yearwood was stopped from entering the room, while others behind him were allowed to enter. He told the officers blocking his ability to enter the room, that he was waiting in line with everyone else and had the right to enter as well. When they threatened him with arrest he responded with “I will not be arrested today.” According to witnesses, six capitol police, without warning, “football tackled” him. He was carried off in a wheel chair by DC Fire and Emergency to George Washington Hospital.
Rev. Yearwood said as he was being released from the hospital to be taken to central booking, “The officers decided I was not going to get in Gen. Petreaus’ hearing when they saw my button, which says ‘I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ.’”
Capitol Police are not saying what the charges are, but an inside source has said that the charge is assaulting a police officer. Rev. Yearwood is scheduled to be transferred to Central Processing to be arraigned tomorrow morning.
Tell the governor you want teens to have the information they need to make healthy, responsible life decisions. Before September 26, 2007, Governor Napolitano will decide whether to apply for federal money for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. It is extremely important that the Governor hears loud and clear that Arizona must end its dependence on federal money that censors our teachers, preventing them from providing Arizona teens with vital health care information!
Here are three reasons why:
- Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs prohibit teachers from discussing contraceptives except to tell their failure rates. They also provide medically inaccurate information, promote gender stereotypes, discriminate against gays and lesbians, and are based on messages of fear or shame.
- A rigorous, multi-year, congressionally commissioned study published in April 2007 showed that these programs do not work. Teens who participated in these programs were just as likely to have sex as those who didn’t, and they had sex at the same age and had the same number of sexual partners as teens who did not participate in the federally funded programs.
- Parents across the nation and overwhelmingly want sex education to cover information about contraception. Major medical groups have also advocated for a more comprehensive approach to sex education.
With the second-highest rate of teen pregnancies in the nation, Arizona cannot afford to continue these harmful and ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. A recent study attributed the decline in teen pregnancy rates overwhelmingly to increased contraceptive use, not abstinence. Arizona should support reproductive health policies that are effective, save taxpayer dollars and protect the public health. Young people need and deserve complete, accurate, and age-appropriate sex education that discusses BOTH abstinence and the use of contraceptives to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
We need your help!! Join us in asking the Governor to: Continue reading →
By Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.
President of the Hip Hop Caucus
On July 1, 2007 I sought the support of regular Americans after receiving notification from the U.S. Air Force Reserve that they were threatening to discharge me on the basis of behavior that, in their words, is “clearly inconsistent with the interest of national security.” The behavior in question is my outspoken opposition to the occupation of Iraq and the inadequate and inhuman response to the tragedy of Katrina.
As a result of the outpouring of support I received from all over the United States and from around the world, the Air Force backed down. Thanks to my brothers and sisters in the movement, I will end my service with the honorable discharge that I earned. I am eternally grateful, and evermore committed to taking on the powers that be for the powers that ought to be.
At first, when I informed the Air Force that I would fight their harassment, they threatened me with deployment to Iraq, or even prison time. Then with the tremendous circulation and widespread publishing of my first Open Letter, the Air Force realized if they were going to challenge me, they would have to challenge thousands of Americans from across the nation outside of Robbins Air Force Base in Georgia, on my hearing date. Continue reading →
The attention young voters have been receiving recently has been tremendous with the number of polls being conducted to the amount of discussion of the effect this age group will have on the 2008 elections. A lot of this attention is due to your hard work!
Please see pieces of ABC’s This Week roundtable discussion where young voters were mentioned. Never before have I seen young people discussed on a Sunday political show before when it wasn’t October or November of an election year. Let’s keep this discussion going! - Tom, from the office of the Speaker of the House. Continue reading →
This summer Twenty-First Century Democrats is continuing its mission of building a progressive society from the grassroots up. As part of that charge, they hold their annual Youth Leadership Summer Speaker Series designed to inspire young Democrats by introducing them to progressive leaders who want to create a just, fair, tolerant and sustainable society.
Each summer, DC overflows with students and young professionals who are passionately committed to public service. Unfortunately, when these activists travel to DC to study government first hand, they are often turned off by middle of the road politics and leaders who refuse to speak clearly on the issues of the day. Continue reading →
