Jane Fonda Arrested in DC Following Protest Over Climate Crisis

Jane Fonda was arrested Friday while protesting with the group Oil Change International in Washington, D.C. Video of the 81-year-old being placed in handcuffs and escorted into a police vehicle started circulating on social media. A spokeswoman for Capitol police confirmed that 16 people were arrested for an “unlawful” protest.

“Today, the United States Capitol Police arrested 16 individuals for unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol,” Eva Malecki, spokeswoman for the Capitol police told The Hollywood Reporter. All were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, she said.

Fonda wrote on her own website on Thursday that she planned on protesting at the Capitol for action against climate change “every Friday, rain or shine, inspired and emboldened by the incredible movement our youth have created.”

“I can no longer stand by and let our elected officials ignore – and even worse – empower – the industries that are destroying our planet for profit. We can not continue to stand for this,” she added.

The Grace and Frankie star called the demonstrations “Fire Drill Fridays,” writing that “I’ve moved to Washington, D.C. to be closer to the epicenter of the fight for our climate.”

Fonda also listed her “demands,” which she says “center and uplift those of youth climate strikers across the country, who on September 20, 2019 sounded the alarm on the climate emergency and answered Greta Thunberg’s call to action.” Her five demands are: a green new deal, respect of indigenous land and sovereignty, environmental justice, protection and restoration of biodiversity and implementation of sustainable agriculture.

“Our climate is in crisis,” Fonda wrote. “Scientists are shouting an urgent warning: we have little more than a decade to take bold, ambitious action to transition our economy off of fossil fuels and onto clean, renewable energy.”

Explaining Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays campaign, a press release stated that “she will be joined at every ‘Fire Drill Friday’ through at least mid-January by celebrities, scientists, economists and people from impacted communities who will speak and some of whom will invite arrest. Inspired by the growing movement of young climate strikers, Fonda decided to move to the nation’s capital for four months to take up their baton.”

“Change is coming by design or by disaster,” Fonda added. “A Green New Deal that transitions off fossil fuels provides the design. They say it’s not realistic, that it’s Socialism. That’s what they said about Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and we got Social Security and a middle class.”