Jane Fonda Will Spend Night In Jail After Arrest For Fourth Week In A Row During Climate Protests — Update

Ted Johnson

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UPDATE, 3:48 PM: Jane Fonda will spend the night in a Washington, D.C. jail after her arrest for the fourth week in a row during a climate protest.

“She is spending the night in jail,” said Ira Arlook, spokesman for Fire Drill Fridays, a weekly protest that has been taking place at the Capitol.

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Fonda was among the 46 people arrested on Friday after staging a protest in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office building and refusing to get off the ground to leave, Arlook said. Catherine Keener, Rosanna Arquette and other demonstrators were processed and released, but Fonda was held because of her arrests in the past three Fridays. Fonda is expected to appear in court at a hearing sometime Saturday morning or early afternoon, Arlook said.

In the protest’s first week, 16 people were arrested. That same number was arrested in the second week, when Fonda was joined by actor Sam Waterston. Last week, 31 people were arrested, including Fonda and actor Ted Danson, Arlook said.

PREVIOUSLY, 10:39 AM PT: Jane Fonda was arrested again on Friday for the fourth week in a row in her protests of climate change, and she’s expecting to be held overnight.

She was joined by actresses Catherine Keener and Rosanna Arquette, who also were arrested.

Fonda told reporters beforehand that she faced an overnight stay in jail because she was being arrested before her court date for last week’s act of civil disobedience.

“Oh! What will I do?” Fonda said sarcastically. “Yes. I probably will go to jail tonight. It will not be the first time. And I am prepared to do that. And maybe I won’t. It’s kind of arbitrary. I was told that if I got arrested before my court date, I would probably go to jail. One night. Big deal.”

In her first two arrests, she was fined and released. After her arrest last week, she was given a November 27 court date.

“We’re going to get arrested much more,” Fonda said. “We are going to fill the streets much more. We’re going to close down the government if necessary.”

Fonda and other demonstrators marched from a rally near the Capitol to the Hart Senate Office Building, where a central atrium adorned with an Alexander Calder sculpture has been the site of numerous other demonstrations. There, almost 50 demonstrators sat for several minutes around a large banner, displayed on the floor, and sang “We Shall Not Be Moved” and “Power to the People.”

As Capitol Police arrested each demonstrator, putting them in makeshift white plastic shackles, a crowd nearby cheered.

In 2018, Amy Schumer was arrested in the location as she took part in protests of Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Fonda has vowed to take part in the demonstrations through mid-January, and has even temporarily moved to Washington to participate. She will have to return to Los Angeles in January to resume production on her Netflix series Grace and Frankie.

Fonda is taking part in “Fire Drill Fridays,” a series of weekly rallies inspired in part by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg. Fonda said that she also was inspired by Thunberg’s calls for more sustainable living. Fonda, 81, said that she bought a red coat for the protests but it would be “the last article of clothing that I am going to buy.

“I grew up when consumerism didn’t have such a stranglehold over us,” she told reporters. “…We don’t really need to keep shopping. We shouldn’t look to shopping for our identity. We just don’t need more stuff. Then I have to walk the talk, so I am not buying any more clothes.”

She said that Ben and Jerry would be taking part in the action next week, and they will bring ice cream, and that plans are in the works for Diane Lane, Mark Ruffalo and Kyra Sedgwick to join.

“This is a way to attract attention, to use celebrity to get the word out,” Fonda said. “And the word has gone out all over the country.” She said that viewers of a Facebook feed of Fire Drill Fridays “come from all over the world.”

She said, “It’s too late for moderation.”

She said that fossil fuel companies knew of the impacts of climate change decades ago, and “They kept it from us. If we had started phasing out of fossil fuel then, we could have done it in a moderate, incremental way. But because they lied to us, it is too late for moderation now. We have only 11 years. You can call it radical. I think what is radical is not doing anything.”

 

 

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