Jane Fonda Was Just Arrested for Civil Disobedience
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Jane Fonda was arrested in Washington, D.C. on Friday after protesting climate change.
The actress and activist launched her "Fire Drill Fridays" civil disobedience campaign to demand action against climate change. As part of the initiative, the 81-year-old protested on Capitol Hill, and has plans to do so every Friday through January, until she has to film another season of her Netflix show Grace and Frankie.
"I’m going to take my body, which is kind of famous and popular right now because of the [television] series and I’m going to go to D.C. and I’m going to have a rally every Friday," she told Washington Post on Thursday. "It’ll be called ‘Fire Drill Friday.’ And we’re going to engage in civil disobedience and we’re going to get arrested every Friday."
.@Janefonda is the THIRD arrest here at the US Capitol... The moment it happened...@WUSA9 #ClimateChange #FireDrillFriday #breaking pic.twitter.com/wWoZggYloN
— Mike Valerio (@MikevWUSA) October 11, 2019
As @GretaThunberg said, “We have to act like our house is on fire, because it is.” @JaneFonda, activists, Indigenous leaders, experts, & community members are answering the alarm sounded by youth to demand action on the climate emergency.
Join us for #FireDrillFriday 🔥 pic.twitter.com/XXanwTQs2w— Fire Drill Fridays (@FireDrillFriday) October 11, 2019
It's unclear whether Fonda is still being held in custody or if she's been released. Of course, it's not the first time Fonda has been arrested — she famously went on a speaking tour against the Vietnam War and was arrested in 1970 when she flew into Cleveland and airport security reportedly searched her luggage and found bags of vitamins that they assumed were drugs. Fonda was arrested for drug smuggling until the vitamins were tested, at which point she was released and charges were dropped.
She told the Post that her campaign was inspired by Greta Thunberg, the teen activist who has made it her mission to protest against climate change inaction.
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“She realized what was happening and that this was barreling at us like an engine," Fonda said. "It so traumatized her that she stopped speaking and eating. And when I read that it rocked me, because I knew that Greta had seen the truth. And the urgency came into my DNA the way it hadn’t before."
