Sept. 28 (UPI) — As many as 59 people were arrested during protests outside a hearing on Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Thursday, the United States Capitol Police said.
The USCP confirmed 57 people were arrested near the Supreme Court building and charged with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding and two others were arrested for crossing a police line, DCist reported.
The Women’s March organization’s Twitter account shared photos and video of women being arrested.
Thousands rallied across the nation, including many on Capitol Hill Thursday, in solidarity with the university professor who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high school party in 1982, Ford says he held her down, covered her mouth and tried to remove her clothes.
Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The Women’s March held a #CancelKavanaugh event in Washington, D.C., to support Ford as she testified. Protesters rallied at the Capitol Reflecting Pool between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
If Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, “he will not just send a message that sexual violence is rewarded with power; he will also roll back rights that women have worked for a generation to secure,” a website for the event said.
There have been more than 150 arrests in Washington this week, USA Today reported.
Hundreds of protesters showed up at the Senate office buildings during Ford’s hearing, some wearing black tape on their mouths, with words written on the tape that read, “Believe women.”
Kavanaugh supporters also demonstrated in Washington, including students from Liberty University, USA Today reported. The university’s president is Jerry Falwell Jr., a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump.
Liberty University planned to send 300 students to Washington to support Kavanaugh, the News and Advance reported.
“Our goal is to just get support for him. Moral support,” Victoria Belk, 21, president of Liberty’s branch of Concerned Women for America, which sponsored the bus trip from the Virginia campus along with the university, told USA Today. “This could be our brother, our dad, our boyfriend and we strongly believe in our justice system and you’re innocent until proven guilty.”
