WHY SUPPORTERS OF DECLARE EMERGENCY SPEAK ABOUT THEIR ACTION TODAY

Listen to supporters of Declare Emergency speak about why they are taking this action today.

"We have to get in people’s way,” said one of the organizers, Paul Severance of Washington, D.C. “That’s the only way to make change.”

He said Declare Emergency engages in nonviolent civil disobedience in the tradition of protests from the 1960s and said members respect police. He and other protesters said they wanted to get the attention of local, state and federal lawmakers, though the event was not pegged to the Fourth of July holiday.

“We’re here to prove that it’s an emergency because so far nothing has been done.” said Maple Overbrink, who traveled to the protest from North Carolina. “Nothing works until you disrupt. We’re here to model for the rest of the county, here in symbolic D.C., … the pinnacle of doing nothing.”