Movie star gone activist?
Hollywood star and recent activist, George Clooney was arrested at Sudan’s embassy in Washington on March 16 during a protest against the country’s blockade of humanitarian aid.
The 50-year-old actor and his father Nick, along with several other anti-Sudan activists, ignored three police warnings to leave the embassy grounds and were led away to a Secret Service van in handcuffs.
Clooney was charged with disorderly crossing of a police line, which is a misdemeanor and ended up paying a $100 fine, opting to forfeit the money in order to avoid a court appearance.
According to CNN Entertainment, just before the arrest, Clooney told the crowd that he and his fellow activists were there “to ask two very simple questions…The first question is something immediate, and immediately, we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”
The other, he said, “is for the government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them and stop starving them. That’s all we ask.”
However, for respectable reasons or not, Clooney said, “It’s actually a humiliating thing to be arrested no matter what you do, but I’m glad to be standing here with my father.”
Clooney’s publicist said in a statement published by TMZ, “They were protesting the violence committed by the government of Sudan on its own innocent men, women and children. They were demanding they allow humanitarian aid into the country before it becomes the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.”
As news spread that George Clooney, his father and, multiple congressmen were arrested, people took to social media to “tweet” their reactions.
Celebrities, on-the-scene reporters, and devoted Clooney fans had plenty of reactions on Twitter, ranging from “tweets” of support to live updates from the Sudanese embassy protest.
Fellow actor, Alec Baldwin, tweeted “We need more civil disobedience #OWShaditrightbutwerenotcameraready”.
After Clooney found himself detained last week he said he did what many of us would do in that situation: He used his one phone call to ring his mom.
“Nothing ever changes,” he joked with a TMZ reporter.
Sources:
Telegraph Online
AlbaWaba.Com
Marquee Blogs on CNN
Huffington Post
Huffington Post – Reactions