On the 13th of October, as part of National Primate Liberation Week, DC area animal rights activists showed up at the home of Danaher Senior Vice President Jonathan Graham at 3526 Ordway St NW. Danaher is the corporate parent of Beckman Coultier, supplier of laboratory equipment to puppy-killing Huntingdon Life Sciences or HLS.
Video: Protest at Jonathan Graham’s (Danaher VP) house
The October 13th protest was the third protest at the home of Jonathan Graham. It started off in in the dark, with some complaining neighbors and an SUV whose occupants shouted bellicose demands to the protesters.
After about 15 minutes the first cop car showed up, soon to be followed by two more. Due to Mary Cheh’s law that effectively legalized home demos up to 10 PM, the cops were limited to telling protesters they “had until 10 PM” and trying to intimidate protesters by playing the police radio into the PA systemn and making threats of arrest for distributing leaflets to passengers in passing cars. The threats were bluffs and were not acted upon.
The cops also turned almost every light they had on the protest. lighting it up like a Hollywood movie set. This made the protest far more visible, I don’t know if they were attempting to allow security cameras to take better photos. It certainly improved my own pictures.
The protest continued almost another half hour, including an “encore” after one of the cops responded to the “We’ll be back” by clapping his hands into the PA system.
Cops follow, shadow protesters back down Ordway Street after the protest
VIDEO: Cops follow protesters through DC streets after the protests were over
When protesters left, cops followed the group by car, at one point stopping all cars from passing when protesters decided to take a break on the long walk back to Connecticut Ave. One of the cars turned around, so protesters walked back up a block, then reversed when the other two cars stayed put.
On Connecticut Ave cops continued trying to follow protesters, and a cop on foot also attempted to follow the group. The traffic on Connecticut Ave was too much, and the car cops had to disengage. Protesters soon were able to lose the foot cop as well before dispersing.
