Arrestee in Congressman Conyers' Office Mistreated

Dorothy Greet on Delmarva Public Radio Friday, August 24th. Retired Pastor describes mistreatment during impeachment protest and arrest on Capitol Hill

Why did I go to jail? Does it make any difference? I went because I can. I went because I must. I am fearful that the rights and freedoms we enjoy today are slipping away. I feel I must do everything I can to stop the erosion of our Constitution. May each act according to his or her conscience .
---Dorothy Greet, July 30, 2007

On Friday, August 24thth Lewes, DE resident and retired pastor Dorothy Greet appeared with DelMarva Public Radio host Don Rush to speak about her recent civil disobedience arrest at an impeachment protest in Congressman John Conyers Capitol Hill office. The interview aired on WSCL 89.5 FM in Salisbury.

(Lewes, DE) Dorothy Greet came to Washington last month to look after her grandchildren for the week, and ended up getting arrested for civil disobedience, being shackled to a bench, forced to urinate in front of an officer, and spending the night hungry and freezing cold in a DC jail. When she returned home to Lewes, Delaware, friends and family asked the 67 year-old retired minister, "Why?" Greet is a grey haired, soft-spoken grandmother who should be at her beachside home enjoying her retirement, yet she chose to be among four people to go to jail out of a group of four hundred protesters outside Congressman John Conyers' office in the Rayburn House Office Building. Why was she willing to risk arrest over impeachment? Hadn't Congress already declared that "off the table"? What was the point?

Greet's adventure began when she came to Fairfax, VA to watch her grandchildren while their parents were away on business. When they returned and relieved Greet of her duties, she went online and started surfing the web for news about the war and the latest updates on the impeachment movement. She could hardly believe her good fortune when she saw that Cindy Sheehan planned to lead a march from Arlington Cemetery to the office of Congressman John Conyers the next day. The next morning she packed a bottle of water and some energy bars into her backpack and hopped on the Metro for the rally at Arlington Cemetery.

The marchers had intended to exert some pressure on Congressman Conyers, who as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has the power to begin impeachment proceedings against the President and the Vice President. For reasons still unclear, the meeting turned out to be a disaster for both the marchers and the Congressman. The expectant marchers had hoped that Conyers, who had run in the last election on a promise to impeach the president, would finally publicly promise to start the process. When he arrived several hours later than the group had anticipated, and then dashed their hopes by citing fears of being smeared by Fox news and not yet having enough votes in the House to proceed, the protesters got angry. Some refused to leave the Rayburn building. Greet had never been arrested before in her life, she decided that night to choose arest rather than accept what she felt was Conyers' refusal to uphold the Constitution.

Greet enrolled in Yale Divinity school following a divorce when she was in her 40s, not intending to be ordained, but to look more deeply into life's questions and to help find her own purpose on earth. Greet ultimately had what she refers to as her "awakening." While studying the lives of Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, Greet noted that these figures often found themselves speaking on behalf of "a God of justice and compassion" to kings who would have preferred to dismiss them rather than bear the discomfort of their reproaches and warnings. She realized that what these prophets were doing was being "a pain in the neck" to those in power, and that this kind of constant pressure by individuals or small groups could bring about monumental, lasting social change. As she sat in her cell feeling exhausted from hours of being alternately ignored and harassed by irritated Congressional staffers and DC police officers, she reflected on the prophets and the wrath that they brought on themselves for annoying the powerful, and thought "at least I'm practicing what I preach."

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ARTICLE 1 of 3 in Cape Gazette (Lewes, Del.):

Lewes resident Dorothy Greet was arrested in Washington, D.C., last month following a demonstration calling for the impeachment of President George Bush. Greet and a handful of other protesters chose to go to jail, rather than pay a fine and be released. Greet said that although her stay in jail was short, it was an unpleasant experience that she felt was necessary to make a stronger statement about the administration’s Iraq war prosecution and policies.

Lewes activist Dorothy Greet chose to go to jail

By Henry J. Evans Jr., Cape Gazette staff August 10, 2007

When Lewes resident Dorothy Greet went to Washington, D.C., last month to babysit for her daughter, she didn’t foresee that she would be arrested for an act of civil disobedience and choose going to jail.

Greet said her brief experience in custody of Washington, D.C., and federal law enforcement officials, and with the court system, were eye-opening and disturbing.

And at the same time, she said, “It was an extraordinary opportunity for me to meet women I otherwise would not have met.”

Greet, 67, is one of several people who stand along Savannah Road near the Zwaanendael Museum on Sunday afternoons, holding placards calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Greet said it is her belief that Bush intentionally misled Americans in taking the country to war – a war that has now stretched on for more than four years with nearly 4,000 U.S. military casualties alone.

“I care deeply about the outcome of this war,” Greet said Wednesday, Aug. 1, at the Lewes home of Rachael Grier-Reynolds and Rick Reynolds.

Greet was invited to tell her story to a group of about 15 people, several of whom are participants in Lewes’ silent vigil and impeach Bush demonstrations on Savannah Road.

Greet’s presentation, titled ‘Your Neighbor Goes to Jail – A story of civil disobedience, unwarranted abuse, political urgency,” detailed what happened to her on July 23, in Washington.

On the way to the forum

Although she had participated in numerous demonstrations and protests through the years, Greet said she had never been arrested.

She has a master’s degree in divinity from Yale University. And maybe it’s because she’s a retired clergywoman who spent years working for the United Church of Christ – and is a grandmother – that Greet tells a detailed story of her experience.

“About 400 of us gathered at the Arlington Cemetery stop of the Metro. We got out our ‘Impeach’ signs and our ‘End the War’ signs. We had on our T-shirts – orange was the color of the day, in solidarity with the prisoners in Guantanamo, the prisoners at Abu Ghraib and prisoners everywhere, I discovered,” she said.

While some wore pink, representing Code Pink, the women’s organization Greet said is working for “peaceful change and justice,” Greet said she wore pink and orange mixed on a shirt that appeared to be tie-dyed.

She fixed a ‘World Can’t Wait – Drive Out The Bush Regime,’ banner onto the belt loop of her pants. She carried with her three energy bars, a bottle of water, a spare orange T-shirt, $31 in cash, credit cards and identification. She was traveling light, as demonstration organizers had recommended, just in case of arrest.

Greet said the walk from the cemetery to the Rayburn House Office Building wasn’t planned as a high profile demonstration but was part of a scheduled meeting with Rep. John Conyers Jr., (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

“It was meant to be a statement and a pressuring of Conyers to move forward with impeachment hearings,” Greet said.

Conyers has said that Bush’s ordering of a pre-emptive strike against Iraq in 2003, rose to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” – in other words, impeachable actions.

Conyers has been vocal about pushing for impeachment, a process that begins with charges that originate in the House of Representatives.

Arrest a first for Lewes woman

Greet said when they arrived at the Rayburn building, Bush supporters were across the street where they held banners decrying Cindy Sheehan.

“They’re always picking on Cindy: she’s a marvelous figure to pick on. She was there, very, very present,” Greet said of Sheehan who gained national attention as an anti-war activist in 2005 when she spent days at the entrance to Bush’s Texas ranch in a failed effort to meet with him. Sheehan’s son Casey, an Army soldier, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Greet said the impeach Bush group stopped just short of their destination, where organizers told them to leave their banners and placards. Michael Madden, an attorney specializing in civil disobedience law, briefed the demonstrators.

“He told us our rights and responsibilities and gave us his phone number,” Greet said. She said one woman among them wrote Madden’s phone number on her arm with a pen.

“That was a stroke of genius,” said Greet.

Greet said demonstrators were divided into three groups, each entering the building through separate entrances.

“The reason for that was not to sneak in or deceive anybody but rather to lessen the load on the security people,” Greet said.

She said a group of leaders in the impeach Bush movement including the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus; Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who has said Bush and others in the administration deliberately distorted intelligence on Iraq, and a others went in to meet with Conyers.

Greet said Conyers has a record as a friend of the impeachment movement, having contributed to the book “George W. Bush versus the U.S. Constitution,” which, she said, “exposes the lies and deception of the Bush administration – all impeachable offenses.”
“Conyers said that if Democrats were elected into the majority, that he would move forward with impeachment hearings. That’s what this meeting with him was about,” Greet said.

She said Conyers knew the group was coming to meet with him.

“We were welcomed by a whole cadre of police. They were friendly and respectful. They told us that we had every right to be there. They simply asked us that we keep our voices down and keep the hallways clear,” she said.

Greet said the group had brought with them petitions signed by thousands of people supporting impeachment. “We thought that if we gave those to Conyers that he would be convinced that now is the time,” she said.

She said about 50 demonstrators remained standing in the hallway during the meeting with Conyers. An hour later, Conyers made an announcement.

“His decision was no. He said he didn’t have the votes for impeachment. We were absolutely crushed. There had been this buoyant, expectancy in the hallway and that just turned,” said Greet.

She said Capitol Police immediately cleared the hallway of demonstrators willing to leave. About 45 people had decided they would remain.

“We immediately sat down along the wall. We didn’t obstruct the passageways. The police asked us, ‘Are you planning to be arrested? You’d better leave or you will be arrested,’ ” Greet said.

She said the group began to chant and sing and suddenly, the police sprang to action.

“Out of nowhere the police came with their equipment. The first thing they brought out were handcuffs. But they weren’t metal, they were strips of plastic, the kind used for packaging. And boy, do they hurt,” said Greet.

Next week, in part two of Greet’s story, – A basement jail cell in the Nation’s Capitol, bologna sandwiches and bug juice, making a like-minded friend, and the difficulty of getting free.

Contact Henry Evans at hevans@capegazette.com