WASHINGTON — Aliyah Rahman, a Minnesota girl whom Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., took as her visitor to the State of the Union tackle Tuesday, wanted hospital therapy after she was arrested through the speech, Rahman and Omar mentioned.
Rahman silently stood up through the a part of President Donald Trump’s speech by which he known as on Democrats to revive funding for the Division of Homeland Safety. The individuals round her remained seated. When U.S. Capitol Police approached and requested Rahman to sit down down, she refused.
Throughout her dialog with Capitol Law enforcement officials, the gang round her gave a standing ovation, which Rahman tried to clarify to the officers was a purpose she shouldn’t be pressured to depart.
Capitol Police took Rahman, who was strolling with the assistance of a crutch, and began pulling her towards the exit — a transfer that confronted protest from one of many different company within the gallery, who known as on the police to be much less aggressive with Rahman.
Rahman mentioned in an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! that she was within the custody of Capitol Police after which within the hospital till simply earlier than 4 a.m.
“I used to be not simply eliminated and arrested. I used to be arrested so bodily that two different attendees upstairs tried to intervene in officers pulling on my shoulders after I instructed them I’ve a torn rotator cuff tendon and a number of cartilage tears in each of my shoulders,” she mentioned.
Rahman instructed Goodman that the Home sergeant-at-arms instructed her she was arrested as a result of “I used to be standing up. Silently. No buttons, no facial expressions, no gestures, no indicators. Not one sound. Standing up.”
“There are solely two issues you are able to do on the State of the Union, and they’re sit down and rise up. Every kind of individuals have been standing up all evening. Me, too,” Rahman mentioned.
She mentioned within the interview that she has a torn rotator cuff and cartilage tears after federal brokers in Minneapolis dragged her out of her automotive final month when she drove down a avenue the place an anti-immigration protest was taking place. Rahman mentioned she had been making an attempt to get to a physician’s appointment.
Capitol Police mentioned Rahman was arrested on a cost of illegal conduct, disruption of Congress.
“All State of the Union tickets clearly clarify that demonstrating is prohibited,” Capitol Police mentioned in a press release. “The visitor was instructed to sit down down, however refused to obey our lawful orders. It’s unlawful to disrupt the Congress and reveal within the Congressional Buildings.”
Omar blasted Rahman’s arrest Wednesday, calling for a “full clarification of why this arrest occurred.”
“The heavy-handed response to a peaceable visitor sends a chilling message in regards to the state of our democracy,” she mentioned in a press release.
Omar mentioned Rahman was taken to George Washington College Hospital for therapy and later booked at Capitol Police headquarters. In line with an outline supplied by Omar’s workplace, Rahman is a disabled individual with autism and a traumatic mind damage from Minneapolis.
Minneapolis was on the middle of the Trump administration’s intense immigration crackdown in latest months as a part of so-called Operation Metro Surge.
In the course of the operation, federal brokers shot a number of individuals, killing Individuals Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who have been killed. Democrats in Congress have demanded that the Division of Homeland Safety change its immigration enforcement techniques, refusing to vote for a invoice that might fund the division and driving the federal government right into a partial shutdown.
