Climate protesters arrested after shutting down DC-area highway

Maryland State Police (MSP) arrested 14 climate protesters on Monday after they shut down a highway in the Washington, D.C., area amid Fourth of July traffic.

MSP and Montgomery County Police responded to the scene around 12:30 p.m. on Monday and found several protesters sitting on the ground on the inner loop of I-495 in Montgomery County, Md., blocking traffic.

Police closed the roadway and set up detours while they worked to fix the situation.

By 1:45 p.m., all lanes of the Capital Beltway were open, MSP noted.

The group, identified as Declare Emergency, aims to urge President Biden to declare a climate emergency, according to its website.

“We have to get in people’s way,” Paul Severance, an organizer of the protest, told Bethesda Beat. “That’s the only way to make change.”

Several of the protesters who refused to comply with police orders to move to the shoulder of the beltway were charged with disturbing the peace and hindering passage, as well as failure to obey a reasonable/lawful order.

Additionally, four were charged with resisting arrest and one counterprotester was charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest, police said.