NEW YORK ― Leaders of the “Day Without A Woman” strike arrested outside Trump International Hotel on Wednesday were released by police, one by one, later in the evening.
Organizers Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour, co-chairs of January’s Women’s March on Washington, emerged from a police precinct exhausted but optimistic, greeted by a couple dozen activists who had waited to give them food and support. Police said 13 people were arrested.
Sarsour, the last of the three leaders to be freed, said the mood inside the jail cell was “empowering” and “inspiring.” Mallory, who was released about an hour earlier, said a dozen or so women were singing freedom songs to pass the time.
Sarsour was upset that authorities were still holding fellow Women’s March co-chair Bob Bland, who gave birth just a few months ago and needed to nurse her baby.
“She’s expressing her milk in the sink, but they won’t let her out,” Sarsour said.
Mallory, Perez and Sarsour said they would wait outside of the precinct until the last woman is released. Members of the group tweeted earlier that they were arrested after blocking traffic.
“I got arrested with some of the strongest women that represent the best that New York City has to offer,” Sarsour said. “I feel empowered, I feel proud of what I did today and I’ve done this many times before. … I hope it sends a message to people that you’ve got to risk it, you’ve got to be bold in this moment.”
Mallory said that she hopes Wednesday’s strike shows people that President Donald Trump and his administration are “not normal.”
“We will consistently resist and ensure that this entire country is aware that if women are not happy no one will be happy,” Mallory said.
“The resistance,” she said earlier, “is alive and well,”
Oh, yes it is.
Watch the full Facebook live stream with Mallory below. To watch the full Facebook live stream with Sarsour head here.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices