Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen was arrested on Thursday for blocking the entrance to the Department of Justice during a protest of the U.S. government’s prosecution of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. Cohen asked to enter the building, and when denied by security guards, he sat on the steps alongside the co-founder of social justice charity CODEPINK until police handcuffed them both. In a tweet the day before, Cohen had indicated he intended to “risk arrest” to “protest the criminalization of the free press and the prosecution” of Assange. Assange faces 18 charges from the DOJ relating to the 2010 release of half a million classified U.S. government documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. During the demonstration, Cohen described)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://usw2.nyl.as/t1/268/3uccn72eftj0mv9kiqmr3qgrg/15/2ab90f20f03e71a50692d6449576badfd37559dfb94cf696d049d78bcd25c1c1__;!!LsXw!Udj2Fw-jLwWSOctTcARgbcVk61cdMq-a4NYobANkWIbnY-AGAWOsfhFSxoIivAzhs0evZWg5_9iqMLTefjJqLWBuNN4$">described the prosecution as “outrageous.” Ben & Jerry’s caused a stir earlier this week by celebrating July 4 with a tweet calling for “stolen” land in the U.S. to be returned to Indigenous owners.
VIDEO THREAD: Ben Cohen @YoBenCohen of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and @MsJodieEvans of @codepink were arrested this afternoon by Homeland Security officers as they sat in front of the Department of Justice HQ in DC to protest for the release of @wikileaks founder Julian Assange. pic.twitter.com/ajwQtTq4N3
