It may have been all binders full of women and matching pink outfits inside the room at last night's presidential debate at Hofstra University in Long Island, but things were decidedly less cutesy for those stuck outside the debate. Many fringe candidates and activist groups locked out of the debate assembled outside the university yesterday—and Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and her running mate Cheri Honkala were both arrested for "blocking traffic." Watch them get their rights read in a heavy Long Island accent in the video below.
Before the debates, Stein and Honkala released a statement protesting the fact that they were left out of the debate, despite the fact they were able to get on 85 percent of state ballots across the U.S. this year. “Cheri and I agreed that this mockery of democracy, this violation of our basic right as citizens, of a so-called democratic country— we are here to challenge the violation of our democratic rights,” Stein told Philadelphia Weekly. “We are prepared to be arrested in the service of democracy and a future that serves us all.”
And they were indeed arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for "blocking traffic" as they attempted to enter the debate—of course, the two women, who were holding an American flag in their laps, appear to be surrounded by dozens of cops also blocking traffic, but no matter. Before their arrests, The Nation reports Stein gave this plea to police and the assembled crowd:
If you have done the work to get on the ballot, if you are on the ballot and could actually win the electoral college by being on the ballot in enough states, then you deserve to be in the election and you deserve to be heard...The American people deserve to hear choices which are not bought and paid for by multinational corporations and Wall Street. This is why we are not hearing the critical issues in this debate.
Beloved The Rent Is Too Damn High candidate Jimmy McMillan was also there—blessedly, he wasn't arrested, although he let his opinions on his would-be opponents fly free, telling Business Insider: "What I really want them to do is to put some tape on their mouths and shut the eff up. If I had some popcorn and bananas and nuts, I'd go in there and feed the clowns, because that's what this is—a clown show." He added that regardless of the clown show, he was voting for Obama.
