November 14, 2007
Police removed protesters from U.S. Rep. Tom Allen’s office in Portland on Tuesday, after a sit-in that lasted almost five hours.
The group called on Allen to shift course and support efforts to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Kathe Chipman, 63, of Harpswell, who taped herself to a chair in the lobby, was led from the building in handcuffs around 8 p.m.
Police escorted three other protesters out of the building, but made no arrests.
The incident was the fourth sit-in this year by antiwar activists or impeachment supporters at Allen’s Portland office. Antiwar activists have targeted Allen, who opposed the Iraq war, because he also opposed efforts to eliminate war funding. On Tuesday, the demonstrators were supporting the Maine Campaign to Impeach, an organization that has collected thousands of signatures urging the House of Representatives to impeach Bush and Cheney. Allen opposes impeachment, but during the sit-in, he agreed to meet privately with activists to discuss the issue. He has said previously that impeachment would cut into the time
needed to address issues such as health care, global warming and the war in Iraq. “At this stage, he’s focusing on the issues that really matter to people,” said spokesman Mark Sullivan, who asked protesters to leave around 5:30 p.m., when the office was scheduled to close for the day. Chipman and Paul Cunningham, 42, of South Portland, said the White House should be held accountable for the information that led the country to go to war in Iraq. The two were among more than 20 activists arrested during antiwar and pro-impeachment sit-ins at Allen’s office in February and September. Prosecutors later dropped criminal trespassing charges against the protesters.
Lt. Gary Rogers said police did not want to waste time and jail space arresting demonstrators on Tuesday if it was unlikely that
the charges against them would stick.