Jane Fonda Is Arrested. She Hopes It Happens Again

81-year-old plans weekly climate protests at Capitol in DC
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 11, 2019 12:23 PM CDT
Updated Oct 11, 2019 1:41 PM CDT
Jane Fonda's New Plan: Get Arrested, a Lot
Actress and activist Jane Fonda speaks to a crowd of protestors during a global climate rally at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019.   (AP Photo/David Swanson)

Jane Fonda got arrested Friday, and she hopes to make it a regular occurrence. The 81-year-old actress was arrested at a climate change protest in DC, reports Entertainment Tonight, just as she planned it. Fonda has moved to DC for four months to take part in protests every Friday at the Capitol. There, she tells the Washington Post, she aims to get arrested by refusing three requests to disperse. Fonda says four months is all she could wrangle from Netflix between seasons of her popular series Grace and Frankie. “I’m going to take my body, which is kind of famous and popular right now because of the [television] series and I’m going to go to DC and I’m going to have a rally every Friday,” Fonda says. “It’ll be called ‘Fire Drill Friday.’ And we’re going to engage in civil disobedience and we’re going to get arrested every Friday.”

As WUSA9 notes, Fonda is no stranger to civil disobedience, copping to five arrests in the 1970s. (Though she continues to express regret for her infamous photo in North Vietnam.) In terms of climate change, Fonda tells the Los Angeles Times she has some priorities. "The most important is to stop all new leasing permits for any fossil fuel development on public lands and waters," she says. Without that, "we're doomed." She also wants to see a gradual phaseout of fossil fuels over 30 years, with job guarantees for industry workers. And, yes, Fonda is not only aware of teen activist Greta Thunberg, she's inspired by her. "I knew that Greta had seen the truth," she says. "And the urgency came into my DNA the way it hadn’t before.” (More Jane Fonda stories.)

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