Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, a liberal ice cream model, was detained on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as part of a protest that slowed down a Senate hearing involving Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services director. Cohen was one of the seven people detained by the US Capitol Police ( USCP ) during the hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions ( HELP ) Committee, according to Fox News. Others were accused of resisting arrest and assaulting police officers, and he was accused of” crowding, obstructing, or incommoding.” Soon after Kennedy gave his evidence, protesters yelled,” RFK kills people with dislike”! as seen in the video.
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According to USA Today, some protesters reportedly walked toward the front of the hearing room before being violently taken out by police. Sen Bill Cassidy, who was chairing the conference, paused the proceedings while a video showed Cohen being pulled out by an agent. After the order was restored, Cassidy observed,” That was a made-for-C-SPAN time.” Long-time activist Cohen after stated on X, previously Twitter, that they are paying for the US’s poor kids ‘ deaths by funding their own children’s healthcare. He continued,” This was the authorities ‘ response,” sharing footage of his removal. Cohen also spoke at a media conference before that time, voicing her opposition to Israel’s continuing conflict in Gaza with Representative Rashida Tlaib and other progressive activists. According to Cohen,” We are expected to be good American and look the other way as Israel prevents the remaining people of Gaza from getting food, water, and medication,” according to USA Today. We’ll be there without looking ahead. We won’t tolerate silence.”
Cohen’s imprisonment is not his first in Washington. He was detained in 2023 while protesting outside the justice ministry over Julian Assange’s imprisonment, according to Fox News. Ben & Jerry’s has long been associated with left-leaning democratic engagement. The business, which Unilever bought in 2000, still has an independent panel to carry out its advocacy job. It made headlines in 2021 when it stopped selling goods in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and called them” Occupied Palestinian Territory” according to Forbes.
