Police Break Up Public Citizen Press Conference Criticizing HHS for Unethical Study
By Sam Jewler,
CitizenVox
| 08. 28. 2013
I’ve been in tense police-protester situations before, but generally in more of a civil disobedience context. It was the last thing I expected at a press conference with renowned doctors in suits and a family with a six-year-old daughter who has cerebral palsy.
But that’s what happened today when we held a press conference outside of the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where a public forum was convened to
discuss revelations
we publicized last spring of an HHS-funded study that put premature infants at great risk without fully informing their parents of the dangers.
As we set up our minimal props for the press conference, we were informed that we were on government property and would have to move elsewhere. We briefly debated with the security guards the difference between “government property” and “public property,” but that didn’t go very far. (Side note: Can I pay less in federal taxes now that I know I can’t put up a sign and speak to reporters in front of federal buildings?) The guards went inside, so...
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