MichaelMoore.com

Anti-war activists occupy Senator's Grand Rapids office

By Phil Dawson and Christa Graban

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Instead of sending more troops, some protesters in Grand Rapids think President Obama should bring U.S. forces home from Afghanistan.

"Sending more troops is immoral, illegal and it's not going to result in anything but more deaths," says anti-war activist Jeff Smith.

Tuesday evening, protesters held a demonstration outside the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building. Inside the building, a pair of anti-war activists occupied the office of U.S. Senator Carl Levin and refused to leave when the office closed at 5:30 p.m.

"An officer came in and asked us if we would leave and we refused," says demonstrator Tom Henry. "At which point he told us to stand up and they put handcuffs of us and escorted us out."

Including the two men police had to remove from the senator's office, there were about a dozen anti-war activists at the demonstration.

"I think this is how movements get started; by one person or two people taking actions that get people thinking," says Smith.

"Hopefully what comes of this is a little bit of consciousness-raising about what is going on in Afghanistan," says Henry.

The demonstrators say they represent the majority of Americans who do not support the war in Afghanistan.