Ben Cohen, co-founder of popular American ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, was arrested Thursday outside the Department of Justice while protesting in support of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange.
Cohen had shared in atweeton Wednesday that he planned to “protest the criminalization of the free press and the prosecution” of Assange, acknowledging that the move would “risk arrest.”
In May 2019, the U.S. charged Assange with 17 counts under the Espionage Act. He is currently fighting extradition in a high-security prison in southeast London, where he’s been since 2019.
On Thursday, Cohen protested the charges against Assange alongside Jodie Evans, the co-founder of social justice organization CODEPINK.
Infootage of the protestshared to social media, Cohen can be seen lighting a “Freedom of the Press” sign on fire as he said: “Freedom of the press is going up in smoke.”
Later, Cohen returned to Twitter to share that the two had been released from custody.
“Jodie and I have been released from police custody after being held for ~3hrs. It’s time for @POTUS to follow thru with his promise,” Cohen wrote. “Journalism is NOT a crime.”
Cohen added the hashtags, #Dropthecharges and #FreeAssange.
Cohen and his co-founder Jerry Greenfield has along history of activism, which they have expressed both through their personal actions as well as their company’s ice cream flavors.
Their 2019 flavor Justice Remix’d was dedicated to criminal justice reform and in 2018, the company announced the flavorPecan Resist, aimed at resisting the “regressive and discriminatory policies” of former PresidentDonald Trump’s administration.
Other past socially conscious Ben & Jerry’s flavors include Save Our Swirled, aimed at bringing attention to climate change, and I Dough, I Dough, renamed in celebration of the legalization of same-sex marriage.
source: people.com
