HEAVY-HANDED

72-Year-Old Black Activist With Disability Is Cuffed for Protesting Confederate Statue

Ben Frazier and another elderly activist were dragged into a police cruiser and put in jail.

A Black president of a local Jacksonville coalition, who uses a mobility scooter, was arrested Tuesday night while protesting for the removal of the Florida city’s remaining Confederate statues. Following a rally at a nearby park, protesters walked to city hall where they proceeded to chant during the public comment section of a city council meeting. “Hey, hey, ho, ho...these racist statues have got to go,” Northside Coalition of Jacksonville President Ben Frazier said, addressing the council. But after his allotted time had passed, several sheriff’s department officers dragged the 72-year-old to the back of a police cruiser, alongside elderly activist Bob Rutter. “City Council President Terrence Freeman asked Mr. Frazier be escorted out of the meeting,” Frazier’s attorney, John Phillips, said in a statement, noting Frazier had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis. “Instead, he was arrested and taken to jail without his [American Disability Act] assistance devices.” Frazier was scheduled to be released from jail Wednesday, with a judge advising that the state drop the case.