PIERCETON, Ind. — Three members of a group in its ninth day of marching from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C., for the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech were arrested on a rural stretch of northern Indiana highway on Wednesday night.
The three protesters were arrested about 6 p.m. Wednesday for blocking traffic while marching together slowing down traffic on U.S. 30, Indiana State Police said. Dispatch centers had received calls about eastbound traffic backed up for up to 7 miles along the four-lane divided highway.
Police caught up with the protesters, who had been previously told of the traffic safety issues they were causing, on U.S. 30 near Kosciusko County Road 900 East. That’s about 75 miles north-northeast of Indianapolis, and halfway between Warsaw and Columbia City.
The group was traveling with eight support vehicles, police said, traveling at the walking speed of the pedestrians. “At different times pedestrians would also walk in the travel portion of the roadway and not on the shoulder,” said a news release from state police Sgt. Ted Bohner.
Two of the people arrested — Frank David “Natty” Sansabaugh, 30, and Tory Lowe, 44, both of Milwaukee — are leaders of the Milwaukee group, according to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Eric Ajala, 20, of Milwaukee, was the third person arrested. All three were preliminarily charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of traffic, and taken to the Kosciusko County Jail in Warsaw.
