INDReporter

Activists stage ‘die-in’ outside Higgins’ office

by Walter Pierce

And after a Chase Tower rep attempted to bar them, members of Indivisible Acadiana were able to go to the congressman’s eighth-floor office and fill out constituent cards. Higgins was not in town at the time. (With videos)

Photo by Robin May

About 20 members of the progressive activist group Indivisible Acadiana, most of them funereally clad in black and carrying tombstones and other death paraphernalia, staged a “die-in” on Jefferson Street at the foot of Chase Tower Thursday to protest Congressman Clay Higgins’ vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Higgins’ Lafayette congressional office is on the eighth floor of the building.

After a roughly 45-minute demonstration on Jefferson Street during which they occasionally shouted "Shame! Shame!," several members of the group headed into the building to ride an elevator up to Higgins office to fill out constituent cards letting the freshman Republican congressman know how they feel about his ACA vote. But exercising their rights as constituents was almost derailed, in part by complaints by a businessman inside Chase Tower who seemed more put off by his proximity to liberals than by the “disruption” he accused them of making. (The group was orderly and quiet throughout.) A building employee attempted to bar the Indivisible members from boarding the elevator, but ultimately relented, allowing the group to visit their congressman’s office. Higgin’s was out of town at the time.

Read more about Indivisible Acadiana in the final print cover story of The Independent — “Divided We Fall.”