Last week there was "tussle" outside of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's office involving a group called Indivisible California.
The group was there sliding Valentine's cards under Rohrabacher's office, trying to get him to agree to a town hall meeting. The Orange County Register reported that a 2-year-old was hit by a door, and 71-year-old was hospitalized:
"A tussle between a staffer at Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s Huntington Beach office and activists on Tuesday resulted in a 2-year-old girl being knocked in the head by a door and the congressman’s 71-year-old district director being taken to a local hospital after falling to the ground."
Indivisible California has a number of groups in different districts. Today we heard from Shayna Charles, Co-Chair of Indivisible California District 39 (Rep. Ed Royce), who told us what the Indivisible movement is all about:
Below is a statement from Indivisible CA District 48 regarding the incident at Dana Rohrabacher's office:
"For the fourth Tuesday in a row, citizens from Orange County’s 48th Congressional District have peacefully, quietly and respectfully attempted to visit the office of Representative Dana Rohrabacher in Huntington Beach, California to request a town hall meeting to express their concerns, only to be ignored by an unresponsive Congressman who forcefully rejects his constituents’ concerns. This time, a toddler was knocked to the ground as a result.
Members of Indivisible OC48, a bi-partisan group of veterans, teachers, students, business owners, mothers, senior citizens and children, have met outside Congressman Rohrabcher’s door every Tuesday for the past four weeks in an attempt to get the Congressman to hear and address their concerns. Beginning in the second week, the door was locked every time, and staff refused to open it to anyone without an appointment (they have also refused to respond to numerous requests for an appointment).
Yesterday, the group gathered as usual, except this time they brought messages in the form of Valentine’s Day cards to slip under the door. The door opens outward from the inside and is monitored by an interior surveillance camera so that the staffers can view anyone outside the door.
The staffers inside must have been aware of the group of people gathered outside – particularly since members of the group were in the process of sliding cards under the door. Yet, without warning or any attempt to check to see if someone was in the way, Congressman Rohrabacher’s staffer abruptly opened the door outward into the waiting group. The door knocked down a little girl who was in the process of slipping a card under the door. She began crying and several members of the group moved towards the door to assure she was ok. At that point, the staffer who had opened the door apparently slipped and fell. She did not appear to have suffered significant injury at the time.
Mike Lisenbery, founder of the Indivisible OC48 group which organized the gathering at Rohrabacher’s office, stated, “We are still completely stunned by our Congressman’s press release this morning using language like “thugs”, “protest-turned-violent”, “assault”, and “mob”. The entire situation was an accident and was captured on video. We’re Congressman Rohrabacher’s constituents, and we just want him to listen to our stories about how the decisions he makes affects us.”
We reject Rohrabacher’s mischaracterization of this unfortunate event. The gatherings at Rohrabacher’s office are the result of a bi-partisan group of concerned citizens all coming together in an attempt to establish peaceful interactions and respectful communication with Representative Rohrabacher. We hope that the Congressman will take time to listen to the people he represents."