This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two women who were among dozens of members of grass-roots organizations trying to relay their concerns to Utah's senators about President Donald Trump's agenda and Cabinet nominees were briefly detained — and one was taken to the floor and handcuffed — Tuesday at the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in Salt Lake City.
One of the women, Elaine Glick, of Utah Indivisible, said about 50 people gathered at the downtown building had filed inside the lobby while several members of the group were upstairs meeting with staffers in the offices of Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee.
Due to an apparent misunderstanding, Glick said, everyone thought they had been given permission to go inside. Instead, she said, a Department of Homeland Security officer told them that was not the case.
Glick, 52, a Salt Lake City education specialist in the health care field, said she told the officer the group was there to meet with their representatives, not to protest.
She was getting a little emotional because she felt the group's First Amendment rights were not being respected, Glick said.
"He may have misunderstood that as being confrontational," she said. "He put me on the floor and put the handcuffs on tight."
A Cottonwood Heights woman, Mickey Roos, said she heard Glick say she was exercising her First Amendment rights. She doesn't know what happened right after that but Roos said she saw Glick on the floor in the lobby and an officer cuffing her.
Roos said she demanded that the officers let Glick go and was asked if she wanted to get arrested, too. She told them to arrest her, she says, and was handcuffed.
"I wasn't going to leave her alone in this situation while she was so obviously distraught," Roos said.
Both women were brought upstairs to an office, cited for failure to comply with lawful directions of a law enforcement officer and released. Both say they plan to go to federal court to dispute the citation rather than pay the $280 fine.
The Federal Protective Service, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and provides security at U.S. government buildings, could not be reached Tuesday afternoon for immediate comment.
Joanne Slotnik, a co-founder of the newly formed Salt Lake Indivisible, said members of her group, as well as members of Utah Indivisible and MoveOn.org, were told five of them could go to Lee's office and two could go to Hatch's office, she said.
Slotnik, a retired attorney, said she had talked to security personnel and thought they said the rest of the people could stay in the lobby. However, she said, they told the group to leave when they got inside.
At that point, she said, Glick got upset and told an officer she wanted to talk to her senators. The officer said Glick had to leave but she stood her ground, according to Slotnik.
Then, Slotnik said, she saw Glick on the floor.
"It happened so fast and it was so unexpected," she said.
Pegeen Liston, also of Salt Lake Indivisible, said Glick was obviously emotional but was not doing anything threatening.
"The guy just spun her around and threw her on the ground." Liston said.
Rajeev Balasubramonian said when Glick questioned why she couldn't stay, officers told the group to leave or be arrested.
"Since she [Glick] didn't start backing out, the cop proceeded to arrest her," Balasubramonian said.
According to an Indivisible news release, security personnel claimed the group was "rushing the building" and began confronting the members. Despite those events, the Indivisible groups' representatives had a "productive dialogue" with staff members of the senators, the release says.
Slotnik said the Indivisible groups plans to do Resist Trump Tuesday each week for the first 100 days of the president's term.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC