Outrage as video shows Capitol Police zip-tying seniors in wheelchairs during protest over Medicaid cuts

WASHINGTON, DC: A shock­ing video of Capi­tol Police zip-tying elder­ly pro­test­ers in wheel­chairs dur­ing a demon­stra­tion against Med­ic­aid cuts has gone viral, ignit­ing a firestorm of crit­i­cism across social media plat­forms.

The protest took place inside a Sen­ate office build­ing, where demon­stra­tors gath­ered in oppo­si­tion to Med­ic­aid reduc­tions pro­posed in Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s sweep­ing leg­isla­tive effort, dubbed “One Big Beau­ti­ful Bill,” report­ed The Dai­ly Beast.

Orga­nized by the pro­gres­sive group Pop­u­lar Democ­ra­cy, the demon­stra­tion was described by mul­ti­ple out­lets as peace­ful, yet end­ed in mass arrests and wide­spread back­lash.

Pro­tes­tors in wheel­chairs arrest­ed by Capi­tol Police

A post shared by activist Aaron Black on X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter) shows a line of dis­abled demon­stra­tors, at least one of them elder­ly, being wheeled out of the Capi­tol build­ing by law enforce­ment offi­cers.

Par­tic­i­pants remained non­vi­o­lent through­out the protest, even as police moved in to make arrests. Pro­tes­tors chant­ed “No cuts to Med­ic­aid,” and briefly unfurled a ban­ner read­ing “DON’T KILL US” before it was quick­ly tak­en down by police, accord­ing to Scripps News.

Capi­tol Police lat­er con­firmed that 33 indi­vid­u­als were arrest­ed for protest­ing inside the con­gres­sion­al build­ing, which is pro­hib­it­ed under Capi­tol reg­u­la­tions. An addi­tion­al per­son was arrest­ed for cross­ing a police line out­side the build­ing.

It should be not­ed that there are oth­er places on Capi­tol Grounds where peo­ple can law­ful­ly demon­strate with­out issue,” the depart­ment said in a state­ment.

Out­rage as police zip-tie elder­ly pro­test­ers in wheel­chairs dur­ing Capi­tol demon­stra­tion

One wrote, “Zip ties? How on earth did they think a dis­abled per­son con­fined to a wheel­chair would attack them? Run over their foot?”

Anoth­er said, “They’re haul­ing away wheel­chairs while Repub­li­cans cheer cuts that will leave these Amer­i­cans to die with­out care. This isn’t law enforce­ment, it’s cru­el­ty dressed up as pol­i­cy. If we don’t make our voic­es impos­si­ble to ignore, they’ll slash Med­ic­aid until no one can sur­vive.”

A per­son blunt­ly expressed, “This is BARBARIC!!!” where­as some­one else added, “Can you imag­ine being elder­ly and dis­abled, show­ing up for your­self and your com­mu­ni­ty only to be zip­tied and arrest­ed! This is on any­one who votes in favor of trumps dis­gust­ing dis­crim­i­na­to­ry bill!”

Where the hell do we live?! Amer­i­cans in wheel­chairs are being ARRESTED at the Capitol—for dar­ing to demand health­care and fight for Med­ic­aid. This is what a dying democ­ra­cy looks like: cru­el­ty for the poor, hand­cuffs for the dis­abled. Shame on every damn one of them,” one more lament­ed. 

Med­ic­aid cuts in Don­ald Trump’s sig­na­ture bill spark uproar

The protest tar­get­ed con­tro­ver­sial pro­vi­sions in Don­ald Trump’s “One Big Beau­ti­ful Bill,” which cleared the House last month by a sin­gle vote and is now before the Sen­ate. The leg­is­la­tion pro­pos­es sig­nif­i­cant roll­backs to Med­ic­aid, includ­ing work require­ments for cer­tain able-bod­ied adults and new co-pays for those just above the pover­ty line.

Accord­ing to The Wash­ing­ton Post, the Sen­ate ver­sion of the bill would go even fur­ther, cut­ting fed­er­al fund­ing for states that expand­ed Med­ic­aid under the Afford­able Care Act (Oba­macare).

These pro­vi­sions have trig­gered fierce push­back from health­care advo­cates, pro­gres­sive law­mak­ers, and grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions alike.

While the House nar­row­ly approved the bill, it now faces a more com­pli­cat­ed path in the Sen­ate, where Repub­li­cans are strug­gling to reach con­sen­sus on its broad and con­tro­ver­sial scope.

The arrest of vis­i­bly dis­abled demon­stra­tors has only added fuel to the fire, inten­si­fy­ing pub­lic scruti­ny and poten­tial­ly influ­enc­ing the bill’s tra­jec­to­ry.