Attempted Arrest of Insurance Execs Draws Closer

By Devin Dwyer
@devindwyer
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ABC News' Teddy Davis reports: Liberal health reform advocates have encircled Washington's Ritz Carlton Hotel, site of the industry's annual policy conference. Labor organizers and the heads of liberal advocacy groups are now addressing the crowd as they move closer to an attempted "citizen's arrest" "We are here to make a citizen's arrest! Congress you have listened to them long enough. It's time to listen to us," said the head of the liberal USAction group William McNary. McNary then deputized the crowd. Citing increases in insurance premiums, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the crowd at 12:25 pm ET: "Isn't that criminal? And shouldn't they be arrested for it?" "This is the moment," she continued. "We have to … get it now." Upon discussion of arrest, a dozen police officers moved into the Ritz Carlton's driveway. Robert Zirchelbach, the insurance industry's spokesman, tells ABC News that the protestors' ire should be directed at health-care providers. "If they want to cap insurance premiums, they also have to cap hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device-makers." AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka now addressing crowd, speaking out against the "dark titans" of the insurance industry. Developing ….