Why Protesters Played Dead Outside the White House

By Erin Dooley September 23, 2014

Five demonstrators today shut down a checkpoint at the White House, days after an intruder scaled a fence.

One man held up a sign that read: "THERE IS NO MILITARY SOLUTION." Four others played dead on the sidewalk in front of the northwest checkpoint along Pennsylvania Avenue.

An organizer told ABC News that the man holding the sign is Father John Dear of the group Campaign Nonviolence.

More than a dozen Secret Service officers arrived to remove the protestors, who did not resist arrest.

"When will we realize war is the worst thing we can possibly do?" one protester yelled. Others sang in honor of the victims of drone attacks.

"We're standing for the victims, we shall not be moved," they chanted.

The protest organizer, Campaign Nonviolence, describes itself as a group "committed to nonviolent social change … representatives of organizations that normally do not have a voice and have little influence in the places of power in Washington DC," and outlined a series of "demands" in a letter apparently sent to President Obama and posted on Twitter: 1."end all drone warfare," 2. "establish a living wage," and 3. "initiate and work for an international treaty for swift verifiable action to reverse climate change."

"We have the audacity to hope that you or a senior representatives will meet with us on Tuesday September 23, 2014," the group said in the letter.

ABC's Kirsten Appleton and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.