Earlier in the week, I wrote about the Petraeus hearing Monday when a couple of anti-war protesters got arrested. One of them, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, was tackled by the police. Yearwood now claims it was because police wouldn’t let him enter the hearing room wearing his “I love the people of Iraq” button. I’m not 100% here, but I’m pretty certain that’s a lie. For one thing, many protesters in line were wearing anti-war regalia, and based on what we all saw on C-Span they had no trouble getting seats. According to the Washington Post, he was arrested for trying to cut in line. I was about five feet away when it happened — my article has a photo of his arrest — and I do know for certain he was arrested at the front of the line just outside the rope that demarcated the line. The cops tried to reason with him for quite a while before things got belligerent. Believe me, the last thing Capitol Police wants to do is tackle people wearing clerical collars in front of TV crews.

UPDATE: There’s Youtube video of Yearwood’s arrest. Cops are quite clear about him cutting in line and gave him ample opportunity to walk away.