ACTIVIST GROUP FLOODS VETERANS CRISIS LINE WITH PROTEST CALLS
September 19, 2022 ·Matt White
1776 Restoration Movement floods VA Veterans Crisis Line
An unidentified member of the 1776 Restoration Movement called on followers to flood the phone line of the VA’s Veterans Crisis Line with protest calls. Screenshot from 1776RM livestream video.
As a Jan. 6 activist group encouraged its followers to flood the national Veterans Crisis Line — or 988 — to “let them know” the group’s political views, one veteran on the other side of the country came within minutes of completing suicide when she was unable to reach help in a desperate moment.
The call for prank phone calls came from a group calling itself the 1776 Restoration Movement, during a live webstream of the group’s Monday, Sept. 19, protest in Washington, DC. The group refers to those facing Jan. 6-related charges as “political prisoners” and to the jails some are in as the “DC Gulag.”
Christine, an Army veteran in Oregon who asked to be identified only by her first name, told Coffee or Die Magazine that she was unable to get through to the crisis line despite calling “four or five” times during the group’s webcast. She had been experiencing a mental health crisis over the weekend that had kept her from sleeping, she said, and felt that “the only thing I have left is the crisis line.”
https://www.coffeeordie.com/activists-flood-veterans-suicide-line-for-stunt
