Audioslave's Tom Morello Arrested At Los Angeles Protest

Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello was arrested and charged with unlawful assembly during a march in Los Angeles to raise awareness for immigrant hotel workers' rights on Thursday evening.

Morello was one of approximately 400 protesters arrested for refusing to leave Century Boulevard, the main road leading to the Los Angeles International Airport. Morello and the others had anticipated being arrested, and had even given the Los Angeles Police Department their drivers license numbers days before the event to make processing go faster.

About 2,000 people took part in the protest. Those willing to be arrested — including several community and religious leaders and more than 100 students bused in from surrounding colleges — wore yellow signs to distinguish themselves. Those arrested were put in buses and sent to three police precincts, where they were expected to spend up to 24 hours in custody.

The protesters sat in the street chanting "Si, se puede" (Spanish for "Yes, we can"), since most of the area's immigrant hotel workers are Latino."I think all the working people on the streets, even the police, have much more in common with each other than the people who own these hotels and are ripping off their workers," Morello told MTV News.

"These hotel workers by the airport make 20 per cent less wages than hotel workers around the rest of Los Angeles. We're here to express our solidarity with them, to help them unionize and to help them close the gap between their sub-poverty wages and the millions and millions of dollars the people who own these hotels make."

Morello, under his Nightwatchman alias, performed a song about protests at the rally. Ben Harper played three songs and took part in the march, but wasn't arrested.