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Anti-Abortion Groups Weren't Allowed To Paint 'Black Pre-Born Lives Matter' On A D.C. Street. ...
NOV 18, 8:32 PM
Anti-Abortion Groups Weren’t Allowed To Paint ‘Black Pre-Born Lives Matter’ On A D.C. Street. Now, They’re Suing.
Margaret Barthel https://twitter.com/margaretbarthel
The anti-abortion groups Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America have filed suit against the District in federal court. The issue? Following the District’s decision to paint the message “Black Lives Matter” on 16th St NW in June, the groups say they were denied the right to paint an anti-abortion slogan on another D.C. street. They say that’s unfair.
The groups wanted to paint “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on the street outside of Planned Parenthood’s Carole Whitehill Moses Center, on 4th St NE. They were not granted explicit permission by the District to do so. But the suit claims the groups were given verbal permission by a Metropolitan Police Department officer, who told them “that the Mayor had ‘opened Pandora’s Box’ and therefore the police officer would not be able to stop the attendees from painting their similar “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” mural on the public street,” according to the lawsuit.
But when the anti-abortion activists showed up on Aug. 1 for a rally and to paint or chalk their message in the street, MPD officers told them they’d be arrested for even chalking the message. Two members of Students for Life of America chalked anyway and were arrested.
The suit claims the District improperly used its laws against defacement of public property “as a tool to silence disfavored speech.” ... “The city shouldn’t be able to silence and punish us for expressing ideas that it doesn’t agree with,” said Frederick Douglass Foundation Virginia Chapter President J.R. Gurley, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, in a press release. “Government officials can’t discriminate against peaceful displays on the basis of our beliefs about abortion when they have allowed other groups the same avenues to express their beliefs. If the mayor allows other messages to be painted and chalked, we should be able to express our views in the same manner without fear of unjust government punishment.”
{snip}
Anti-Abortion Groups Weren’t Allowed To Paint ‘Black Pre-Born Lives Matter’ On A D.C. Street. Now, They’re Suing.
Margaret Barthel https://twitter.com/margaretbarthel
The anti-abortion groups Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America have filed suit against the District in federal court. The issue? Following the District’s decision to paint the message “Black Lives Matter” on 16th St NW in June, the groups say they were denied the right to paint an anti-abortion slogan on another D.C. street. They say that’s unfair.
The groups wanted to paint “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on the street outside of Planned Parenthood’s Carole Whitehill Moses Center, on 4th St NE. They were not granted explicit permission by the District to do so. But the suit claims the groups were given verbal permission by a Metropolitan Police Department officer, who told them “that the Mayor had ‘opened Pandora’s Box’ and therefore the police officer would not be able to stop the attendees from painting their similar “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” mural on the public street,” according to the lawsuit.
But when the anti-abortion activists showed up on Aug. 1 for a rally and to paint or chalk their message in the street, MPD officers told them they’d be arrested for even chalking the message. Two members of Students for Life of America chalked anyway and were arrested.
The suit claims the District improperly used its laws against defacement of public property “as a tool to silence disfavored speech.” ... “The city shouldn’t be able to silence and punish us for expressing ideas that it doesn’t agree with,” said Frederick Douglass Foundation Virginia Chapter President J.R. Gurley, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, in a press release. “Government officials can’t discriminate against peaceful displays on the basis of our beliefs about abortion when they have allowed other groups the same avenues to express their beliefs. If the mayor allows other messages to be painted and chalked, we should be able to express our views in the same manner without fear of unjust government punishment.”
{snip}