Young pro-lifers jailed, shackled, strip searched for peacefully sharing message
ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND NEWS RELEASE
September 3, 2008 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020 or www.telladf.org/pressroom
PHOTO AVAILABLE FOR MEDIA USE AT www.telladf.org/UserDocs/SwaglerArrest.jpg.
(Caption: “A Maryland state trooper handcuffs Joan Walsh, 18, during the Defend Life event in Bel Air.”)
Young pro-lifers jailed, shackled, strip searched
for peacefully sharing message
ADF attorneys file suit in Md. after state troopers
unconstitutionally silence pro-life advocates along public street
BALTIMORE — Alliance Defense Fund and allied attorneys filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Harford County, the town of Bel Air, and seven police officials on behalf of three young, pro-life women. At least a dozen police officers arrived in more than seven marked vehicles and then arrested, jailed, shackled, and/or strip searched 18 pro-life advocates, including the three women, after they held signs and shared their message along a public street.
“The state shouldn’t persecute Christians for expressing their beliefs on important social issues, nor deny them their constitutional rights,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “This incident paints an ugly picture of the state of religious freedom and free speech in America today.”
“The truth of the matter is that our clients were heckled, arrested, imprisoned, shackled, and strip searched twice for exercising their First Amendment rights,” said ADF-allied attorney Daniel Cox, who is serving as local counsel. “No excuse exists for how our young clients were treated.”
At least 12 police officers handcuffed 18 peaceful participants in Defend Life’s “Face the Truth” Pro-life Tour and denied them a reason for their arrests. They had relocated to Bel Air after being told by officers to move from another location for not having a permit to engage in free speech activities. Three young female participants—including teenagers—were subjected to two rounds of strip searches.
The first search took place in the police station parking lot in front of other males. A female officer pulled out the young ladies’ shirt collars to inspect their breasts before reaching down their pants to feel around their waistlines. The Harford County Detention Center administered the second strip search after the pro-life participants were transferred there. A female officer took the women one by one into a bathroom with a partially open door and ordered them to lift up their shirts and brassieres.
Officials cast the pro-life participants in leg irons, denied them permission to call parents until after midnight, and did not release any of them until the following day. None were informed that attorneys Steve Peroutka and Scott Whiteman had been prohibited from having any contact with them after arriving at the station earlier that night to assist them. On Aug. 12, the state decided not to pursue the false charges against them, which included loitering, disorderly conduct, and failure to obey a lawful order. They were never charged for a permit offense.
The complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, in Swagler v. Harford County is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/SwaglerComplaint.pdf. The Thomas More Society of Chicago and the American Catholic Lawyers Association represent some of the other pro-life participants.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
6 Comments
I am so thankful that ADF is there to make sure the law is upheld and Christians are not harassed. Why are Christians the only group that it is alright to discriminate against? You would think this was a country where Christians have to meet secretly because of fear of being arrested and thrown in jail – which is exactly what happened in Maryland. Thank ADF for it’s wonderful work.
Where are the First Amendment Rights of these people? Now, if they were Pro-Aborts, or “Militant Gays”, the police would have left them alone to protest. I’d like to know who ordered this attack on “free speech” Thank God for ADF.
I am 84 years old!
Iremember reading about the Natzi storm troopers doing the same thing back in Germany in 1939 !! Almost everyone stood by and allowed it to happen and you can see where that went!!!
WAKE UP AMERICA !!!! SPEAK UP AMERICA !!! NO TIME TO SIT BACK AND TAKE THIS !!! THE “SILENT MAJORITY” CAN NO LONGER BE SILENT !!!
THAND GOD FOR THE ADF !!!! ZED DANIELS
Examples such as this is just ANOTHER REASON why the McCain-Palin team should win the election. Both are unapologetically PRO-LIFE, and I feel they would be held as a high example for others to follow.
Barak Obama, on the other hand is at the farthest end of the spectrum of “Pro-choice,” repeatedly voting for abortions, even to the latest term of pregnancy.
I sincerely hope these peaceful demonstrators take legal action, with punitive damages, to the highest court of the land.
If you compare THEM to the ‘rabble-rousers’ at the RNC, this seems to be using UNequal force against a (non)threat! We do have rights to peacefully assemble.
Have you seen the video of a policeman at the Dem. Nat’l Convention rasing a weapon (night-stick or rifle, I couldn’t tell) and giving a young lady an uppercut that threw her to the ground? Her body gestures showed NO THREAT… I could not hear the conversation, but it WAS ONLY WORDS..not a physical threat from the young lady. That, too, should be punished to whatever extent is possible.
The protesters at the DNC DID NOT break windows, set fire to garbage dumpsters, or cause damages such as the ‘rabble-rousers’ (and I really wonder if they might have been ‘hired-hands’) did at the Republican Nat’l Convention! There, they were destructive, and didn’t seem to be recipients of such force as was used against the young lady who was only speaking to the policeman who gave her the sudden attack with whatever he had in his hands.
Why the difference in the way the two crowds of protestors ACTED,
and the way THEY WERE TREATED? Why a body search of peaceful demonstrators?
This is just the beginning my friends. The persecution of the Body of Christ is taking place on American soil. However, it’s only in time of great persecution that the gospel has spread! We must be prepared because it is only going to get worse. I am indeed grateful that the Lord has raised up godly men and women such as those in the ADF. May God continue to bless their efforts and may they remain faithful to the calling. Keep praying for the work of ADF; keep praying for our nation and most importantly that the Body of Christ would not be afraid to continue to boldly proclaim the Truth in love, no matter the cost. This is indeed a spiritual battle so prayer is one of our most powerful weapons. Soli Deo Gloria!
Agree with Zed. This is distinctly stormtrooperish behavior.
-EW
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