Richard A. Sokerka
Earlier this summer, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) of the District of Columbia ordered part of 16th Street, near the White House, painted with the slogan “Black Lives Matter” during the mass anti-racism protests in Washington, D.C. Protesters also painted “Defund the Police” on the same street as an addition to Bowser’s message with no pushback from her.
However, earlier this month when Students for Life of America (SFLA) attempted to write a pro-life message using chalk on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington, D.C., police made arrests. The pro-lifers were among those attending a planned demonstration that had permits to protest. It was co-hosted by SFLA and the Frederick Douglass Foundation to draw attention to the high rate of abortions in the African-American community.
In a video released by the SFLA, as two protesters were writing “Pre-born Black Lives Matter” with chalk on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood, a police officer tells them, “if you continue chalking, you’re going to be placed under arrest.” They continued writing and police officers placed them in handcuffs.
According to SFLA, the arrests came after assurances had been given to the group by Metropolitan Police that sidewalk painting would not be stopped during a permitted protest.
Kristen Hawkins, SFLA president, said her group had applied for and received from police a permit to hold an assembly outside the clinic, and said the group was told protestors “would not be prevented from painting” by police. Days before the demonstration, police officials told Tina Whittington, executive vice president of SFLA, that “a ‘Pandora’s box’ had been opened regarding painting,” and that the group would not be stopped from painting during their demonstration, but that they should use a paint that would wash away quickly, Hawkins said.
Despite those assurances, when members of the group arrived outside the Planned Parenthood clinic, police there told them they could not write any message, Hawkins said.
A spokesperson for the police department said that “to our knowledge” the Students for Life group had not obtained permits to write messages on the streets and sidewalks outside the clinic. Police cited a city statute that makes it “unlawful” to “write, mark, draw, or paint” on public property without explicit permission.
However, Hawkins said that in a letter she had written to the mayor on July 20, she asked for permission to paint “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on the street in front of Planned Parenthood. She stated in her letter to the mayor that it would be unlawful “viewpoint discrimination” if the D.C. government painted a street with a message, and then allowed protesters to paint another message while prohibiting pro-lifers from painting their own street message.
“If you open the door to free speech on the city streets to one group,” Hawkins wrote to the mayor, “you can’t shut it to others.”
Hawkins was spot on in her letter. Unfortunately, it is obvious that the mayor chose duplicity over democracy, protecting Planned Parenthood as her party is want to do, while denying pro-life protestors their rights under the First Amendment.