Some protests are more protected than others.
For instance, you can trash a city, burn down blocks of it, including a police precinct, occupy government buildings, trap innocents behind closed doors as you consider taking ransoms, and everything’s cool. You might be able to sue the city and get millions if the police try to stop you. At the very least, you can get all the right politicians and the entire public health establishment to applaud your bravery and commitment to racial justice.
But if you sing gospel songs outside an abortion clinic? Prepare to go to jail for up to 11 years.
The system of justice isn’t being weaponized. Not at all.
The protest.
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) January 30, 2024
First things first: these protesters violated a law, and as with all people engaged in civil disobedience, they should expect the law to come for them. I disagree with the law and oppose abortion as well, but I do not argue with the concept that they should get prosecuted. The Civil Rights protesters understood this, and so did these protesters. Their cause is just, and they are willing to sacrifice for it.
Martin Luther King succeeded in pressing his cause because the injustice of his punishment was clear. And in his case, the punishments were relatively light. Like these abortion protesters, his movement was nonviolent.
Would that the George Floyd protests had been. Instead, they were “fiery but mostly peaceful,” and we all know what that means.
In this case, protesters who merely prayed and sang in a hallway are now convicted of felonies and facing over a decade in prison. Martin Luther King Jr. served eight days in jail when he wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Eight days. This is insane.
NASHVILLE — Six pro-lifers were found guilty on Tuesday after the Biden administration charged them over a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021. They face up to 11 years in prison.
The pro-life activists were accused by the Department of Justice of violating the FACE Act and civil rights conspiracy for a protest that took place in a hallway outside of a Mount Juliet abortion provider on March 5, 2021. On that day, a group of demonstrators gathered on the second floor of an office building in the hallway outside the Carafem Health Center Clinic. The group prayed, sang hymns, and urged women showing up to the clinic to not get abortions.
My city and many others suffered billions of dollars in damages in the George Floyd riots. People died. City centers were occupied. Businesses were looted. Tens of thousands lived in fear. The crime wave that began then has yet to abate.
Almost nobody was arrested. Protesters are getting paid by cities in settlements, for God’s sake! This is happening around the country:
Seattle Settles Case With Black Lives Matter Demonstrators, Agrees to Pay $10M https://t.co/pv5hrrlHLT
— THEHUB.NEWS (@thehub_news) January 27, 2024
This scene is about a mile and a half from where I live. We couldn’t drive on that street for weeks, and the police precinct was surrounded by barbed wire for longer than that.
Yet the Biden administration is prosecuting people for singing and praying. Felonies.
They engaged in a “conspiracy,” as if BLM and Antifa aren’t conspiracies to destroy our cities and our civilization.
The conspiracy charge can be punished with up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000 while the FACE Act charge can lead to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The Biden administration has accused parents who object to pornography in the schools of being terrorists, Catholics of being extremists, and is on a rampage to imprison people with whom they disagree. Our borders are open to murderers and pedophiles.
You can burn down a city, and if you claim you are doing it for “Black lives,” it is vital for public health. You should get paid by the government if you got hurt while you threw rocks at cops, destroyed property, and looted stores. You can waltz across the southern border and the government will rain money down on you.
Whatever you do, though, don’t pray in the wrong place or you can get thrown in the clink for years.
We live in insane times. And chances are pretty good that Biden might get another term unless we work day and night to prevent it.