BIRMINGHAM, AL – Christian
Newswire – The Life Legal Defense Foundation has filed a lawsuit
against the City of Birmingham and several Birmingham police officers for the
outrageous civil rights violations perpetrated against nine young people who
were unlawfully arrested in February last year. The team of pro-life activists
spent more than 14 hours in jail for simply holding signs and handing out
literature on a public sidewalk in front of a local high school.
The lawsuit, filed in conjunction
with local attorney Phillip Jauregui, seeks redress for the unlawful actions of
Birmingham police officers in prohibiting peaceful free speech activity on the
public sidewalk adjacent to Parker High School. The plaintiffs, members of the
pro-life activist youth group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, were
attempting to communicate the truth about abortion to students as they left the
campus at the end of the school day. The officers told the group that the
sidewalk was not a public sidewalk for them, and insisted that that they had to
go across the street away from the students to hold their signs and hand out
literature. When the Survivors refused to be bullied away from their
audience, the police arrested all nine of the activists, including those who
were only filming the unlawful actions of the police. The police also
confiscated the group’s camera equipment, destroying some of the video coverage
of the event, and towed their van, resulting in damage to the entire rear
sensor system.
The Survivors plan to return to Birmingham
this summer to participate in a series of pro-life demonstrations on the public
sidewalks adjacent to public schools in and around the city. In addition
to the complaint that was filed, the Survivors are seeking a preliminary
injunction that would prevent the City and the Birmingham Police Department
from unlawfully arresting the group members for peacefully exercising their
free speech rights on the public sidewalks in Birmingham when they return this
summer. A hearing date for the motion will be set later this week.
“The animosity the police
displayed toward these peaceful young people and their message was truly
chilling,” noted LLDF Legal Director Katie Short, “and the City
itself is continuing to press frivolous trespass charges against them. The City
has only itself to blame that this lawsuit is necessary to vindicate the
Survivors’ right to express their pro-life views on a public sidewalk.”
Life Legal Defense Foundation is a non-profit
organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens, committed to
giving helpless and innocent human beings of any age, and their advocates, a
trained and committed voice in the courtrooms of our nation. For more
information call Allison K. Aranda at 951-541-9327.
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