Anti-abortion group sues Detroit, says free speech rights violated by police
An anti-abortion group is suing the city of Detroit, claiming police violated their free speech rights during the Democratic presidential debates in July.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, the group, Created Equal, alleges police imposed “speech restrictions” near the Fox Theatre downtown.
“From the moment we arrived, Detroit Police harassed and mistreated us,” Mark Harrington, Created Equal's founder and president, said in a statement. “We were silenced by police several times over the course of the two days for attempting to express our free speech rights.”
The group is known for protesting with enormous images of aborted fetuses. Police forbid protests in front of the Fox Theatre and created a small “free speech area” on both sides of Woodward near Grand Circus Park. On July 30, Metro Times spotted officers segregating protest groups by political affiliation.
Read more: https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2019/09/19/anti-abortion-group-sues-detroit-says-free-speech-rights-violated-by-police
(Detroit Metro Times)