Christian Evangelist Passing Out ‘Anti-Abortion’ Literature Arrested At Arts Festival
A Christian evangelist who was handing out anti-abortion literature at an arts festival was arrested this weekend for ‘criminal trespassing,’ despite the event being open to the public and held in a public park.
Mike Gulley, an abortion abolitionist, held anti-abortion signs, distributed literature, and engaged passersby in conversation about the gospel and the scourge of abortion for over an hour at the Rebel Arts Festival in Potawatomi Park, South Bend, Indiana, before organizers confronted him and asked him to leave.
Gulley and fellow proselytizers remained unmoved until multiple law enforcement officers approached him and issued a stern warning – relocate to the other side of the road or risk being arrested for trespassing. Sensing the seriousness of the officers’ tone and seeming eagerness to carry out their threats, Gulley complied under duress and the threat of arrest, migrating to the park’s perimeter while continuing his advocacy efforts.
The situation escalated when Gulley asked the officer to specify the ordinance number he was supposedly violating, given the nature of the event and his right to free speech. Rather than providing an answer or attempting to de-escalate the situation, the officer handcuffed him and arrested, citing ‘resistance to a lawful order’ as the cause for his detainment.
Upon being transported to the police station where he was booked, Gulley was not charged with ‘resisting arrest’ as initially stated but rather with ‘criminal trespass.’
To aid in his legal defense, Gulley has started a GiveSendGo campaign to raise funds to hire a lawyer.
Further demonstrating one of the police officers has a tenuous grasp of the law, after an onlooker called him a ‘tyrant,’ the officer shouted back, “I believe you’re provoking a public official, and you can’t do that.” Calling a law enforcement officer mean names or even cussing them out is protected speech, however, and anyone most definitely can do it, despite his insistence to the contrary.
For a longer cuts of the video, visit Brent Buckley Operation Save Indiana‘s channel.
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Welcome to the Soviet Union, circa 1964, comrades.
That’s hate speech.
To the gulag !