PROVIDENCE -- Two Christian law organizations are suing the Cranston Police Department for confiscating antiabortion protesters' signs depicting aborted fetuses.
The suit alleges that the police violated the constitutional rights of Joseph M. Manning, 71, of Narragansett, and Barbara A. Burgess, 69, of Warwick, who were protesting on Sept. 28 outside the Women's Medical Center of Rhode Island, 1725 Broad St. The suit is filed on their behalf.
Manning was wearing, in sandwich-board fashion, two 3-by-5-foot signs with color pictures of aborted fetuses. There were similar signs leaning against a nearby utility pole and on Manning's pickup truck, parked across the street from the clinic.
One sign showed a picture of a third-trimester, aborted female's head, bloodied, held with forceps.
Burgess joined him, but did not have any signs.
The suit, filed Nov. 5 in U.S. District Court, says the police prevented Manning and Burgess "from engaging in pro-life Christian expression that their religion compels them to publicly display . . . "
The police approached the protesters because several neighbors and passing motorists had complained about the signs, according to a police report.
Maj. Stephen McGrath, the department's second in command, said the department could not comment and referred all questions to the city solicitor. Acting City Solicitor Patrick J. Quinlan could not be reached for comment.
THE PROTESTERS are seeking a declaration from the court that their rights were violated, unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and a permanent injunction prohibiting the police from interfering with their constitutional rights in the future.
Manning and Burgess claim their rights to freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, free association and assembly, and protection from unreasonable seizures were violated.
They also claim that the city failed to adequately train and supervise its police officers.
The 25-page suit was filed with the assistance of the American Catholic Lawyers Association Inc., of New Jersey, and the Thomas More Law Center, of Michigan.
According to a news release announcing the lawsuit, the Thomas More Law Center says it "defends the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values and the sanctity of human life through litigation, education and related activities."
The defendants are: the city, Police Chief Michael Chalek, Sgt. Russell C. Henry Jr., and Officers Lee P. Podedworney Jr. and Jean Paul Slaughter.
THE POLICE first came to the clinic after receiving a call at 8 a.m. from a neighbor who said she was awakened by one of the protesters "yelling at the top of his lungs at clients," according to the police report.
Shortly after the call, the police received complaints from two motorists who drove by the clinic and were "offended by the signs due to their graphic nature and realism," the police report says.
Several neighbors on Grand Avenue and Betsy Williams Drive then called the police at 10:30 a.m. because they "were concerned of the effect the pictures would have on children," the report says. They were also "concerned that young children were being forced to view these pictures and that the parents in effect had no say in what their children were seeing."
These complaints were not the first the police had. According to the lawsuit, Manning and Burgess had been protesting at the site three other Saturdays in the prior two months and that during those times the police "harassed" them because of the content on the signs.
After the police talked to the complainants, Sgt. Henry joined the other officers at the clinic and asked Manning to "either cover or put away these offensive posters or they were going to be confiscated," Henry wrote in his report.
HENRY SAID in his report that he asked for the signs to be covered, and threatened their confiscation, for several reasons including:
"The patently offensive nature of the posters that affronts the current community standards of decency."
The posters were being displayed in "a densely populated residential area."
Broad Street is a heavily traveled roadway, usually congested, causing "motorists to be subjected to viewing the photos for extended periods of time."
Members of the general public not using the facility have to see the posters.
Children playing in their own yards on Betsy Williams Drive are being shown the posters.
"The extreme size of the photos that causes them to be seen from great distances."
The protesters' "failure to exercise reasonable discretion" in displaying the signs to minors.
According to Henry's report, Manning "refused to cover or put away" the signs, so they were confiscated. "At no time was he told to stop demonstrating."
The lawsuit says that Manning removed the signs he was wearing "out of fear of being arrested." Those signs and the signs on the utility pole and his truck were taken "without his consent, without probable cause and without a warrant," the complaint says.
Burgess, who did not have any signs, says in the lawsuit that the police stopped her from witnessing the interaction between them and Manning.
Manning and Burgess were never taken into custody or charged with any crime.
On Oct. 4, the lawsuit says, Chief Chalek called Burgess saying that the three officers "made a 'terrible mistake,' that they had no right to take the aborted baby signs and that the signs may be picked up."
The lawsuit claims that Manning and Burgess "suffered fear, humiliation, degradation, embarrassment and emotional pain and suffering and are entitled to damages."
