Who is doing the harassing?

Protests at abortion clinics “have become increasingly divisive and disruptive.” That's what New York City Councilwoman Christine Quinn said a few weeks ago when she started her new effort to train security guards (a.k.a. deathscorts) for abortion clinics around the city. The day this was announced, I was at Dr. Emily's and the deathscorts were in top form.

Myself, some other volunteers, and a few Fordham students (6 of us in total) were getting ready to start a rosary when one of the regular deathscorts came over to our little circle, which covered maybe half of the width of the sidewalk. She walked right up into the personal space of one of the Fordham students and said into his face "Move, you're blocking the sidewalk, I can't get past." There was a good 4 to 5 feet next to him for people to pass by. He calmly replied "No, there is plenty of room for you to get past. I'm not moving." At this point, one of the other volunteers got out his camera to vieo the incident for proof that we were doing nothing wrong. The deathscort continued harassing our companion, saying, "What you're doing is illegal, I cannot get past, you have to move or I will call the police." He said, "Okay, I know what I'm doing is not illegal, so go ahead and call the police." She did, the police came, and the officer said to us "You guys are fine where you are, just make sure you don't block the sidewalk or the driveway, but you aren't, so you're good."

A little while later, I snapped this picture of the other deathscorts, almost in the exact same formation that we were in when we had been "blocking" the sidewalk.