Free speech, but not helpful

Man With Pro-Life Anti-Obama Sign Pulled Over, Faces Police, Secret Service

Enid, OK (LifeNews.com) -- An Oklahoma man with a homemade sign on his vehicle was pulled over and harassed by police for allegedly making a threat against the president. Chip Harrison said he was driving to work when a police officer followed him for several miles and eventually signaled him to pull over.

The officer mistook the sign, which read "Abort Obama, not the unborn," as threatening.

"I pulled over, knowing I hadn't done anything wrong," Harrison told the McClatchy-Tribune news service in a interview.

"It's not meant to be a threat, it's a statement about abortion," Harrison said, saying he disagrees with Obama. "I asked the officer, 'Do you know what abort means?' He said, 'Yeah, it means to kill.' I said, 'No, it means to remove or terminate.'"

The officers confiscated the sign and gave him a slip of paper saying he would be subjected to an investigation...

Clearly the authorities overreacted here. I don't think any reasonable person would interpret an "Abort Obama, not the unborn" bumper sticker as a credible threat to the President.

Mr. Harrison has his right to free speech, but I wish he (and anyone else considering it) would think twice before using language such as "Abort Obama." Over-the-top messages like that only feed into the Left's stereotypes that portray Pro-Lifers as unhinged kooks.

That said, I don't recall hearing about the creators of these works of art being harassed by police or secret service...









Just saying.