Raleigh Police: No Charges for Man Who Brandished Firearm at Anti-Abortion Demonstrators
Raleigh Police: No Charges for Man Who Brandished Firearm at Anti-Abortion Demonstrators
Twice is coincidence
The Raleigh Police will not be filing charges against a man who reportedly brandished a firearm at a member of an anti-abortion church group who was preaching outside a Raleigh abortion clinic, according to a response to an inquiry by This Week in the Triangle.
The weekly protest organized by Reformation Baptist Church1 outside "A Preferred Women’s Health Center" on Jones-Franklin Road in West Raleigh, which frequently includes families, usually only attracts verbal responses, obscene gestures, and the occasional car horn as they preach, pray, hold signs with bible-verses and anti-abortion messages, and engage with the clinic's clientele.
However, this isn't the first time the Raleigh Police have declined to prosecute a serious threat against them; in 2022 a driver escaped scot-free after driving off the road and nearly striking these protesters.
The Incident
On August 31st, after JeQuan Underwood called out to a man across the abortion clinic's parking lot asking if he was at the facility to "murder his child", he observed the man respond by drawing a handgun and dangling it by the trigger guard in his direction in a menacing gesture.
Underwood describes the gun-waving man as Hispanic, wearing a black t-shirt, black shorts, and white shoes.
Although none of the body-cameras carried by the group were oriented in the direction of the incident, they did capture Underwood's reactive exclamation: "Are you brandishing your weapon at me, sir?"
"He actually pulled out a gun?" asked another demonstrator.
"Yeah, he [held] it up, he brandished it," said Underwood.
Raleigh Police arrived approximately ten minutes after the incident, and took Underwood's statement. However, they told him that there was "nothing [they] can do charge-wise", as they didn't find a firearm when they searched him.
"I was able to pat him down, he didn't have any weapons on him," one of the responding police officers told Underwood. "So, if he does, he put it somewhere else."
However, Underwood later expressed his skepticism of the officer's thoroughness to his fellow protesters: "I watched it, it wasn't really a pat down".
The police spokesman declined to answer any specific questions, including whether the police had done any investigation beyond taking the report such as obtaining video captured by the clinic (as indicated by a "Security Cameras In Use" sign visible behind the police as they spoke with the protesters).
Instead, the police provided a simple response: "the incident was investigated, and no charges were filed", which is nearly word-for-word what they had to say two years ago when a car veered off the road, causing one of the protesters from this group to jump out of the way to avoid being hit, only turning back just before reaching the clinic driveway.
Despite having the vehicle's license plate number, the physical evidence of the tire marks in the grass and scrape marks on the edge of the pavement, and a number of eyewitnesses, no charges were filed by the Raleigh Police.
A Pro-Abortion City
The City of Raleigh has considered and/or enacted a number of actions with the anti-abortion/pro-life cause in mind.
Last year, for instance, the Raleigh City Council approved a new "anti-harassment" ordinance; although the language of the ordinance is facially neutral, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin specifically cited the "abortion protest" when interviewed by the News & Observer on the proposed change.
The city has also considered attempting "buffer zone" legislation, to prevent demonstrators from exercising their first amendment rights within a certain distance of an abortion clinic, with four of the eight councilmembers expressing support or interest in such rules, according to a 2022 article.
The City of Raleigh also fought a years-long legal battle against "Hand of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center", beginning with a 2016 decision to deny the rezoning it deemed necessary for the organization to provide services out of a property it had acquired next to the abortion clinic on Jones-Franklin Road.
The federal lawsuit filed by the pregnancy support center was not resolved until 2019, when the city agreed to a settlement in which it agreed to pay $25,000 and allow the organization to fully operate at the location, including offering free ultrasounds.
Double Standards
Although both the North Carolina and federal constitutions protect the right to keep and bear arms, North Carolina law forbids citizens from exercising this right while participating in any demonstration that is either "upon any private health care facility" or upon public property.
In 2021, a man was charged under this law after shooting himself in the leg outside another Raleigh abortion clinic where a protest was occurring.
In federal law, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act elevates threats against abortion clinic employees and customers to a federal level; however, the statute does not apply symmetrically to threats against demonstrators who oppose abortion.
DISCLAIMER: I attend this church with everyone who was present at this demonstration, and I have protested with this group in prior years. Also, after the 2022 incident, I donated the bodycams which are now used by these demonstrators.