Almere Police violate Freedom of Speech of Pro-Lifers
A group of young volunteers from Civitas Christiana are traveling around several Dutch cities this month with their TFP Student Action Europe pro-life campaign to defend the right to life of unborn children publicly.
Traveling across the country
The media tries to portray the pro-life issue as a losing battle. What we see on the streets proves the opposite. More and more people are becoming convinced that pro-abortion politics are endangering the future of our country and all of Europe. In the past two days, we have been in city centers and universities in Arnhem, Nijmegen, Wageningen, and Amersfoort. Until then, everything was going well, until we got to Almere.
Read also: TFP Caravan warns: “With Abortion, Europe will fade Away!”
Good Start
In Almere, the start of the campaign initially went smoothly. Our volunteers ran a beautiful and dynamic campaign. Besides leaflets handed out to passers-by, we have a large standard with the TFP logo and a small brass band with bagpipes, trumpets, and drums. This always attracts a lot of attention and helps us engage in conversation with passers-by. The public greatly appreciates the beauty of the demonstration, taking photos, selfies, and sometimes applauding.
Abortion is a Grave Sin
We had many lively but friendly debates. With God's help, we managed to convince many people of the immorality of abortion. We also highlighted the impact that killing unborn children has on society and the woman herself. But above all, we proclaimed the message that abortion is a serious violation of God's law.
Doesn't this leftist abortion advocate know that burning our pro-life flyer is bad for the climate?
Furious Policeman
Suddenly, after an hour of demonstrating, an enraged police officer arrived. A colleague accompanied him. He seemed so upset that one of our volunteers calmly said to him, ‘I am sorry, but we have the impression that you are treating us harshly for ideological reasons. We have confirmation from the Almere Municipality that we are allowed to do this demonstration.'
‘Where is your Permit?
The policeman, who was continuously very nervous, exclaimed: ‘Stop these songs and slogans until I confirm that your permit is valid...’. He said permit, but a demonstration does not require a permit at all. In our case, you only have to file a notification (which we had done) and the municipality then issues a notification, not a permit.
‘Is everything OK?’
We heard him talking on the phone to someone in the town hall from afar: ‘It's a campaign against abortion!’. He kept holding us up for half an hour, after which we asked, ‘Is everything all right?’. Of course, everything was fine. We were about to start playing songs and chanting slogans again. The policeman did not leave it at this: ‘Wait! You didn't tell me what musical instruments you were going to use...’. As you can see from the picture, we had permission to use music. We were even allowed to put up a loudspeaker, but we preferred not to.
As you can see, our notification was entirely in order. The agent nevertheless remained unreasonable.
Officer fined Us
The angry policeman intimidatingly snatched documents from two band members. They then immediately called their lawyer. To no avail. The cops told us they would fine us for using musical instruments. In the end, they demanded that we stop much of the campaign for no legitimate reason. What a contrast to the attitude of the police in Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Arnhem, Amersfoort and so many other cities where we demonstrated!
Abuse of Authority
We hope this police officer is just an exception. We want to believe that the police in Almere are as professional as in the other Dutch cities where we are guaranteed the right to free speech. If we receive a fine, we will consider legal action against the Municipality of Almere, as this is an abuse of authority.
Take action!
We cannot allow the freedom of speech of those who peacefully stand up for the right to life of the most innocent and defenseless to be thwarted like this. If you also disagree with this unjust restriction of pro-lifers' freedom of speech, you can call the Municipality of Almere and let them know what you think about this. The telephone number of the Municipality of Almere is 036-539 99 11.