Posted on 06/24/2021 9:16:16 AM PDT by ebb tide
A Kentucky police officer will return to work after the Louisville Metro Police Department confirmed that it will not formally discipline him for quietly praying the rosary in front of a Louisville abortion clinic last winter while off-duty.
On February 20, 2021, before dawn on a Saturday morning, the officer quietly had prayed alone with his father for less than an hour in front of the EMW Women’s Surgical Center. (The officer’s name has not been publicly revealed.)
Shortly after starting his regular patrol duty later that morning, the officer was ordered to return to his division’s office, where he was placed on administrative leave with pay, pending an investigation. The decorated 13-year veteran, with no prior disciplinary violations and a wife and four young children to support, had remained on indefinite leave.
“We are happy for the officer that the Louisville Police Department finally did the right thing and put a good policeman back on the streets,” said Thomas More Society attorney Matt Heffron. “But it is astounding to those of us defending him – shocking actually – that the police department would treat a hardworking, loyal officer this way. They left him twisting in the wind for four months because of off-duty prayer.”
LMPD sent the officer notices of potential violations of LMPD’s Standard Operating Procedures and a Kentucky statute.
“None of the officer’s off-duty prayer was covered by the LMPD allegations, and any formal punishment, under these circumstances, would violate his First Amendment rights,” Heffron said.
In March, the Thomas More Society, working with Louisville attorney Blaine Blood, sent to LMPD a detailed analysis of applicable provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, the LMPD Standard Operating Procedures and the First Amendment, requesting that the matter be resolved quickly and that the officer be allowed to return to work. The attorneys also sent an open-records request to LMPD and confirmed that the department has not taken disciplinary action against on-duty, uniformed officers who marched with Black Lives Matter protestors and in LBGT parades.
“The facts have been undisputed from the start – the whole event was captured on the abortion clinic’s security video,” said Heffron. “It showed two men, nondescriptly dressed, walking quietly back and forth as they said the rosary. The abortion clinic was closed and the street in front of it was practically deserted.”
“It was quickly clear to our lawyers, LMPD did not have a foot to stand on,” said Heffron. “It’s too bad it took LMPD four months to figure it out.”
Ping
But kneeling to BLM while on-duty in uniform is just fine.
How awful! He needs to be broken on the wheel for this outrage!
On his own time and did nothing to break the law.
Liberals claim they love everyone. There’s another definition they’ve stolen and done a 180 on.
A listen for later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3rsukcbxU God is in control
As if they didn't know this from the start.
I bet the administrators are pissed that they weren’t allowed to persecute this man any further - and I bet they find a way to retaliate.
An investigation ought to be made of the police department.
I smell intimidation, sending a message to all public servants, that public devotion to God and heroism against abortion will not be tolerated by the ruling class.
Barring evidence to the contrary, their minds are darkened and hearts are stone cold.
Even if he prays the rosary while on duty, what is the problem? If God is not allowed in your work place, then why is barring God allowed? Even from a “purely logical” perspective it is contradicting and illogical. They are actively, then, PROMOTING Atheism.
*** I smell intimidation, sending a message to all public servants, that public devotion to God and heroism against abortion will not be tolerated by the ruling class. ***
In San Antonio, years ago,(late 1990’s) a police car drove onto the sidewalk where people quietly prayed the Rosary outside an abortion clinic, and hit a man.
The Policeman was not disciplined, as I recall.
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on the cheerleader should apply to this case also.
I suspect it’s not so much the praying, as doing so near an abortion clinic.
If he’d been facing Mecca and banging his head on the ground five times a day, would he have been suspended?
My God, there are traitorous SOBs everywhere, even in police departments.
>>praying the rosary in front of a Louisville abortion clinic last winter while off-duty.<<
Crazy, holy, cop (pray for America and for me).
As if the employment rolls of police departments weren't already stressed to the max. But lefties can't do math. They can't even do arithmetic.
They were “praying” that he would resign or transfer to another police dept. Didn’t work out their way and the longer they let him swing in the wind the chances of a law suit became more likely.
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