{"id":290267,"date":"2023-05-04T08:42:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=290267"},"modified":"2023-05-03T14:00:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T19:00:53","slug":"pro-abortion-students-arrested-vcu-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-abortion-students-arrested-vcu-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-abortion students arrested for disrupting pro-life event at Virginia university"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four pro-abortion students were arrested for disrupting a Students for Life of America (SFLA) pro-life event\u00a0at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) on April 26.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/richmond.com\/news\/state-and-regional\/govt-and-politics\/4-vcu-students-arrested-protesting-second-anti-abortion-event\/article_3278da16-e521-11ed-b335-032d0fc8bb02.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond Times-Dispatch<\/a>, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cassandra Mellor, 20; Casey Lockledge, 19; Joseph Friedman, 21; and Theo Mastio, 19 were arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing. Mastio was also charged with resisting arrest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The four were identified by SFLA president Kristan Hawkins as possible members of Antifa. The event marked the second time in one month that Hawkins visited the campus. In March, when she attempted to speak, protesters and possible Antifa members prevented her from doing so, effectively <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-abortion-students-non-students-violenty-disrupt-students-life-event\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shutting down the event<\/a>. This time, the VCU administration warned protesters that it would not allow shouting or any attempts to disrupt the pro-life event.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In a social media <a href=\"https:\/\/fb.watch\/kg5XNvC8s4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">live stream<\/a>, Hawkins reported that she was being kept in a safe room before she was able to speak as the event space was filling with dozens of disruptive protesters who had brought a speaker system and were screaming expletives. Eventually, law enforcement made the arrests and the other protesters dispersed, allowing Hawkins to take the stage for her speech.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/walgreens-cvs-petition\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-283198\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--700x180.jpg\" alt=\"Walgreens CVS banner\" width=\"700\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--700x180.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--300x77.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--768x197.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--500x128.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hawkins also noted that the police and the university&#8217;s vice president had been very responsive in preparing for the event, creating a buffer zone plan and telling students they couldn&#8217;t disrupt her speech. This response was markedly different from the March event, when pro-abortion protesters caused chaos and injuries, preventing Hawkins from speaking altogether.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Imagine Antifa showing up at your peaceful pro-life event, again ? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6W1kQ1ViEM\">pic.twitter.com\/6W1kQ1ViEM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KristanHawkins\/status\/1651811260621635585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 28, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cVCU is dedicated to promoting a safe environment for students, faculty, staff, and visitors to gather and speak freely in a civil manner,\u201d university spokesperson Michael Porter told the Times-Dispatch, adding that the university had made its policy clear days ahead of the event, informing students that they faced prosecution if they insisted on interfering with Hawkins&#8217; speech.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert praised the university for the way it handled things.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe expectations for those attending the event were made clear from the beginning, and when those rules were violated by protesters, campus police quickly and professionally removed them,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hawkins said that despite the virulent pro-abortion behavior she has experienced at VCU, the campus&#8217; SFLA chapter has also grown, as students have come to recognize the importance of standing up for life.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we can&#8217;t speak on a college campus, if we can&#8217;t dare talk about the violence of abortion on a college campus, we have no hope and future in the pro-life movement,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/give.liveaction.org\/general-donation\/?utm_source=lan&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_campaign=monthly&amp;utm_content=article\"><i>Did you know that as little as $10 a month is enough to reach more than 3,000 people with the truth about abortion that no one else is telling them? Click here to start saving lives 365 days a year.<\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four pro-abortion students were arrested for disrupting a Students for Life of America (SFLA) pro-life event\u00a0at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) on April 26. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Cassandra Mellor, 20; Casey Lockledge, 19; Joseph Friedman, 21; and Theo Mastio, 19 were arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing. Mastio was also charged with resisting arrest.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":290435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2793,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pro-abortion students arrested for disrupting pro-life event at Virginia university<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The police and university&#039;s VP created a buffer zone plan and told students they couldn&#039;t disrupt Hawkins&#039; speech - a different response from March&#039;s event.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-abortion-students-arrested-vcu-virginia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pro-abortion students arrested for disrupting pro-life event at Virginia university\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The police and university&#039;s VP created a buffer zone plan and told students they couldn&#039;t disrupt Hawkins&#039; speech - 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