Jesus Christ, NARAL, this is important. Do you think you could maybe proofread your graphic before posting it?
It’s free rein. (And, if I want to get pedantic, Massachusetts’s.)
Free reign is one of those phrases which is technically wrong but has been used for so long that it’s grandfathered into the lexicon.
Massachusetts’ is correct.
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Come back to the conversation when you have actual experience standing on the front lines of clinic assaults.
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Escorts are all volunteers and I don’t think it’s a good idea to allow them to be armed. That’s just asking for trouble on many different levels. They are volunteers; not trained guards or soldiers or cops. And security guards don’t come free to a center, many of which rely on very little money. I’m sure some have to have them, but there are probably only so many to go around per center.
Not that I don’t disagree with your larger comment/point. 
Because I do. But you’re dreamin’!
I take it you have a suggestion on how to “get the cops to do their jobs”? Or did you just throw this “suggestion” out thinking it was clever or helpful? It’s not. Unless you have a solution.
So what is your suggestion to make the police “to do their jobs”? You keep vaguely mentioning that the police can/should help, but you’ve yet to have any actual suggestioned solutions.
If legislation can pass to create buffer zones, then the governor can put pressure on the police departments to actually enforce laws against abuse and harassment and disturbing the peace, and actually prosecute the people who cause problems. If the laws against those things are not tight enough, the legislature clearly wants to do something about it and they can tighten them up.
Will this make things perfect? No. But it makes things better, and it’s something Mass. State can do, even after the Supreme Court’s decision. They have arrested and prosecuted other protestors for refusing to disperse or harassing people. There have apparently been a few arrests of the worst of the worst (like when the protestors pretended to be police officers), but even that didn’t result in even a single attempt at prosecution. It was simply arrest and release, and the protestors went right back.
If you actually volunteer, is this different from your experience? It could be that the things I’ve seen and read are wrong, and the police do not, in fact, seem to treat the abortion protestors with kiddie gloves. Obviously, on the individual level, there’s nothing any one person can do to force the police to do their job, and people who volunteer as escorts are great people doing a great service.
But since the state passed the buffer law to begin with, there is clearly political will there to do something, and since the buffer law has fallen it should be directed into pressuring police into enforcing already existing laws against hurling abuse, spitting on people, obstruction, fraud, and violence and all the other shit the abortion protestors seem to get up to, and actually putting some of them in jail. Once they know there are consequences for treating people like this, it would hopefully make the escort’s job a lot easier.
You come off as really naive, here. You seem to think that the police even give a fuck or that anyone else does.
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And, the more I think about this, the more I realize you haven’t given me an answer to my question: What is your suggestion? “The governor can put pressure on the police department” is not an answer. Clearly that’s not happening. People are outraged, and yet it’s not happening. You don’t have a solution. You just have “shoulds”.
If the laws against those things are not tight enough, the legislature clearly wants to do something about it and they can tighten them up.
See, that’s not clear to me. Combined with the Hobby Lobby ruling, it’s clear to me that a woman’s choice is what at stake here It’s clear to me that they want to be able legislate a woman’s choice. THAT is what is clear.
“Can, should, can, should” – that’s all you’re saying. You’ve given me no solutions. You seem to be unaware of the society we live in. You are naive, and your condescending but rather empty and circular explanation of “can” and “should” is not helpful or enlightening. A lot of my response is, “NO SHIT, SHERLOCK, and thanks for repeating yourself, but how? And now what?”
You’ve smugly kept saying the same thing over and over again but have yet to come up with a solution. I’m really unsure why you think this is helpful.
Here. Read this. And then read the comments, specifically scribe999’s responses regarding “enforcement”.
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