OPINION:
Lauren Handy was sentenced to four years, nine months in prison Tuesday for praying for an end to the killing of unborn babies at the front door of an abortion mill. The 30-year-old activist harmed no one, yet the same federal prosecutors allowing violent felons to prowl the streets sought a harsher sentence than the one the judge imposed.
On Oct. 22, 2020, Handy and nine others created an encampment inside the front door of the Washington Surgi-Clinic on F Street NW. Their mistake was rallying to the cause of justice for the unborn instead of “Justice for Palestine.”
The group’s opposition to what happens in such places is well founded. The driver of a medical waste truck allegedly provided Handy the remains of late-term babies that may have been born alive and left to die. The Biden administration has no interest in investigating that actual crime. Instead, it sought to lock up Handy under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it a felony to speak up for the unborn near abortion clinics.
“It is deeply disappointing that this Court did not see through Department of Justice’s smoke and mirrors,” said Thomas More Society lawyer Steve Crampton in a statement Tuesday. “But this fight is far from over, and we eagerly look forward to appealing for Ms. Handy and her co-defendants’ freedom, so that the FACE Act can never again be weaponized by the Department of Justice against its ideological opponents.”
Meanwhile, violent felons are allowed to roam the streets of Washington. Surveillance camera video captured the horrifying scene of a rifle-toting 18-year-old firing 26 shots at an occupied car in the early hours of April 22 in a Southeast neighborhood. Despite being caught with an illegal weapon, the suspect was sprung by D.C. Superior Court Judge Lloyd U. Nolan Jr. and placed under house arrest pending further proceedings.
Rabble-rousers speaking out in favor of Hamas on college campuses nationwide are likewise treated like royalty. At George Washington University, a student arrested last week on suspicion of assaulting a police officer was released without charge.
Thirty-three protesters rounded up Friday by police at the University of Pennsylvania for “defiant trespass” were swiftly let go with all criminal charges dropped in favor of a toothless civil violation notice. The 57 agitators nabbed last month at the University of Texas at Austin were out within hours. Similarly, all University of Florida activists were released without bail with the exception of a student accused of spitting on a campus police officer.
Perhaps if the tent-dwelling Marxists who occupy the ivory towers knew abortion is illegal under the Hamas government, they’d sympathize with the plight of Lauren Handy.
While it’s reasonable to give a pass to students to the extent they peacefully question whether Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip has gone too far, the same charity must be extended to those on the other side of the political spectrum whose only crime is creating a bit of inconvenience and noise. Nothing Handy did comes close to deserving nearly five years in the slammer.
There is no justice as long as this double standard persists.
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