In a video released by the group Abolitionists Rising, an abortion abolitionist was confronted and assaulted by a passerby, who, at the start of the video, had been standing a short distance away from the abolitionists. The incident took place at The Keeper of the Plains Monument in Wichita, Kansas on March 4, 2023.
The video started with a woman moving toward an abolitionist who was holding a camera. She yelled, “No,” and told him, “You are not taking pictures of us. That is not right.” While the abolitionist replied that he was not taking photos of her, a man came from behind the woman, and appeared to knock the camera out of the abolitionist’s hands, smashing it to the ground, where it broke. The man, allegedly an off-duty police officer, accused the abolitionist of harassing him after the abolitionist accused him of injuring his thumb.
The man then asked the group if they had a permit to assemble, and an abolitionist named Nathan replied, “It’s called the First Amendment, sir.” He asked the man for his name so they could file a police report, but he did not give them information. Nathan then told him that he would be following the man to his car to get his license plate number, so the abolitionists would have information to give to the police.
The man replied on video, “Nah, if you follow me to my car, it’s not gonna end very well for you.” He then said, “You’re gonna get your a** whooped.”
Still, the abolitionists continued to say they would follow the man to his car unless he paid for the broken camera. He walked away, and another man told him, “Yeah, unfortunately, you have no right to privacy in a public space like this.” The man accused the abolitionist of having approached him.
As the abolitionist followed behind the man who broke the camera, the man turned and told him that “everybody else has asked you to leave them alone.” He continued to warn the abolitionists not to follow him, though they said they would do so to get his license plate number as some form of identification due to the damage done to the camera.
“I wouldn’t follow me to my vehicle, I promise you,” he said. “You are gonna lose that battle — physically, legally? It doesn’t f****in’ matter to me. You are going to lose that battle.”
The situation appeared to escalate, as the abolitionist continued to follow the man to his car. Off-camera, the man could be heard telling a friend, “… gonna start taking pictures even though we’ve asked him to leave us alone and everything and then they kept taking pictures of us and sh** while we’re trying to enjoy something so I trashed his camera.”
Yet seconds later, he said he didn’t break the camera, and then denied that he touched the abolitionist.
The heated conversation resumed in the parking lot, as another man appeared to come close to hitting the abolitionist with his truck, and then became confrontational as well, causing the abolitionist to quickly leave.
Abolitionists Rising said it is pursuing charges against the individual.
Editor’s Note: This story will be updated if and when new information becomes available.
