DC Mayor’s Arrest Of Pro-Lifers After Allowing ‘Defund The Police’ Message Is ‘Viewpoint Discrimination,’ First Amendment Expert Says

Disparity in actions taken by law enforcement in the District of Columbia over Black Lives Matter demonstrations smacks of “viewpoint discrimination,” an attorney tells the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The DCNF spoke with a number of First Amendment experts regarding the Saturday arrest of two Students for Life of America (SFLA) members. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrested both 29-year-old Warner DePriest and 22-year-old Erica Caporaletti early Saturday morning for chalking pro-life sentiments, including the slogan “Black Preborn Lives Matter,” on the road in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.

The arrests came after DC’s Mayor Muriel Bowser commissioned the “Black Lives Matter” slogan to be painted on the streets of DC earlier this summer. The mural included the symbol of the D.C. flag — two horizontal bars topped by three stars — after which activists painted “Defund the Police,” making the phrase appear “Black Lives Matter = Defund the Police.” Bowser’s government removed the D.C. flag, but allowed “Defund the Police” to remain, The Washington Post reported.

Attorney Harmeet Kaur Dhillon, who is the CEO of the Center for American Liberty, told the DCNF that the disparity in treatment in these cases is “obviously viewpoint discrimination.”