Activist Responds With Free Speech Chalking Mocking Collins For Calling Cops

By Dan Neumann, Maine Beacon:

After Sen. Susan Collins called the police over the weekend over a pro-abortion message written in chalk in front of her home, an unknown activist responded Tuesday in chalk, mocking Maine’s senior senator for being anti-free speech.

On Saturday night, Collins called the police after seeing the message “Susie, please, Mainers want WHPA ⇒ vote yes, clean up your mess” written in chalk on the sidewalk outside her Bangor home. WHPA refers to the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill to codify abortion protections that is expected to see a vote in the U.S. Senate this week. Though Collins claims to be pro-choice, she does not support the legislation.

The Bangor police determined that no crime was committed and the message was not “not overtly threatening.” Bangor has no city ordinance prohibiting chalk messages on public property.

Despite this, Collins thanked the police for responding to the “defacement.”

“We are grateful to the Bangor police officers and the city public works employee who responded to the defacement of public property in front of our home,” Collins said in a statement.

The sidewalk chalk had been washed away by Monday morning. In response, an unknown activist wrote a new message in chalk on Tuesday. “You might not recognize our right to free speech, but I hope you recognize my right to have an abortion.”

News reports of the first chalking prompted online mockery of Collins for a portraying herself as a victim as millions of people may soon lose access to safe and legal abortion care. A draft opinion leaked to Politico last week shows that a majority of conservative Supreme Court justices initially voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that protects the right of pregnant people to have an abortion.

“Our thoughts are with Susan Collins, who called the police because there was chalk on the sidewalk near her house,” tweeted Indivisible, a national grassroots progressive group. “We hope she is alright after enduring such a harrowing ordeal!”

“How would you react if it were a hopscotch drawn?” Portland resident Susie Crimmins posted.

State Rep. Amy Roeder (D-Bangor) posted a picture on Tuesday of the fresh chalk messages mocking Collins. “At @SenatorCollins house to admire some local art,” the Bangor representative said.

Collins voted for two of former President Donald Trump’s three nominees to the Supreme Court: Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. She repeatedly vouched for both of them when their opponents predicted they’d support overturning Roe.

Several media pundits, including conservative commentators and White House spokesperson Jen Psaki, have condemned protests outside of the homes of justices Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and John Roberts this week. The denouncements are being called out by activists as a “civility fetish” amongst political class who demands to be insulated from policy decisions.

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