This may be one of the highlights from yesterday that has gone fairly unnoticed. Turns out a pro-life activist managed to effectively protest abortion during the inauguration yesterday and kept from getting arrested…at least for a while.
NBC NEWS – An anti-abortion heckler during the inauguration festivities on Monday climbed a tree to avoid police.
Rives Grogan, a silver-haired man wearing a brown Carhartt-style jacket, had climbed up a tall, thin evergreen tree, protest sign in hand, near 1st and Maryland Avenue by the Capitol Building. The sign he held read, “Pray to end abortion.”
Taylor Hill / Getty Images Contributor
Grogan, who was not carrying identification, had a ticket and went through security screening, according to a police report. He has been a pastor at New Beginnings Christian Church in Los Angeles, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and he has twice disrupted Supreme Court proceedings.
As U.S. Capitol Police roped off the tree and propped a ladder up against it, the man kept climbing, reaching nearly 40 feet as he shouted, “Democrats are baby killers!” (He took a break when Beyoncé sang the National Anthem, politicker.com reported.)
When he climbed down the tree some time later, police arrested the man, identity unknown, and placed him in handcuffs. The crowd, frustrated by his disruptive shouts throughout the speeches, bid him adieu singing, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”
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