Diabetic Pastor Sues After Being Arrested, Denied Food and Water for Holding Pro-Life Sign

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNewsA pastor who says he was arrested and denied food and water for hours because he held a pro-life sign has sued, saying city laws violate his First Amendment right to free speech.

On March 30, 2011, Pastor Stephen Joiner was driving through the streets of Columbus, Mississippi, when he saw dozens of members of Pro-Life Mississippi peacefully holding signs supporting the unborn child’s right to life. He pulled over and learned they were trying to build support for the state’s Personhood Amendment, which failed to pass the following November.

Joiner, the pastor of the city’s Church of the Nazarene, supported the cause, so he picked up a sign and stood alongside them. Some were displaying photographs of victims of abortion, sometimes called “graphic images.” Others merely showed an unborn child in the womb.

Joiner says that Police Captain Frederick Shelton told him to move, because he was blocking traffic, although he was several feet from the road.

“Captain Shelton then told Pastor Joiner that he was ‘refusing to move when an officer tells him to move,’” according to a legal complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Joiner’s behalf by Liberty Counsel. Captain Shelton charged him with violating the city’s Parade Ordinance and Handbill Ordinance.

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