“They’ve been after us for years,” Benham said later about the leaders in Charlotte. “Against conservative voices. So once this crisis hit, this was their opportunity for a power grab.”
When they asked the Cities4Life volunteers to leave, David refused. “We are a federally recognized 501(c)(3) public charity,” he insisted. “We are an essential business.”
Not only that, he argued, but the group has followed every possible government guidance—sanitizing and staying at least 6 feet apart. That didn’t seem to matter.
In the video that went viral, Benham can be heard telling the police, “You know I am well within my constitutional authority to be here. You know that we are doing the right thing. If you’re saying that we don’t have the right to be here, then go in the abortion clinic and make the arrests there.”
The officer replied, “I don’t have the authority to go in the abortion clinic.”
“So you don’t have the authority to go in the abortion clinic,” Benham asked, “but you have the authority to bully us and our sidewalk counselors?” Well, he said firmly, “I’m not budging and my counselors are not budging.”
Amazingly, the officers reached for their handcuffs—arresting Benham and a handful of others, including his 20-year-old son. He almost started to cry, he admitted later, because he just couldn’t believe his country would do this.
“And it wasn’t the officers,” he insisted. “It’s whoever’s instructing the officers. I can’t believe we’ve gotten to this point where we’re going to use a national health care emergency … [to] steal constitutional rights from pro-life Christians.”
