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Statement by Wichita Mayor, Bob Knight, Regarding Summer of Mercy Renewal Event

July 11, 2001

Statement by Wichita Mayor, Bob Knight, Regarding Summer of Mercy Renewal Event

"As Operation Save America prepares to lead an event it calls the Summer of Mercy Renewal here in Wichita next week, I want to discuss the role of the City of Wichita and the Wichita Police Department.

The City of Wichita has a responsibility to assure public safety, to protect the First Amendment Rights of all citizens to express their opinions in a peaceful, lawful manner and to enforce the laws of the State of Kansas and City of Wichita.

I believe the City must act in the interest of all persons in the community, without regard to personal beliefs. The City of Wichita and its Police Department will recognize the rights of all parties, be they people lawfully expressing their deep held beliefs, people operating legal medical facilities, the patients who use those facilities, or citizens going about their everyday lives.

Everyone has a Constitutional Right to peacefully assemble and express their views. Wichita Police Officers will be on hand as Operation Save America organizes and leads demonstrations at local clinics. The Police will be protecting the rights of all citizens to express their beliefs. While everyone has the right to lawfully demonstrate and peacefully express their opinions, no one has the right to break the law.

The national and local leaders of Operation Save America have assured me and other members of the City of Wichita staff they plan to conduct peaceful, prayerful and legal demonstrations of their beliefs. As Christians and members of the clergy, I am going to take them at their word. But I am also going to hold them to their word. Let me make it perfectly clear: As Mayor of the City of Wichita, I hold leaders and organizers of the Summer of Mercy Renewal event responsible for making sure their followers follow the law.

The City of Wichita will enforce the law. That means protecting the rights of citizens to exercise their constitutional right of free speech, but it also means protecting the rights of legal medical clinics to operate.

Anyone who violates the ordinances of the City of Wichita or the laws of the State of Kansas will be dealt with swiftly and definitively by Wichita Police. Anyone blocking access to a clinic or illegally interfering with the operation of a clinic will be arrested and taken to the Sedgwick County Jail.

The City of Wichita will protect the safety of citizens. It is the goal of the City of Wichita and the Wichita Police Department that no one is injured or no property is damaged. Police Officers will use the least confrontational means possible as a first response in enforcing the law. The Police are authorized to use all legal means in carrying out this mission of enforcing the law and protecting life and property.

The Wichita City Council stands behind its Police Department as a professional group of men and women who have been asked by our community to handle an extremely difficult situation under extreme conditions.

In planning and preparing for the Summer of Mercy Renewal event, the City of Wichita has worked very hard to ensure the rights of all citizens will be protected, that the laws of our City and State will be enforced and that public safety will be preserved."