Anti-abortion activist says Melrose Park cop chastised and left him in Maywood

SHARE Anti-abortion activist says Melrose Park cop chastised and left him in Maywood
melrose_park_police.jpg

Screenshot from a video shot by anti-abortion activist Matthew Wiersema. Wiersema said he was accosted by Melrose Park police officers while he was handing out anti-abortion literature on a sidewalk outside Walther Christian Academy.

An officer from the Melrose Park Police Department is the subject of an internal investigation this week after he detained an anti-abortion activist, disparaged him and drove him to a neighboring suburb.

The activist, Matthew Wiersema, was handing out anti-abortion literature on a sidewalk outside Walther Christian Academy Tuesday morning when he was confronted by a school official who told him he was on private property and had to leave.

Wiersema, 26, of Wheaton, wore a video camera on his jacket that recorded the incident.

“Take it across the street…This is a private school, man, you’re trying to be an a–hat, you’re trying to be an a–hat, man, you’re screwing up the flow of traffic,” a school official told Wiersema in the video.

Wiersema was attempting to hand out literature to parents as they dropped their kids off at school.

School officials called police when Wiersema told them he had a right to be on the sidewalk and refused to leave.

Wiersema told the Chicago Sun-Times Thursday that he was handcuffed, put in a police car and driven to nearby Maywood, where police released him but kept his camera.

“This isn’t an arrest, so shut up with your bull—- and go show this garbage to somebody in f—— Wheaton,” a voice can be heard saying on Wiersema’s video.

Hours later, Wiersema returned to the Melrose Park police station to file a complaint and retrieve his camera. He later posted the video online.

An internal investigation into the officer’s behavior is underway, according to Melrose Park spokesman Gary Mack.

The officer’s catch-and-release tactic is “absolutely not a policy, and, shall we say, at the very least, it sounds unorthodox and potentially much more than that,” Mack said.

“I’d like justice. I’d like there to be some kind of punishment for the officers and what they did to me,” Wiersema said.

“I believe that I was kidnapped, and I hope that those police officers repented their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ,” added Wiersema, who regularly holds demonstrations in downtown Naperville and outside west suburban high schools.

Wiersema said it was the first time he “street preached” outside the school in Melrose Park.

Officials with the Walther Christian Academy could not be reached for comment.

The Latest
A 22-year-old man named Christian I. Soto was charged with murder, attempted murder and home invasion, official said during a Thursday media briefing. Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd said earlier investigators haven’t determined a motive for the attacks.
Can a message generated by an algorithm ever match hearing from a human?
White Sox fans from all over will flock to Guaranteed Rate Field on Thursday for the team’s home opener against the Tigers.
Despite the addition of some new characters (human and otherwise) the film comes across as a relatively uninspired and fairly forgettable chapter in the Monsterverse saga.
Unite Here Local 1, representing the workers at the Signature Room and its lounge, said in a lawsuit in October the employer failed to give 60 days notice of a closing or mass layoff, violating state law.