A Democratic candidate for the school board in Fairfax County, northern Virginia, has quit her campaign because she has become the subject of criminal charges for purposefully hitting pro-life advocates participating in the March for Life with her vehicle.
As the Washington Post reports:
A Fairfax County School Board candidate who carried the endorsements of the local Democratic Party and Rep.Gerry Connolly has withdrawn from the race after it was learned that she is facing assault charges in the District for allegedly hitting a woman with her car near the Supreme Court building on the day of the annual Right to Life March.
Charisse Espy Glassman, a Falls Church resident who is the niece of former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, told party members she is stepping down from the at-large school board campaign because of personal and family matters, according to Rex Simmons, chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee.
“It’s official,” Simmons said Friday….
Court records from Superior Court in the District of Columbia say Glassman was charged with assault and possession of a prohibited weapon after the Jan. 24 incident.
The court records and a Democratic party source say Glassman was driving out of an alley at 3:44 p.m. in the 100 block of 1st St. NE near the Supreme Court building where there was a crowd of people taking part in the March for Life. A woman stepped in front of Glassman’s car, yelling at her to stop because of all the people around, the court papers say. Glassman allegedly laughed, revved her engine and moved forward. When the woman stepped back, Glassman allegedly kept laughing, moved forward again and hit the woman in the legs, the court records say. The woman suffered minor injuries.
This isn’t the first time abortion advocates have engaged in vehicular assault against pro-life people.
A pro-abortion Nebraska man upset that pro-life advocates were lining the streets of this eastern city drove his vehicle on the sidewalk and nearly came in contact with participants in October 2008. The pro-life people were participating the in the annual Life Chain, silently holding pro-life signs opposing abortion.
In September, 2010 a man who had been verbally harassing pro-lifers outside a late-term abortion center in Albuquerque for days, escalated his abuse to violence by driving his large paneled delivery truck up on a curb and striking the large pro-life sign held by Bud Shaver.
In March 2010, Nevada-based abortion practitioner Damon Stutes reportedly decided to take matters into his own hands as local pro-life advocates say he aggressively ran over with his vehicle signs that have stood in front of his center for a year.
In October 2008, an Arkansas man nearly hit a group of pro-lifers outside an abortion business. Bryant Shireman was apprehended by police and charged with three counts of aggravated assault following the incident.
In October 2009, a Georgia abortion practitioner was arrested in a road rage incident that saw him punch a woman in the face.
Before his death, Kansas abortion practitioner George Tiller was accused of allegedly hitting a local pro-life advocate with his vehicle as he was leaving his central Kansas abortion center.
