Lynchburg City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to reject a proposed resolution that condemned the vandalism and property damage perpetrated at the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month.
The resolution, put forth by Ward IV Councilman Chris Faraldi, condemned “the destructive actions, vandalism, intimidation, and violence perpetrated against the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center on June 25, 2022, admonishing those responsible” if adopted.
Faraldi voted in favor of his resolution alongside Ward III Councilman Jeff Helgeson.
The discussion among council around the resolution grew more intense as it continued, and even after council voted there was subsequent conversation on the resolution that lasted more than 30 minutes.
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As the discussion continued on after the vote, Faraldi exited the chambers before the end of the meeting.
At-large Councilman Randy Nelson was the first of several councilors to speak against the resolution following its introduction at Tuesday’s meeting.
“It is absolutely inexcusable for anyone, under the pretext of free expression or the guise of political protest, to destroy, damage or vandalize property or threaten safety of anyone,” Nelson said during the meeting.
“But we have laws and ordinances prohibiting vandalism and the destruction of property. But the Lynchburg Police Department, the commonwealth attorney’s office and perhaps other law enforcement agencies are investigating the offense and will prosecute anyone reasonably incriminated by the evidence.”
The five councilors who voted against adopting the resolution — Nelson, Mayor MaryJane Dolan, Vice Mayor Beau Wright, At-Large Councilwoman Treney Tweedy and Ward II Councilman Sterling Wilder — argued along the same lines that the city had no business adopting the resolution because council doesn’t adopt similar resolutions for other crimes committed in the city.
Wright said if council were to adopt the resolution, it wouldn’t only be a resolution condemning the crime, it also would “make a comment on a bigger national question, the question of abortion.”
“That goes back to why council has historically not taken up these sort of resolutions and kind of stay away from the national political issues because we know, A, that we don’t have the authority to do anything about it, and B, our community is very divided on this very important issue,” Wright added.
In recent months, Planned Parenthood has criticized pregnancy centers such as the Lynchburg site, calling them “fake clinics” and saying they are intended to “scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control, and sexual health.”
Overnight June 24 to June 25, four people smashed windows and doors and spray-painted graffiti on the pregnancy center’s building at 3701 Old Forest Road in Lynchburg, according to a Lynchburg Police Department news release that included security camera images and video.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares stopped in Lynchburg on July 13 to tour the pregnancy center and to condemn the “cowards” who carried out the criminal acts.
At one point during Tuesday’s discussion, Faraldi told the councilors voting in opposition that “a no vote is condoning” the actions that took place at the pregnancy center, a point also echoed by Helgeson.
Nelson said the accusations that the councilors were condoning the crimes by voting in opposition were “categorically incorrect,” saying it’s “not our province” to weigh in on such issues.
Faraldi also criticized the opposing councilors for not issuing a statement through their own platforms condemning the crimes and for not showing up at the pregnancy center in the days following the incident.
Wilder took exception to Faraldi’s comments about other councilmembers not showing up at the center, saying, “I’m not going to judge any of you for what you do and where you don’t go. But my actions will speak for me.
“When we have a murder on our streets, I make sure I show up to talk to the parents. I don’t care if those parents are Democrat or Republican, or whatever it may be.”
Pushing back against the accusation that his resolution was brought forth for political reasons, Faraldi said, “If I wanted this to be political, I would have asked for it to be introduced the moment I talked about it a month ago. I didn’t. I brought this to you all ... so the accusation that this is a political motive is a farce.”
He also said the language in the resolution itself wasn’t political — it only stated Roe v. Wade was “overturned.”
Wright disputed that, saying “it is political when the argument is, ‘When you don’t vote for this, you support violence.’”
As the conversation switched to the many resolutions that could come before council if they decided to adopt resolutions condemning criminal acts, Tweedy argued for the creation of a human rights committee that would look at all types of crime that happens in Lynchburg.
“We can all pick our topics,” Tweedy said about the motive behind the resolution, “but a human rights commission will bring all voices and parties to the table.”
Additionally, after the vote, Tweedy called out the “political-come-latelies” that “take their own agenda and topics and tell us what we don’t stand for.”
It was around this point of the meeting that Faraldi began packing his personal items and walked out of the chambers. He said nothing as to why he exited the meeting.
Closing out the discussion, after it spiraled into a debate about gun control and violence, Wright said, “I think actually what we just saw sort of proves the point. That when you engage on these hot button topics, it divides.
“Our community on these hot button issues — guns and abortions — we’re not on the same page. And we don’t have the authority in this room, as a council and local government, to affect those things ... it happens in Richmond and Washington, not here.”
These are important conversations to have as citizens, but if you want to do the city’s business, and do the things we’re empowered to do here, this is why we don’t take up these kinds of conversations because we know they will only divide.”