Murch Family Wins Suit
Against York, PA Police!

The suit arose out of an incident at the 2002 city-sponsored Halloween Parade where we joined a local pastor and his congregation to walk the parade route while the streets were closed, but before the parade began.

Our family was carrying the pictures of aborted babies, while the congregation carried scripture signs.

My wife and small children and some of the church members handed out tracts. Pastor Grove and I preached to the thousands of people lining the parade route. After about eight blocks, we were stopped by police. Once we stopped in one place the crowd became agitated, and the police decided to confiscate our pictorial signs, but then allowed our group to continue down the parade route with the text signs. They held on to our signs for a year. The judge ruled that the police officers violated our constitutional rights to free speech, free assembly and free exercise of religion! There will be a damage award, but we do not know what that is yet.

There will also be a Permanent Injunction against the Police and the City that will allow us to march ahead of that parade without fear of arrest or confiscation of our signs. This judgment holds the individual police officers responsible but NOT the City of York. Still undetermined was the constitutionality of arresting Pastor Jim Grove for "harrassment" and "disturbing the peace" a month after the parade, when it became evident that we were going to sue as a result of the theft of our signs. Pastor Grove won that criminal case in court with a unanimous jury verdict.

Check out this story from the beginning.

Bruce shakes the dust off his shoes at the City of York as they mock the Murch family, Pastor Grove and his congregation when the Murch's signs are stolen by police.

York Halloween Parade 2002

Pastor Grove triumphantly displays Temporary Restraining Order granted by the same federal judge who granted us Summary Judgment in this case. That did not stop York police from sweeping us off the streets of York last Halloween, however.

York Injunction Victory

 

 

 

 

 

 

York Halloween Parade 2003

The Murch Family returns to the Halloween Parade in 2003, while Pastor Jim Grove gets a permit to actually march and drive in the Parade. The Police stop all of us.

But Praise Be to God for This Victory!