Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s wife described the evening of Jan. 4, 2021 when protesters assembled outside of their family home in a Fox News op-ed.
Erin Hawley, a senior legal fellow at the Independent Women’s Law Center describes the “frightening” evening of “assault” that occurred when protesters crowded outside of her family home.
Hawley continues on to explain that what made that evening particularly frightening was that she was at home alone with her then seven-week-old daughter, while her husband and young sons were back in Missouri. (RELATED: Hawley Says ‘Antifa Scumbags’ Showed Up To His Front Door And Threatened His Wife, New Born Daughter)
This behavior needs to stop. ????
“The assault on our home, followed by weeks of personal attacks on our family…are not civil discourse. They are just meant to frighten.” —Erin Hawley, senior legal fellow at Independent Women’s Law Center #IWpol @HawleyMO @FoxNewsOpinion
— Independent Women’s Forum (@IWF) February 11, 2021
“I walked upstairs to see approximately 20 protestors standing in front of our house shouting through bullhorns,” she describes. “I stepped outside, baby in arms, and asked them to leave, saying we had a newborn and neighbors.” Hawley says that even after asking them to leave, the protesters refused to vacate the premises.
“I heard yelling and pounding and came back upstairs to see at least three large men at my door blocking my entire front porch,” Hawley continues. She explains that the men were shouting “Come out, come out,” through bullhorns.
Hawley describes the wait for the police as feeling like “a long time when you are alone with a baby,” though it was actually around fifteen minutes. The police finally showed up and made protesters aware that they were in violation of a noise ordinance, and laws against residential picketing and graffiti on public property.
“The protesters left after about another half hour-littering our front lawn with signs and the sidewalk in front of our house with chalk graffiti-but not before threatening to return morning, noon, and night.”
Following the terrifying assault on her home, Hawley says that she “filed a criminal complaint against the protest leader.”
“You can agree or disagree with my husband’s politics. And protests at office buildings are both appropriate and protected by the First Amendment,” Hawley continued on. “Indeed, one of our most precious protections is the right to peaceably disagree. But the First Amendment also allows states and local governments to protect their citizens from harassment and to prescribe reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on protest-like events.”
Near the end of Hawley’s piece, she said that the assault on her family’s home, and the phone calls and texts that they continued to receive are not acts of civil discourse. “They are just meant to frighten.”
“And it should go without saying that threatening innocent children – one barely two months old – should be off-limits.”
Hawley describes how following the events of Jan. 4, protesters and various people have accused her husband of overreacting to the incident, including a spokesman from the Vienna Police Department. The spokesman reportedly described the protest outside of the home as being “peaceful.”