Removal of teddy bear display doesn’t deter Ukraine supporters in Newport Beach
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What was intended to be a powerful public installation Monday in Newport Beach featuring 20,000 teddy bears representing Ukrainian children abducted and deported by Russian forces had to be removed to avoid a municipal code violation.
The display lining MacArthur Boulevard was nearing completion at around 1 p.m. Monday when Newport Beach police officers showed up after receiving a complaint call. The officers were there to make sure the installation was in compliance with city ordinances, according to Deputy Chief Joshua Vincelet.
The installation was determined to be out of compliance because it obstructed public right-of-way, according to Vincelet, but no citations were issued as the stuffed animals were removed as requested.
The kerfuffle did not deter the gathering, which instead became a demonstration of Ukrainian resilience and perseverance.
“We’re resourceful and we make things work,” said Marina Shamashevich, a Shield of Freedom representative, after the display created by Razom came down. Her organization, along with the American Coalition for Ukraine and Globe 4 Ukraine, act as custodial groups for the teddy bear project, which began last April in Washington, D.C.
“Cities have allowed us to use public sidewalks to exercise our 1st Amendment right,” Shamashevich said of the traveling display. “We call police and let them know and usually they come and make sure everything is OK.”
Although Monday’s installation to draw public attention of the humanitarian issue may have ended sooner than expected, the message continued to the roughly two dozen people who had gathered, holding signs and flags. Cars passing by along the busy street honked in support.
“People don’t know about [the children abducted during the war],” said Iryna Shifman, member of the American Coalition for Ukraine and co-founder of Globe 4 Ukraine. “Officials have documented with names of the 20,000 but there are 1.6 million under 18 in occupied territories.”
The event’s guest speaker, the Rev. Canon Cindy Evans Voorhees of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, said Monday’s gathering was “small, but mighty.”
She framed the loss of thousands of Ukrainian children as something that’s hard for many to comprehend: “Can you imagine what would happen if not one child showed up for school this week in the Newport-Mesa school district?”
Voorhees cited an example from a military veteran who described the act of indoctrinating children into belief systems who said, “Give me a child until they’re 5 years old and I’ll give you a communist for life.”
A Yale Humanitarian Research Lab report released last September detailed the forcible deportation, re-education and militarization of Ukrainian children referred to as “Russifying,” which includes military training and long-term detention. The report has informed U.S. legislation on the Russia-Ukraine war and has become a national leader providing critical resources in tracking the missing children.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R- Iowa) has acknowledged the value of the Yale research. “Today, the lab remains a national leader in providing critical resources to locate and track these children,” Grassley stated last fall, according to a report in the Yale Daily News.
Grassley and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) introduced a bipartisan resolution calling for the return of kidnapped Ukrainian children before any peace agreement is finalized. They also introduced a bill to support identification, rehabilitation and accountability for the children.
Mira Rubin, president of Shield of Freedom, said on Monday that “Global threat to democracy to forcibly replace kids, is a war crime.” She stressed the importance of keeping society informed of war crimes.
One participant in Monday’s demonstration was Mila Onuferko, a first generation American of Ukrainian descent who drove from Idyllwild to Newport Beach for the occassion.
“There are organizations in different parts of the country and we come out to support each other so people understand the price of war,” Onuferko said. “Children are separated from families and are used as a bargaining chip.”
Bearing a sign carrying the words “Bring Kids Back,” Mary Kopinski of Mission Viejo, also a first generation Ukrainian American, said it made her proud to be a Ukrainian “and fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.”
U.S. Reps. Mike Levin (D-49th District) and Young Kim (R-40th District) both sent emailed statements to organizers of Monday’s event, who shared them with the Daily Pilot.
“We cannot allow these children to be forgotten and we will not stop demanding that they be brought home,” wrote Levin, who with Kim is a sponsor of a House resolution calling for the children to be returned before finalization of peace agreement.
”...In any conflict, the price of war should only be limited to the battlefield — full stop, wrote Kim. “Instead, the Russian military has done something far more sinister: the capture of tens of thousands of children, ripped from their parents’ arms. No child should ever be exposed to war’s cruel realities, let alone the deliberate target of an operation to destroy a nation’s social fabric. Putin’s war is not just one of conquest: it is a campaign that seeks to eliminate Ukrainian identity, beginning with the most vulnerable among us. It is unconscionable.”
