Video shows angry attack followed by police violation of civil rights
Rather than arresting the attacker the police threatened to arrest me!
FORT MADISON, Iowa, Dec. 8 /CNW/ — Pro-lifers with graphic signs were attacked by a man wielding a club during a protest at a Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Fort Madison, Iowa, on Friday, yet responding police threatened to arrest the pro-lifers if they did not immediately leave the public sidewalk. The incident was captured on video.
Police were parked across the street from where Dan Holman of Missionaries to the Pre-Born was standing on a public sidewalk on December 7, when a man in a pickup truck got out of his vehicle and approached Holman with a club, shouting at him to get off his property. Holman was attacked and struck with the club.
“The man continued to try and assault me in the presence of three Fort Madison police officers,” Holman told Operation Rescue. “Rather than arresting the attacker the police threatened to arrest me! The police acknowledged that I was on a public right of way but said our presence posed a traffic hazard.”
Police told Holman that if he wanted charges pressed against the man with the club, he would have to go to the police station and fill out a report. Holman complied with the order to leave under threat of arrest, and later filed a complaint against his attacker, identified as Jim Mitchell. Holman is considering legal action against the Fort Madison Police.
Holman’s group was protesting Clinton, a radical supporter of abortion, in advance of the Iowa Caucuses, which will be held on January 3, 2008. He has protested Clinton at 32 of her Iowa appearances.
“Police departments across the nation have shown a disturbing disregard for the First Amendment rights of abortion protesters in recent weeks,” said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. “We have a great deal of respect for the vast majority of police officers, who are decent people, trying to do a very difficult job. However, rogue officers who bully and falsely arrest peaceful protesters that are simply exercising a precious right in defense of innocent babies, are put on notice that they will be held legally accountable for their abusive behavior. We urge every police department to train their officers concerning First Amendment activity in order to bring an end to this kind of abuse.”
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Note: This article has been the target of
fourfifty-ninesixty-four [updated!] derogatory and defamatory posts by a notorious Troll (see note below), who, aparently, identifies himself as “Master of Puppets” on Wikipedia. We have not approved them, and, consequently they do not appear, here. These are the first comments of a derogatory nature we have ever disaproved and, primarily because they make “Master of Puppets,” and by projection, all “pro-choice” liberals, look so bad, we are very disapointed to have to refuse his comments and rob our readers of an opportunity to watch him twisting in the wind of his own intellectual shame. But there are reasons.It is not because “Master” tried to justify the the violent attack on Dan Holman (chronicled in the article, above and proved by the video).
It is not because, he defamed Holman in the extreme, falsely accusing him of being a terrorist, of belonging to a terrorist organization and by associating Dan with numerous felonious acts including the act of bombing the Atlanta Olympics, of bombing various (unspecified) “gay night clubs” and of, literally, killing abortionists. We would love nothing more than exposing “Master” as a liar.
It is not because he accuses the Reagan Wing of supporting terrorism. Those kinds of lies about conservatives, being accused of “terrorism,” “ homophobia,” “extremism” and “racism”, are commonplace in grassroots Republican politics. We get that from the GOP Left. It’s actually better to be accused in a public forum than be slandered by secret gossip, the way the GOP Left usually operates.
It is not because “Master of Puppets” is a classic dufflepud troll whose defamatory attacks on others is done behind a wall of complete anonymity, so that he bears no responsibility for his scurrility, nor because he posts with a phony email address ending “@whitehouse.gov”. Once again, we look forward to confronting such low-lifes.
It is not because he threatened me, personally.
It is not because he called for Dan Holman to be shot on sight. We think all this kind of stuff strengthens our cause, not his.
It is because “Master of Puppets” uses sexually vulgar language. Objectionable words can be edited, but only if there is some screening mechanism. And once a poster is approved, here, at the Reagan Wing to comment, all following posts are approved automatically. We refuse to subject readers to “Master of Puppets’” kind of Death Faction filth without a warning, first, and if we were to approve “Master” it would require a kind of constant monitoring of the comments that is not presently possible. Too bad.
One humorous note: Master has posted a comment asking why we have not posted his comments, but he left no means to respond, leaving, again, only his bogus email address. Well, Puppet Master, you have the same welcome here you do on Wikipedia.
This poster received a “Last Warning” from Wikipedia for repeated vandalism culminating in his attack on an article on Operation Rescue. A “Last Warning” carries the threat of being permanently banned from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:66.41.69.113
[...] showing the hatred that was aimed at the peaceful marchers and this video put together by EWTN. Here is a story about a pro-life protester who was attacked with a club and then threatened with arrest when [...]