The League’s longtime friend Jack Ames of Defend Life called our office over the weekend to tell us that he and seventeen other pro-life activists were arrested at the final site on the final day of their Face the Truth Tour in Bel Air, MD on Friday.
The Tour had been a great success up until Friday afternoon. The League’s own Eric Scheidler had visited the Tour Wednesday to participate and give a talk to Tour participants over lunch.
18 Pro-Lifers Arrested at Maryland Truth Tour
The confrontation arose when a state trooper told Jack Ames that they had to put their signs away and leave. If they did not comply, he told them he would start making arrests.
In an effort to comply, Jack moved the Tour group to within the city limits of Bel Air, just a little way down the road from where they had originally set up.
A short while later, with no warning, about twenty squad cars pulled up to the scene and began to arrest people without a word. The pro-lifers were not told what they were being arrested for, nor were they read their rights. They were simply handcuffed and taken to jail.
At least two of the arrested suffered medical problems after sitting in handcuffs reported to be too tight for over half an hour.
Two of the pro-lifers were minors who were soon released into their parents’ custody. The rest, however, spent the entire night in the jail. Though the men and women were held in separate cells, they could hear one another and passed the night singing hymns and praying just like St. Paul and St. Silas in the Acts of the Apostles.
The last of the adults were released the next morning and were finally informed that they were charged with loitering, failing to obey a lawful order, and disorderly conduct.
Joe Scheidler commented:
We’ve got to protect our 1st Amendment rights or we’ll lose them. When police on their own can act like storm troopers as these officers did, we are in danger of losing all our freedoms. If we lose the 1st Amendment, we’ll be no better off than any totalitarian dictatorship.
Perhaps pro-lifers should begin referring to the State of Maryland as The Police State of Maryland.
Pro-Lifer Assaulted by California Abortionist
In other news, Operation Rescue reports about a pro-lifer in Santa, Ana, CA who was violently attacked by an abortionist:
The man, who wants only to be known as Tim, was first shoved, then battered, punched and choked by the abortionist who objected to his attempts to photograph him. Tim sustained lacerations and muscle pain that impaired his ability to conduct his normal activities as a result of the attack.
Tim went to the clinic because he had been told there was a possibility that the abortionist at the Clinica Medica Para La Mujer, located at 120 W. 5th St. in Santa Ana, was operating illegally. He decided to go to the abortion mill to photograph the abortionist and offer help to abortion-bound women.
When the abortionist, who was later identified as Howard Pfupajena, entered the building, he covered his head with his lab coat and told Tim that he had no right to photograph him. Tim later asked a police officer that was ticketing a nearby vehicle if he had the right to take pictures of the abortionist, and he was advised by that officer that he did. Tim then decided to wait until Pfupajena left for the day to try to get a better photograph.
Tim noticed Pfupajena heading for his vehicle, and positioned himself on the public sidewalk to photograph the abortionist as he was about to drive away. At that point, Pfupajena got out of his car and attempted to forcibly remove the camera from Tim’s possession. The camera was kicked away from him as he fell against a parking meter. Pfupajena then stomped on the disposable camera in order to destroy it. Tim somehow regained possession of the camera. That is when the attack intensified.
“He got me to the ground and, seeking to jar the camera loose from my hand, was hitting me and, not finding success, he put his knee in my throat and was choking me,” said Tim. “At this point I began to yell for help and for someone to call the police.”
Police arrested Pfupajena, 66, for assault and battery. He was cited and released. The District Attorney will review the case and determine if the charges should be filed. A check done on Pfupajena’s medical license does not show any previous disciplinary action.
“That is about to change,” Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “Pfupajena is obviously has something to hide for him to have reacted so violently. This abortionist is a danger to the public, and should have his license revoked.”
The Clinica Medica chain of abortion mills has made recent headlines when owner Bertha Bugarin was arrested for committing abortions without a medical license. Another abortionist in the chain, Laurence Reich, was also arrested earlier this year after a police investigation revealed that he was continuing to do abortions even though his medical license had been revoked last year after a second conviction of having sexually molested and/or raped several of his abortion patients.
Remember that the next time you hear someone talk about the need to keep abortion ‘safe and legal’.
