VIDEO: Homeowner gone wild steals, destroys pro-life signs
What is it about photos of abortion victims that enrages people so much?
On February 4, a homeowner gone wild attacked a team of Created Equal’s young pro-life activists who were demonstrating outside Beechcroft High School in Columbus, Ohio, as school was being dismissed.
Video of the incident shows the man, identified as Curtis Hall, crossing the street to berate Created Equal’s Josh Bertsch and Jami Beer (pictured with police officer below left and middle) before stealing and destroying their signs.
Hall shouted, “Get ’em out of here or I am going to break ’em.” He proceeded to knock signs over and take three, which he carried across the street and broke before throwing them in front of traffic.
Here’s video of the episode (WARNING: offensive language)…
[youtube width=”504″ height=”408″]http://youtu.be/IJIuRqveRPE[/youtube]
Hall later told 10TV News “he is neither pro-life nor pro-choice – he just thinks the demonstration is inappropriate.”
But why would it be inappropriate to educate abortion-vulnerable high school students on the reality of abortion?
Created Equal filed charges against Hall yesterday and demanded repayment of $120 for the broken signs.
This morning I spoke with Created Equal’s Executive Director, Mark Harrington, and Director of Training, Seth Drayer.
They indicated Hall wrote an email last night apologizing for his behavior.
It is Created Equal’s policy to drop charges if apologies are sincere, although it would still require financial restitution.
Hall’s sincerity will likely be put to the test today, because Created Equal has scheduled a return demonstration to Beechcroft High School.
Created Equal has six months to decide whether or not to proceed with charges.
Click on all photos to enlarge. See photos of the high school outreach here.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
This type of behavior cannot be tolerated in a free society. I have seen people demonstrating before, carrying signs I did not agree with but I did not grab their signs and destroy their property. You cannot act like an animal Mr. Hall. You have to express your displeasure in a civilized manner. Freedom of speech does not only apply to causes you like and if you cannot learn this valuable lesson you need to move to a place like North Korea and see WHY freedom to express ideas is so vitally important to our freedom.
If abortion is so upsetting you don’t want to see the pictures of it then why are you tolerating it Mr. Hall? (I’m neither pro-life nor pro-choice). Then you’re part of the problem Mr. Hall.
A lot of people are post-abortive. Many of them suffer with anger issues.
I feel sorrow for Mr. Hall and whatever he suffers inside.
A lot of people are post-abortive. Many of them suffer with anger issues. – if you are going to keep making this claim then you need to show us the data.
I doubt Mr. Hall has had an abortion Del.
We need Christians out in their own communities exposing the evil of abortion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkuDGEG0FmE
Reality, he might have taken a girlfriend for an abortion, or his wife, or arranged for his daughter to have an abortion. That’s post-abortive as well.
I’m sad that the prolifers missed an excellent chance to dialog with the guy. This would have been a good time to set the signs aside (perhaps laying them face-down nearby) and engage the man. Do a Justice for All type dialog with him and hear him out. It could have become a great chance to both educate him and to generate good will in the neighborhood.
The discussion could have gone in many different directions, and might not have had a satisfactory outcome, but getting into a tug-of-war over whether or not you had a right to have the signs there was, I think, losing an opportunity to do what you were actually there to do — get people to think about and reason about abortion.
That’s just the usual wishful thinking Christina.
If he was ‘post abortive’, it could be that he has seen the positive outcomes of abortion and gets peeved when he sees people railing against it.
Reality,
You need to get help if you look at those pictures and think there are any “positive outcomes” associated with what’s taking place in them.
But then again, you are a citizen of Baby Murder Nation, so perhaps you have been that corrupted because you can’t admit how evil your country is for murdering 60 million of the most innocent among us.
Christina, there was no chance to engage in any dialog with this guy, his totally irrational rage had consumed him…….Judging by his actions, I’m surprised he didn’t assault any of the women. Press charges and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law………..
Photos of hip replacements aren’t exactly ‘pretty’ Augustine, but those who’ve had them are rather pleased they did. There are many positive outcomes of abortion, you know that.
“Baby Murder Nation” – how twee.
The guy started out angry, yes, but there are ways to de-escalate situations. Sadly, prolifers often take an approach that escalates the situation. Starting out with, “We have every right to be here” reinforces his sense that the prolifers are his enemies and he must defeat them. It just escalates the situation.
If, on the other hand, you establish, “We hear that you are very angry, and we want to fully understand why,” you’re not taking an adversarial stand. Putting the signs aside immediately stops it from being a “Who do these ******s care about? People or their **** signs?” It becomes the prolifer engaging with him as a human being.
He can then choose to hold on to his anger, or to lay it aside and be heard out. Most people actually want to be heard. That’s why they’re so loud! Just LISTEN to the guy.
Asserting that you have a right to be there is a way of saying, “Shut up. We don’t want to listen to you because you don’t matter. Nobody you love matters. Nothing you care about matters.”
You can’t build relationships that way. And relationships are where all real communication begin.
In the end, it might be that the prolifers have to fall back on asserting that they have every right to be there. But that’s not where to START. The place to start is by engaging the person and respecting them as a sacred human being made in the image and likeness of God.
““We hear that you are very angry, and we want to fully understand why,”
Christina,
No matter what anybody said, that guys response was gonna be “take those signs down”.
“You can’t build relationships that way.”
From my experience, you can’t build a (healthy) relationship with a dangerous, hothead. At least you shouldn’t try to until they cool down.
I think the prolifers should have calmly and quietly only said once or twice that they would call the police if he touched them or their property and then remained quiet and slowly backed away from him while filming him. They could have actually remained completely silent.
Following someone who is that angry only puts yourself and others at risk and an accident could have happened when the signs were flung onto the road. He could have had a weapon in his pocket too.
Thank you for posting this, Jill. those who hate the holy wisdom of God and the bloody truth about baby-killing love death, like their father, the devil. He was a Murderer-from-the-Beginning and his followers want to protect the shedding of the innocent blood of infants.
While we’re on the subject, the Justice for All exhibit actually does display photographs of invasive hysterotomy surgery alongside abortion victims (see slide 3). Certainly not for the squeamish, but it puts the whole “all surgery looks gross” meme in its place.
This fellow should be prosecuted fully, it’s the only way he will get the message and reinforce what will happen if he tries such an attack again. Too often little crimes are ignored, then the next time they escalate. These kids were very fortunate this guy didn’t hurt them as he was out of control. He had no business doing what he did; he should have called the police to make a complaint.
Since when is it OK to harass minors at a high school. If I had a child at the high school I would have filed charges against the protestors. YOUR RIGHTS END where my child is involved or exposed to your hatred. I support the right to protest anything you want to protest but do it at an appropriate place. I, NOT YOU, teach my child what I want him to believe in.
Hi Praxedes,
Your post is absolutely spot on concerning the dangers of confrontational situations like this and how they should be handled.
Stand back, avoid any verbal, and certainly physical exchanges. Immediately summon police and allow them to handle the situation. This man could be armed or mentally unstable for all anyone knows.
As for following this man, that is the height of foolishness, not to mention extremely dangerous. Also police may not be very sympathetic to YOU if violence erupts while you follow him. After all he is walking away and posing no threat. You are threatening him by following him.
Hi Christina,
While I can understand your noble intentions, Prax’s 9:52am advice must be taken very, very seriously.
Trying to reason with or establish a dialogue with someone like this may only enrage him further. Also when people are not rational, you can NOT predict how they will react.
It’s a cult.
Cult members get violent when you confront their beliefs directly.
It is dangerous.
Their world-view is so precarious they have to irrationally defend it, lest they discover they are not the morally superior Jesus-Complex saviours of the rest of the world.
Cult de-programming strategy is to get the person away from the cult society and rhetoric, around former social groups, and allow the effect to fade way, with lots of communication and gentle challenges.
This tendency to anger and violence is easy to demonstrate. I can bring up any of several issues with other democrats who have not yet realized they are being programmed to be communists, and I can provoke anger by discussing things in the most rational and congenial fashion –
All I have to do is bring up verifiable facts and logic about pro-life, the lack of man-made global warming, or the myth of over-population, and they go apoplectic.