Posted on 10/29/2003 11:57:38 AM PST by m1-lightning
CHICAGO -- Two men praying outside the Albany Women's Center on North Elston Avenue in Chicago were pepper-sprayed by a man accompanying a client of the center Saturday morning.
Robert Rudny and Michael Walsh were kneeling in prayer next to a fence bordering the Albany Center when an Hispanic man on crutches sprayed pepper spray over the fence into the eyes of the prayers.
According to Rudny, the attacker had been verbally assaulting them for 30 minutes as they prayed. The assailant escaped after he sprayed the pepper spray.
“He was a rabid, crazy man,” said Rudny, “who was screaming obscenities while we were praying the Rosary. I was looking down, praying my Rosary, and suddenly I felt this liquid on my face, and then my eyes and face were burning.” Walsh was also sprayed but not in the eyes.
Three other sidewalk counselors, Kathy Mieding, Brian Pabich and Michael Busse heard Rudny screaming and went to his aid. Rudny says he staggered across the street to the Women’s Center, a pro-life shelter and service, where he doused his eyes and face with water in the bathroom.
At the same time, at least three calls were placed to 911 to report the incident. Busse said, “We called the police, and then turned our attention to the attacker, but he was gone. He was handicapped and used some kind of brace, so he couldn’t have gotten far. No cars left the parking lot. He just disappeared.”
Thomas More Law Center volunteer Tim Murphy said today that he is interested in helping with Rudny’s legal case in the aftermath of the attack. Murphy surmised that people in the abortion clinic may have hid the attacker. "The same thing happened to me years ago when I was attacked outside an abortion clinic," Murphy said. "We went inside the clinic and pointed the guy out.”
Witnesses say that on Saturday at least six squad cars responded to 911 calls within a few minutes. According to Busse, the police entered the abortion clinic and remained there for over 30 minutes. When they emerged, the suspected assailant was not with them. “I got a good look at him,” said Busse, “I would recognize him if I saw him again.”
Sidewalk counselor Kathy Mieding said that prior to the attack, she saw that the man’s rantings were growing more hostile and tried to diffuse the situation.
“He was saying the most awful things to these poor men as they prayed. When he began spitting on them, I tried to get his attention to get him away from them. It all happened so fast," Mieding said. "I was attacked by a pro-abort at a prayer service before myself, and the man escaped in the confusion. But I got a good look at this one.”
Mieding noted that there were several young men loitering outside the Albany clinic front doors as the altercation occurred. She also suggested that that it was most likely that the attacker was there with a woman inside having an abortion, possibly a late term abortion because the man claiming during his rants that he had been there for a few days.
Rudny was treated on the scene, but taken to a local emergency room for further treatment. Walsh was also treated on the scene, but because his injuries were on the skin, he was not sent to the hospital.
“Imagine the headlines that would have been generated if it was a pro-abortion protestor that was attacked by someone who was pro-life,” speculated Jim Finnegan, and pro-life sidewalk counselor and director of Vote Life America. “It would have been splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the Midwest. But because a pro-lifer got attacked, to our biased and anti-life media it’s a non-event. It’s sickening.”
Busse noted that there are two outside video cameras maintained by the abortion clinic, one of which had a clear view of the attacker. But when police inquired about obtaining the tape, the clinic workers said the video cameras were turned off. During the assailant’s tirade against the praying men, a side door from the clinic was used several times by customers and employees.
“That man’s screaming was definitely heard by the people inside the clinic,” said Busse. “And they didn’t turn on the cameras? They didn’t come out to investigate what was going on?”
Busse concluded that this could only be possible if the man was with a woman who was inside having an abortion or recovering from one. The man’s sudden disappearance is also suspicious. “He was on crutches of some kind,” said Busse. “How could he just disappear like that?”
The Albany Clinic is owned by Edward Allred, who operates the Family Planning Associates Medical Group. Tim Murphy of the Pro-Life Action League estimated that Allred operates or controls as many as 30 abortion mills across the country, making him one of the largest abortion businessmen in the country.
Detectives from Jefferson Park Precinct 16 in Chicago would not comment other than to confirm that they had sent officers to the Albany Clinic and that an investigation into the attack is underway.
Though shaken up by the attack, Rudny is undaunted and not intimidated. “We’ll be back next Saturday, he said. “We’re there every Saturday praying the Rosary.”
There's so much truth in that comment.
If the tables had been turned, the attack would have been labeled a "hate crime." But since the ones attacked were actually standing up for what is right, it's merely "simple assault."
Grrr.
There is money in those murder mills. Ka-ching! Ka-ching!
Fitting name for a man covered in the blood of innocents.
Yeah, All-green might be more fitting with all that green money streaming in.
Or, All-gold for that gold mine he's laid back in.
So now "Family Planning" includes killing ones' children before they are born?
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