Posted on 12/08/2007 1:04:17 PM PST by wagglebee
Video shows angry attack followed by police violation of civil rights
Fort Madison, Iowa – 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. (View video below.)
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.”
Assault at Fort Madison
Uploaded by antiaborticide
Pro-Life Ping
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
This is the problem with liberalism: If you don’t nip it in the bud (like in 1968), generations later even the police end up being a bunch of liberal PC b***ards.
This could only happen with a Clinton thug squad.
Sure is. Disgusting.
He got hit with a club and he was told to leave.The other guy was not arrested.It’s all on the tape.
Press charges and sue. Use the left’s tactics against them. If there’s really a video of this attack, then there should be no problem.
I am NOT defending the police action. But I wonder if Mr. Holman had a protest permit from the authorities? If he did and he was in the space allotted to him the police are in big trouble.
Plain, in you face, unConstitutional fascism. Good thing the protestor didn’t have a little dog with him, the goon probably would have shot it.
As for the lying yokel with the club, I would like to meet him in person, somewhere out of public view.
Click on the link.
Sure, that's what the ACLU is for, right? /sarc off
Around here we call this a .......”you brought a club to a gunfight ?”
Bad decision, not unlike all Clintonista supporters IMO.
Do you need a protest permit?
Club and anti-abortionist and watch the cops threaten to arrest him (on public property)!
Wacky fun!
I doubt a permit was necessary. There did not seem to be many of them. You only need a permit in DC if you have over 25 people.
If he didn’t have a permit the Police should have asked him to move, not some thug with a club.
That is a small town right? The leos probably knew club d00d. In the vid he says something like “I’ll bust ur head with it too” a couple times in front of the cops.
Permit? Thought it was a free country...
“If there’s really a video of this attack, then there should be no problem.”
There’s no video of the attack, it’s all a jumbled mess of stray camera angles.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.