Police Apologize After Driver of Truck with Graphic Abortion Images Ordered to Leave Town

Life Site News ^

[Coleus]

OLATHE, Kansas, April 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Chief of Police Janet Thiessen of Olathe, Kansas, has issued a personal apology to Ronald Brock, who was ordered to leave town by Sgt. David Haldeman on Tuesday evening or face arrest. Brock was driving a vehicle with photographs of victims of abortion and victims of the Jewish Holocaust of World War II.

Haldeman has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the incident. Brock confirmed that he received a personal phone call from Chief Thiessen who apologized to him for the incident.   Operation Rescue President Troy Newman received an e-mail correspondence from Chief Thiessen who informed him that an apology had been made and that her officers would be receiving additional training so incidents like this would not happen again.

Sgt. Haldeman had told Brock in a conversation that Brock recorded that he must, "Leave our city, cover it [the signs] up, or be charged, and if you are charged we are probably going to impound the vehicle. So those are your three choices, but leaving this lot is not going isn't going to be sufficient in the city of Olathe."

Chief Thiessen told Newman, "I have personally expressed my regret to Mr. Brock, and apologized on behalf of the Olathe Police Department. At times, the line between what is protected free speech and what may be considered obscene can be difficult to distinguish, but it is my responsibility to ensure all Olathe officers clearly understand the law as it is written and correctly apply that law. Based on yesterday's incident, we have begun providing additional training to all sworn officers to help avoid future incidents of a similar nature."

"We very much appreciate that Chief Thiessen took immediate action to issue an apology and remedy the problem with her officers," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "Violations of the First Amendment are very serious, because it is one of the strongest protections for a free society. We look forward to returning to Olathe with our Truth Trucks and trust that we will be able to conduct our First Amendment activities without further impediment."

[A.A. Cunningham]

There are other laws he was breaking, but not that one.

What laws would those be?

[Gondring]

How about pictures of soldiers torn apart by IEDs? I can just see an anti-war group using that for their next protest.

But that would spark outrage on this forum, whereas people cheer this truck. Makes me sick.

You're right on target.

Hypocrisy has become a mainstay of much (not all!) of the so-called Pro-Life movement these days, especially on FR. It saddens me; the American people tend to hold hypocrisy in worse regard than a crime itself, so it just turns them off!

The next thing that you might see is that if you disagree with tactics and/or bring logic into the discussion, you will be called names, with claims that you favor abortion.

We rightfully recoil from the use of the mutilated Rangers from Mogadishu in political propaganda. Another example would be the body of Daniel Pearl, or of our fallen in Iraq or Afghanistan. The same would be true with exploiting abused children--even if for the goal of reducing abuse of other children. It's not that any of these are good things, but that we must maintain decency or we are throwing out the baby with the bathwater (no pun intended). If we have no respect for humanity, how can we expect an abortionist to respect a human?

[Gondring]

Pro-Life Ping (and BTW, I’m not implying you are one of the hypocrites :-)

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

It is sickeningly obvious that these so called “Doctors” are nothing more than butchers, who hide under a title.

Real Doctors took an oath to save lives, not take them. Partial Birth abortion is pure evil and Nazism. Any image documentation clearly displays that fact. It is beyond barbaric and these “Doctors” who perform them are cold, lifeless, soulless demons who have sold their hearts and souls to the evil they perpetuate.

They will burn for all eternity. God has a special kind of torment waiting for them. And the Democrats who promote and enable them, will share their eternal fate.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Agreed. I wouldn’t want my young son to see this kind of thing.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Disgusting driving this crap around where children can see it.

Well, don't worry too much - 45 million of them have been killed in the last 35 years so it won't much longer before that ceases to be a worry.

[Guenevere]

yeah, like we've won hearts & minds in 35 years by ignoring it and hoping it will go away.

I too hate the pictures, but I hate even more what abortion has done to our nation, its mindset, and hearts & minds of millions of young women, much less the hearts & minds of 50 million dead babies.

[WorkingClassFilth]

I take it you're against the publication and posting of pictures of innocent victims of Islamofascism, too? Pictures like planes crashing into the World Trade Center and people jumping from the windows? Pictures like those plastered all over FR showing people hanging from cranes; women being stoned, beaten or beheaded? Pictures like mass graves full of children? Pictures of naked Jews being lined up for gassing?

IMO, Combat deaths are one thing - graphic evidence of monstrous evil is another.

[Scotswife]

If he had images of dead Iraqi insurgents killed by our troops - he would have been given an escort.

[em2vn]

Util you have a workable solution don’t infringe on the rights of someone else. And, it is a good thing for children to see. They may learn a revulsion for abortion at a young age.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Don’t forge those “prisoners” being “tortured” at Gitmo.

But then, no matter which party wins in November, Gitmo will be history and all those terrorists will be given American citizenship and “justice”. Most all of them will be released due to a lack of evidence and witnesses against them, under the American criminal justice system. (A true oxymoron)

[WorkingClassFilth]

Agreed. The ‘hearts and minds’ tactic, while useful in some venues, is fairly silly if it is employed as the overarching strategy. Didn’t work too well in Vietnam because the moral imperative wasn’t discernable to the Vietnamese - or Americans. In the end, our leaders folded up and moved on because people were tired of the endless words and the ‘youth’ wanted to save their hides (having been well led by their ‘hearts and minds’ through academics and pop-culture).

[em2vn]

“If we have no respect for humanity, how can we expect an abortionist to respect a human?”
That is exactly the aim of the truck.
Why is it you don’t express revulsion at the pictures of Holocaust victims. Is it because they were mostly Jews?

[Gondring]

Uh, I did.

[Gondring]

I too hate the pictures, but I hate even more what abortion has done to our nation, its mindset, and hearts & minds of millions of young women, much less the hearts & minds of 50 million dead babies.

Yeah, and more gun control would stop crime, too, I suppose. Sheesh.

[Doohickey]

In that case all the turds and vomit would be ambulatory - somtimes inside, sometimes outside the bus.

[Gondring]

Pictures like those plastered all over FR showing people hanging from cranes; women being stoned, beaten or beheaded? Pictures like mass graves full of children? Pictures of naked Jews being lined up for gassing?

Yes. Being forced to look at such images (or a couple of guys making out, or a picture of Helen Thomas, or other repulsive images) as I am driving would be not only disruptive, but unsafe. I imagine people would become desensitized to them, too, if forced to view them out of context.

Even pictures of automobile-crash victims (such as a partially beheaded girl, or a boy with his ribcage torn open) would be contextual for road safety, but would still be inappropriate for a vehicle sign.

Now, if you want to put up posters of aborted babies in your own home, or visit the Holocaust museum, that is your right. I'd hope that you'd at least do either with respect for the victims.

[Gondring]

[..] the American criminal justice system. (A true oxymoron)

Funny how we presumed to tell another country how to run things when we feel our own is so flawed.

[Gondring]

Something that’s very annoying about it (besides the photos) is that the driver rarely uses turn signals.

That might involve having respect for someone else.

[Gondring]

Being able to speak freely without censorship?

This has to do with the context. Nobody is preventing them from running these photos in a publication, just like Playboy can run its stuff.

But it's not appropriate for Playboy to run its stuff on the sides of trucks.

This is a question of being disruptive on public roads. If they want to run this truck up and down on private roads they own and maintain, then fine. But just like I can't just impose myself on others by walking down the middle of a public highway or whatever, even if it's for political reasons, there's no right of them to impose on others with this. It's a lack of respect for others.