Violent Reactions to Pro-Life Exhibit at UMass/Amherst

mass news ^ | April 18, 2003 | By Izzy Lyman

[RaceBannon]

Violent Reactions to Pro-Life Exhibit at UMass/Amherst

By Izzy Lyman April 18, 2003

The "tolerant" types at UMass/Amherst have protested a pro-life exhibit this week by taking crosses off dead babies in a mythical graveyard, throwing them in a pond and breaking them in half.

One UMass/Amherst undergraduate was assaulted while manning the exhibit that was displayed next to the Student Union.

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Taking a stand: Kiera Manikoff, a UMass Junior, is proud of her pro-life and pro-child views.

Kiera Manikoff, a political science major and a junior, scuffled with a female who verbally harassed her and held a hammer over her. Charges are pending against the assailant.

Desiring to start a debate about abortion during Holy Week, members of the UMass Republican Club purchased lumber last week to erect 160 crosses which they painted white. On Sunday night, April 13, the students set up the crosses to simulate an "abortion graveyard."

Signs with provocative messages were interspersed through the graveyard. One sign explained the white crosses: "Abortion kills 160 babies in the U.S. every hour." Another said: "Abortion doesn't make you unpregnant, it makes you the mother of a dead baby."

On Monday morning, Manikoff, a petite brunette, stopped by the display. Club members expected mischief to occur, so Manikoff came prepared with a hammer and nails to repair any signs or crosses. But she was unprepared for an encounter with an irate female.

Sign of the Times: The Republican Club's 'abortion graveyard' featured a placard which notes the scope and frequency of late-term abortions.

"This girl comes up, runs up to the graveyard and picks up one of the crosses and cracks it over her knee. She then goes up to the abortion sign, and she pulls it out," said Manikoff.

Manikoff walked over with her tools and confronted the women.

"I said, 'Excuse me. You may not agree with what I have to say, but you cannot destroy our property. We have a right to do this.'"

The woman responded by telling Manikoff she found the display "horribly offensive." Then the encounter took a physical turn.

"She reaches across and takes the hammer out of my hand, gesturing it in my face and going, 'How dare you as a woman. You should be ashamed of yourself.'"

A scuffle ensued as Manikoff attempted to prevent the larger woman from swinging the hammer. Manikoff ended up on the ground after her assailant pushed her.

Although over a dozen spectators were watching the altercation, only two young men, whom Manikoff described as teenagers, came to her assistance. "We saw the whole thing. We're sorry we couldn't get here in time to get her off you," they said.

The campus police were called, and Manikoff gave them her statement, as did the other woman. The police log describes it: "Caller reporting that she had an altercation with a member of a group who have set up an anti-abortion demonstration on the lawn outside the Earthfood market." They have not released the name of Manikoff's assailant.

UMass Deputy Police Chief Patrick Archibald told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that "The incident is still under review by the district attorney's office. We feel pretty confident those charges [vandalism and assault] will go forward, as well as civil rights charges."

Although she was assaulted for confronting an abortion supporter who vandalized the Republican Club's exhibit, student Kiera Manikoff remains committed to campus activism.

Regarding the civil rights charge, Manikoff said a campus officer contacted her on Tuesday, April 15, and told her that the other woman had "inhibited your right to express yourself."

Dave Peterson, a Republican Club member, was manning the exhibit during the noontime shift on Wednesday, April 16. He said that the incident involving Manikoff was not the only harassment the pro-life students have faced.

Yet Peterson sees the silver lining, "We've gotten a lot of good debate out of it, too."

"I was a little shaken, but it motivated us more," adds Kiera Manikoff of the Republican Club's willingness - as well as her willingness - to continue to take a stand for the pre-born.

Izzy Lyman can be reached at ilyman7449@aol.com.

[mickie]

140 million murdered souls.....RIP.

[Fearless Flyers]

Carol Thought you would be interested in this.

Can you imagine nearly 300,000,000 murders since Roe v Wade and the liberal accomplices blame conservatives for the failure of social security, when they are the ones sytmatically eliminating the continuation of the funding through these blatant acts of homicide.

[sweetliberty]

Looks like a very powerful exhibit. Amazing how liberals hate truth.

[Southack]

"She reaches across and takes the hammer out of my hand, gesturing it in my face and going, 'How dare you as a woman [express a non-approved political position]".

The thought plantation enforcement division seems to be getting a lot of work from its Leftist overseers these days...

[He Rides A White Horse]

Kiera Manikoff, a political science major and a junior, scuffled with a female who verbally harassed her and held a hammer over her. Charges are pending against the assailant.

So it is with the left.

Nah, can't chat with them over differences, they want to hit you with a hammer.

That's all I need to know.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Hey Race..............think about it.........

..............here is a phrase coined by the opposition

........."pro-life Nazi"

......repeat until such term becomes ridiculous.

[WOSG]

The woman responded by telling Manikoff she found the display "horribly offensive." Then the encounter took a physical turn.

Truth Angers those opposed to virtue.

[WOSG]

"One made a comment that an abused child would have been better off aborted than born."

Yeah that's what Hitler said about the jews.

That woman is not pro-choice she's anti-human.

[doug from upland]

Here we go again with the violent left. Why is it that when we protest we do it with creativity and humor and they do it by defecating and vomiting in the street and destroying property? I know why ---- they are lowlife scum.

[ampat]

The continuing pattern of liberals destroying others' property.

[doug from upland]

Because they find it offensive, they would deny the freedom of speech they so cherish. Crosses and signs are offensive but murdering a baby in the womb is not. They truly live in a parallel universe.

[Kuksool]

Wouldn't the university regard the trashing of the exhibit as a hate crime?

[He Rides A White Horse]

One made a comment that an abused child would have been better off aborted than born. So, instead of working to stop abuse, you solve the problem by aborting infants.

Gives me a massive headache.

......makes me really sick.............

[farmfriend]

Ping for life.

[He Rides A White Horse]

There is no shame in being pro-life...........liberal denunciations notwithstanding..

[irv]

One made a comment that an abused child would have been better off aborted than born.

I once stumbled into a good answer for this "quality of life" argument: Frederick Douglas. Born the most abused of people - a slave - Douglas rose to be a great man and a champion of freedom for all. He believed in women's rights, too, though he would not have agreed with someone who thought he would have been better off being killed before he was born.

Just keep in mind that, as the incident described above shows, when you argue effectively against the Left's ideas, they respond badly.

[wolficatZ]

Kiera can be reached through the Minuteman Newspaper also, for messages of support.
http://www.minuteman-newspaper.com/staff.htm

[victim soul]

Anti-abortion display at UMass destroyed

By NICK GRABBE, Staff Writer

http://www.gazettenet.com/04172003/five_col/5200.htm

Thursday, April 17, 2003 -- AMHERST - An anti-abortion display outside the Student Union at the University of Massachusetts was destroyed by vandals Wednesday night, police said.
The display of 160 white crosses, representing the number of abortions every hour in the United States, had previously been the site of vandalism and an alleged assault. It had been up for three days.

UMass police received a call reporting the incident at 11:10 p.m. Wednesday, said Deputy Patrick Archbald. When officers arrived at the south side of the Student Union, they found the crosses broken and strewn around the area, with some in a nearby garbage can, he said.

The incident happened after 8:45 p.m., when an officer on foot patrol noticed that the display was intact, Archbald said. There are no suspects, and the incident is under investigation, he said.

The idea for the display came from David Peterson and Matthew Progen, two members of the UMass Republican Club. They said they saw similar displays in Florida during spring break.

Progen, a senior from Leominster, was standing at the site of the display this morning with tape over his mouth and a sign reading "Silenced by the Radical Left," he reported by cell phone.

"This made me pretty angry," he said. "I spent a lot of time putting this together, and it's opened up a lot of discussion. For people not mature enough to engage in conversation to take out their juvenile aggression this way is disheartening."

- NICK GRABBE

[nickcarraway]

ping

[RaceBannon]

Only if you tell people those crosses represent dead Iraqi children starved by the cruel UN sanctions against the peace loving Muslims in the Middle East, I guess...