The Omaha World Herald has joined in the hoopla (along with at least one local TV station and one radio station) and is passing along the hysteria of the Bellevue Police Department that there's mass protest demonstrations heading for Leroy Carhart's trashy abortion business. They're talking about 500 angry anti-abortion protesters ready to shout, carry signs, make threats and -- good grief -- throw rocks.
It's the same kind of tired clichés and laughably scurrilous slander that we've come to expect. The police and the press both know very well that the violence, the lies, and the disorder comes from the abortionists. And yet they continue the canards against pro-life activists.
Very unprofessional. Very dishonorable.
Would you like to know the truth of the matter?
Except for the ongoing sidewalk counseling ministry that occurs there, there are no protests scheduled at all. Count 'em -- zero. No interventions. No marches. No mass gatherings.
There is a fellow employed by Operation Rescue who will be in town sometime in late August for a speaking engagement. One simple speaking engagement which will be, I have no doubt, to a pretty small crowd. That's it, folks.
The Bellevue Police Department (and the media) certainly seem to be overreacting here. I mean, they're gearing up for mass demonstrations. They're bad-mouthing pro-lifers. They're giving personal watchdog service to abortion clinic employees.
They're even monitoring pro-life web sites...like this one.
But that's fine. For perhaps they'll not only learn what the motivations and methods of pro-life activists truly are, but they'll see their ratcheted-up rhetoric and paranoia are unfair and way out of order.
Whatever the motives are, it's time for both the police and the press to get the facts, get some perspective...and lighten up.
