Category: Articles

He was no friend to women… The following article was from the saynsumthn blog by Carole Novielli:

An off-duty police officer cannot get his job back after insulting an anti-abortion demonstrator’s weight to show that “the truth sometimes hurts,” a federal judge ruled.

Dick Lalowski worked as a police officer in Des Plaines, Ill., from 1994 until 2008, when he was fired after a hostile off-duty interaction with anti-abortion protesters.

In May 2006, Lalowski was on duty and in uniform when he drove by an abortion clinic and told a group of anti-abortion demonstrators not to impede traffic or stop anyone from entering the clinic. He admits that the interaction was adversarial.

Approximately 15 minutes later, Lalowski returned his equipment to the police station and went off duty. He testified that he was upset at the demonstrators’ display of images of aborted fetuses.

“At that time I was thinking about why would somebody put those signs out there, why would anybody who was trying to help people do that [?] I had to know,” Lalowski said in his deposition (brackets in original).

Lalowski then returned to the abortion clinic in plainclothes and in his personal vehicle. He approached a demonstrator, Paula Emmerth, asked her if she remembered him from earlier. He then told the woman that he was off duty and “not here representing anybody.”

When Lalowski asked “why she had to show those signs,” Emmerth replied that she wanted to tell the truth about abortion.

Lalowski responded: “OK. Let’s talk about the truth then. You’re fat.” He told the demonstrators that they should not display the signs because “the truth sometimes hurts,” and that such images could upset a woman who had miscarried.

When Emmerth refused to take down the signs, Lalowski called her a “fat fucking cow” and a “sinner of gluttony.” He then got down on his hands and knees to show her some exercises she could do to lose weight.

Lalowski told Emmerth she would be a beautiful woman if she was not so fat, and asked her sarcastically if she was hiding food somewhere.

During the one hour and 20 minutes he spent at the demonstration, Lalowski also compared the activists to the Taliban and compared the aborted fetus displays to an image of a Catholic priest leaning over a small boy.

Two demonstrators called 911 to request assistance, but it is unclear if the police acted upon these calls.

Based on this incident, the Board of Fire & Police Commissioners fired Lalowski for conduct unbecoming a police officer. Lalowski challenged the decision, arguing that he was exercising his right to free speech while off duty.

On review, U.S. District Judge James Zagel found that Lalowski’s conduct undermined the public’s confidence in the police force, a matter of far greater concern than his unprofessional comments.

“Although I think it a serious stretch, at this stage I am willing to accept plaintiff’s argument that when he called Emmerth a ‘fat fucking cow’ he intended it as a pointed example of how the truth can hurt, as part of his broader argument that sometimes the starkest forms of truth – i.e. graphic images of aborted fetuses – must be softened to facilitate constructive discourse,” Zagel wrote.

He added: “However, I find that defendants had a legitimate overriding interest in prohibiting their officers from using such profane and insulting language toward members of the public. Public trust in the police is critical to effective law enforcement and it is seriously eroded when police officers are perceived as abusing their authority or behaving unprofessionally. The public is far less likely to cooperate with law enforcement if they anticipate they will not be treated with respect – or worse, subject to verbal abuse. It is difficult to imagine more abusive language than calling someone a ‘fat fucking cow.’”

A number of demonstrators testified that they felt scared and intimidated by Lalowski’s presence and felt helpless in the face of a police officer “out of control.”

“It is difficult to imagine anything more damaging to Defendants’ legitimate interests (or basic social order) than a citizenry that fears its own police force,” Zagel wrote (parentheses in original).

“Plaintiff’s behavior was not only embarrassing for the police department, it undermined public confidence that its officers could be trusted to act within the boundaries of the laws they are charged with enforcing,” he added.

“Given its attenuated connection to any issue of public concern, its profane and insulting nature, and defendants’ overwhelming legitimate interests in prohibiting such speech, I find that Plaintiff’s repeated use of the phrase ‘fat fucking cow’ is not protected and served as a legitimate basis for his discharge,” the judge concluded.

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In a 1992 handout, author Jed White of Operation Rescue National told the story of baby Tia, a little girl who was aborted in the fifth month of pregnancy. Because she had been a victim of an abortion by induced labor, Tia’s little body was intact and unmarred. (See left) A pathologist was given Tia’s body to dispose of by the abortionist who killed her. However, struck with sympathy, the pathologist gave Tia to pro–lifer Rev. Robert Schenck of Buffalo, NY, for proper burial. A mortician offered his services and cared for Tia’s body, but Rev. Schneck was unable to bury the little girl because cemeteries all required a death certificate, and Tia’s life and death were never acknowledged.

While technically New York State at the time required a death certificate to be filled out for each abortion, these laws were not always followed. Tia’s mother most likely paid cash and the records were never made.

This all took place during the time when Operation Rescue was staging large demonstrations outside abortion clinics, and squaring off against vocal, often violent pro-choicers. Rev. Schneck and his brother took Tia to a demonstration in Buffalo, New York and displayed her to the crowd.

Rev. Schneck, who was holding Tia, was attacked by a violent proabortion demonstrator who grabbed Tia and threw her to the ground. The Schneck brothers were then arrested by police at the scene.

When asked what the charges were, the arresting officer said “I don’t know.” Within the next several weeks, charges were amended several times and then dropped. The Schnecks were released.

An Erie County medical examiner had seized Tia’s battered body and refused to give her back to the pro-lifers. In his autopsy report, he pronounced her “a human body” and “a stillborn.” However, he refused to state the cause of death, and never ruled on whether Tia was “stillborn” as a result of an abortion procedure.

All this was recorded in Jed White “Baby Tia” Operation Rescue National, 1992

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This is from a brochure by Priests for Life’s Father Frank Pavone that can be found here.  Priests for Life has been kind enough to allow me to republish material from their site. The pictures of unborn babies throughout are my addition. All of the babies pictured could be legally aborted in at least one US state. 

Most people admit that abortion is wrong; surveys show, in fact, that half of all Americans are willing to call it “murder.” (See, for example, the January 1998 New York Times/CBS News Poll.)

Yet a disturbing number of these same people will not do anything to stop it. They say, “I believe abortion is wrong, but I do not want to impose my morality on others.” In other words, it’s wrong, but it’s a private wrong. If I think it’s wrong, I won’t do it. If someone else does it, that’s none of my business.

This attitude has been expressed in a bumper sticker that says, “Against Abortion? Don’t have one!” and in the assertion that the opposing sides in this controversy should simply “Agree to disagree.”

Yet we simply don’t look at most moral problems this way. We do not hear people say, “I would never abuse my child, but if the other person wants to do so, that’s her choice.” Nor do they say, “I would never commit a violent crime, but if someone else chooses to do so, that’s none of my business.”

Many do not want to “interfere” with someone’s choice to have an abortion. Yet it would make perfect sense to “interfere” with that same person’s choice to steal your car, burn your house, or kidnap your child!

The fact is that some choices have victims, and when somebody’s choice destroys somebody else’s life, that’s everybody’s business.  It is, after all, the business of love to intervene to save our brothers and sisters in need.

People need to know that abortion is their business. They need to de-isolate the issue. People understand that we have to intervene to help the poor, the AIDS victim, the drug addict, the victim of crime and war.  Even if we do not know their names, or have never seen the faces of these victims, we know it is our business to help them. There is no reason to isolate abortion in a category of its own, where all the rules of human decency suddenly change. Who is the child scheduled to be aborted today? That child is your sister, your brother.

Some claim they are free to believe that the unborn are not human lives. That’s fine. But to claim the right to destroy them in practice is a different matter, no longer involving only beliefs, but bloodshed, not only viewpoints, but victims.

Abortion is our problem, and the problem of every human being.  We are one human family. Nobody can be neutral on abortion. It involves the destruction of an entire group of human beings!  Just as we cannot be indifferent to the killing of a new born baby, so we cannot be indifferent to the killing of a preborn baby.  We all share the responsibility for people who are in danger.  Injustice to any person in this world is injustice to every person!Even when we understand this, we are often afraid to act. We can gain courage, however, from the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, a man fell in with robbers.  A priest and a levite came by, but did not stop to help. Despite their knowledge of the Law and Prophets, they walked right by. Why?

One of the reasons may be that they were afraid. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is a dangerous road. Because of its numerous steep curves, it lends itself to attacks by robbers who can easily hide not too far  from their victims. Perhaps the priests and levites who passed by that man asked themselves, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? Maybe the robbers who attacked him are still here.  Maybe they’re hiding just around the bend. This is a dangerous road.  I better keep going.”

Sometimes we ask the same question.  If I speak up too loudly about the victims of abortion, what will happen to me? Will I face persecution, will I encounter opposition, will I lose popularity if I get involved in a cause like this?

And then the Good Samaritan came along, and he reversed the question.  He didn’t ask, “If I help this man, what will happen to me?” The Good Samaritan asked, “If I do not help this man, what will happen to him?”  And that’s the question for us.  If I do not address this evil, what will happen to the unborn? If I do not get involved, what will happen to those who are vulnerable, to those who are marginalized our society, those who are oppressed, those who have no one to speak for them?

The abortion problem involves us all. Its solution must also involve us all. Get involved today!

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

— Elie Weisel, Holocaust survivor

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