Pro-life witnessing meeting increasingly hostile response:
Angelica Vecchiato
Campaign Life Coalition’s co-youth coordinator Josie Luetke was assaulted at Jackson Square in Hamilton on July 14 during pro-life witnessing with CLC’s summer interns.
Luetke, 26, along with CLC’S 10 summer interns were participating in peaceful pro-life activism. The students, between the ages of 16 and 27, were handing out brochures as they carried signs depicting the medical realities of an abortion procedure.
The afternoon activism session was interrupted when a tattooed white male of medium build in his 30s, wearing black shorts and shirt, violently threatened and later physically injured Luetke.
The attack on Luetke followed a previous assault on the interns. Earlier that afternoon, a man had thrust pornographic images in the faces of the young apprentices in an effort to discount abortion victim photography with which the unidentified man apparently took issue.
“I was talking to one of the other interns and the man came right up in front of me,” Luetke told The Interim about her assailant. “He wanted to show me something on his phone and started sticking it in front of my face. I walked away because I thought he was showing me porn, like the last guy who bothered us. He then began cussing.”
Throughout the afternoon activism and during the assault, Luetke was holding a camera, as she typically does while witnessing with the students. As the assailant walked away from Jackson Square, he said that he “would put a bullet in” Luetke’s head, if she “kept on shoving the camera” in his face.
“As he walked away, I took steps after him saying you ‘can’t say things like that.’ That’s when he rushed up to me, and he hit me, which sent the camera flying out of my hand. I initially thought the video camera was damaged, but it’s not. I have a small bruise on my hand—it’s slightly tender there.”
The camera filmed the entire assault.
According to Luetke, the assailant had “every intent of knocking the camera out of my hand”, not caring if “he hurt” her. Although the event was unsettling for her, Luetke believes the pornographic attack earlier that day was more disturbing because the perpetrator “didn’t care about the emotional repercussions of his actions.” She said the man who made the youth view the pornography on his mobile phone assaulted the innocence of the students.
Intern Kim Headley was sitting on the ground when the physical assault ensued. “I took a break from the sun and Josie went to see if I was okay,” she told The Interim. “The attacker took off his backpack and charged towards her. He hit Josie’s hand and the camera went flying pretty far,” said the 27-year-old.
Although Headley doesn’t know if the Roe v. Wade overturn was a contributing factor to the attack, she thinks that there will be an increase in violence against pro-lifers following the decision. “We will see more violence, but we will also see more support. People will think being pro-life is socially acceptable now since abortion is now found to be unconstitutional in the States.”
Pro-lifers shouldn’t get used to this violence, said Luetke. “I’m very used to people swearing at me or insulting me, but it’s crossing the criminal threshold when you get into death threats,” said Luetke. “A lot of pro-lifers expect to get harassed, so when it creeps into criminal territory, we tend to shrug it off. We have to insist on our ability, publicly, to do activism without getting used to violence.”
Luetke has filed a report with the police. The Hamilton police have been able to trace down the assailant, who had a previous criminal record. They are currently following up with his employer now.
The man behind the porn incident is yet to be identified.
Later in the summer, on August 11, Juan Senisterra from Hamilton Against Abortion was attacked on the corner of James and Wilson while partaking in peaceful Choice Chain activism with CLC’s summer interns. A heavy-set elderly man with rounded glasses and shoulder length gray hair charged at Senisterra and punched his signage with violent force. The assailant proceeded to throw the sign on the road, where it was run over by passing cars. The 38-year-old activist suffered no injuries. An official complaint has been lodged with the Hamilton police.
