DENVER—Thirteen anti-abortion activists, including Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, were arrested Tuesday during an orchestrated demonstration in which they blocked a security gate near the site of the Democratic National Convention.
Terry shouted “Don’t vote for Obama” as he was led to waiting sheriff’s van, his hands held together with blue plastic handcuffs. The arrested, including a 78-year-old priest in a black cassock, stood waiting in single file to get into the vans, each accompanied by two police officers. About 50 officers dressed in riot gear stood guard and processed the protesters while people, some with passes to get into the convention, walked by.
At about the same time at the other end of downtown, about a dozen anti-abortion demonstrators rallied outside the Sheraton Hotel, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Hillary Clinton were speaking at a luncheon sponsored by Emily’s List, a group that supports women candidates. One demonstrator held a poster with graphic images and said, “Barack Obama change this.”
Earlier Tuesday, a group of about 50 anti-abortion activists unfurled a huge sign on a mesa west of Denver equating the Democratic National Convention with abortion, but later hiked back up to remove it at the request of authorities. County officials haven’t decided whether to issue any citations. The sign was displayed for about three hours and group president Steve Curtis said the letters were visible from west Denver about 10 miles away.
Terry’s supporters said those arrested downtown included the Rev. Lee Hartley, a Baptist pastor, and two Catholic priests, the Rev. Norman Weslin, 78, and the Rev. Joe Klee of Portsmouth, Ohio. They identified some of the others as Clair Conley of Denver; Mary Colsch, 75, of Caledonia, Minn.; Ron Hartman, 65; Joseph Landry, 27, of Washington, D.C.; David Mitchell, 65, of New Albany, Iowa; Kim Samecki, 29, of Colorado Springs and Brian Sherwood, 35, of Kansas.
Before the convention, Terry met with Denver police and then publicly announced he planned to be arrested.
When Terry and about three dozen protesters arrived at a designated corner Tuesday, a dozen police were waiting on the opposite corner. Prostesters began to recite the rosary.
Terry then announced the plan. He told the group they were going to walk down the block to the DNC gate, sit down in the street and pray. He said the police would warn protesters three times that they would be arrested. Anyone who wanted to leave should do so after the third warning, he said.
He told the few children in the group to remain standing to the side, holding signs.
“You’ll be part of a legal protest that may someday be covered in the history books,” he said.
When the protesters first gathered at the gate, people with convention passes were able squeeze behind them to get through. When protesters sat down in the street, Terry asked an aide for the “red phone,” a cell phone he used to call police. He could be heard saying “Lieutenant, we’re here at the gate.”
Then some of the protesters moved closer to the gate, blocking it. Secret Service officers shut it and directed convention-goers to another gate. Protesters sang a Catholic hymn, “Salve Regina.” They said one Hail Mary for the police officers before a lieutenant approached them. Reading from a card, he cited the city ordinance they were violating and warned them they would have to leave or be arrested.
After he read the warning for a second time, things went slightly off script. Some bystanders began to call on police to arrest the protesters immediately. One man shouted that protesters were terrorists. A protester shouted back, “What do you call abortion?” An officer told the crowd the protesters would be gone in a few minutes.
The lieutenant read the third warning, and Terry reminded anyone who wanted to leave to do so.
As officers lined up to remove the protesters, they began to chant: “Deny Biden communion.” Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Obama’s vice presidential choice, is Catholic.
Police calmly asked the protesters, one by one, if they understood they were being arrested and then led them away.
Some of the protesters chatted amiably with police officers as they waited to be frisked. One woman told an officer she was originally from Boston, and they talked about the Red Sox and his favorite team, the New York Mets.
The sit-in lasted about 15 minutes.
Blogger Dave Winer, whose route through the gate was blocked, said the protesters should have been arrested more quickly.
“I want to get in there and find out what everyone else has to say,” Winer said motioning toward the Pepsi Center.
But the protest did give him some material. He took photos of the protesters with his iPhone and was able to post one while he waited to get across.
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Associated Press writers Mary Hudetz and Chakhan Thomas contributed to this report.
