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Police keep sharp eye on Face the Truthers

Forget about drug dealers, child abductors, car jackers, bank robbers and other assorted lawbreakers-the pro-lifers are coming! When a bunch of them get together in a pack, there's no telling what they might do.

Did police send out an all-points bulletin such as this for the August 12-17 Face the Truth tour?

Well, probably not in those words. But for a ,good part of the tour, they were ,on the Face the Truthers like fleas on a hound dog.

By the morning of August 14, at the Bowie stop, members of the Face the Truth core group became aware that police were keeping a close tab on their movements.

Brigid Prosser spoke to plainclothes officers at the Bowie stop who showed her Maryland State Police badges.

"They said they were there for our protection," said the assistant tour director.

"At Bowie the cops were great," said core member Marty Link. "People came up to yell at us and the cops chased them away!" But the police also copied down pro-lifers' license plate numbers.

From Bowie, said Brigid, the State Police "escorted" the prolifers to their next stop in Columbia, where they were "very helpful." At the lunchtime stop in Columbia, a mix of approximately 12 State Police and Howard County Police, including plainclothes officers, stood around in the shade or sat in marked cars along Route 175, while about 30 pro-lifers held up signs in the noonday heat.

An officer told Tour Director, Kristen Hussle, "If anyone comes out to oppose you, we'll have to ask you to leave." .

"If that happens, we'll talk," was Kristen's wry reply, observing, "That would mean we're both exercising our free speech rights." No pro-aborts appeared, so the officer's interesting take on when First Amendment free speech rights may be employed remained untested.

Defend Life Director Jack Ames noted that police tailed the core group to St. Louis Church in Clarksville, and that they followed Defend Life Field Director Carol Fields all the way to Westminster.

State Police in Westminster had been forewarned and were on the alert.

"I heard from officers in Frederick that the pictures [displayed by the pro-lifers] are extremely graphic," Lt. Terry Katz, commander of the Westminster barracks reportedly told The Sun, adding, "I can guarantee there will be rubbernecking, and I can almost guarantee there will be an accident." Westminster police officers were prepared to back up the State Police.

Contrary to Lieutenant Katz's dire forebodings, however, and despite the fact that about 170 pro-lifers lined Route 140 in Westminster, no accidents occurred at the stop, said Westminster stop co-captain Vince Perricone.

Strangest of all were inklings that police from some unidentified federal agency were keeping an eye on Defend Lifers in Bowie, Columbia and Westminster.

"Some of the kids in the core group noticed police in a Jeep SUV with a Virginia license plate in Bowie. When I went up to talk to them, they disappeared," said Jack.

"A state policeman said they were legitimate law enforcement.

What they were all about, I don't know. It seems bizarre that they were shadowing us." But treatment by police, for the most part, was good, he said.

"They were there to maintain law and order, which is their just function."