HUDSON, Florida (www.forerunner.com) – Steve Kinn, a Florida pro-life evangelist and disabled veteran, was knocked to the ground at an Awareness Campaign in Hudson, Florida on Saturday, June 30th, 2012.
An Awareness Campaign is a visit to the neighborhood, workplace or other social setting in which the true nature of the profession of an abortionist or an abortion center owner or worker is exposed to the community.
Jodell Nauert, a Tampa area abortion chain owner, also sings in a country/rock band. She supports a charity for handicapped children and adults called Angelus. She plays at benefit events a few times a year for Angelus.
Steve had come with a group of six evangelists to pass out Gospel tracts and a brochure that describes Jodell’s other profession as an abortion chain owner. According to Steve, this is ironic because “these same kids probably would have been aborted if their mothers had come to one of Jodell Nauert’s three abortion centers just a few years earlier.”
A disabled veteran, Steve walks with a cane, and due to a scuffle that broke out with a man claiming to be the property owner, he reinjured a knee that was surgically reconstructed years ago.
“Here I am a disabled veteran disrespected and injured. The owner of the place grabbed me and pushed me down. I couldn’t move my feet fast enough and I reinjured my leg.”
The police officer at the scene threatened Steve with arrest for trespassing and filing a false police report. Steve had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance where he encountered the officer once again.
Another participant, Deb Maxwell, said the owner of the property, grabbed her purse in which she had brochures and confiscated all the contents including personal items and threw the purse.
According to Jay Rogers, who videotaped the Awareness Campaign for The Forerunner, “This campaign was successful in that everyone immediately knew who we were why we were there. It was apparent the organizers knew we were coming and were ready to throw us out. Steve has steel implants on both knees and has to walk with a cane. He was pushed and one of his knees was injured. He then fell to the ground and could not leave on his own power. This was after the other five of us were thrown out of the event. What happened is about what we expected although it happened very quickly. The reaction was swift and intense.”
Prior to being removed by the owner and security, the group distributed about 100 brochures to families attending the concert and fireworks event. Each of the three groups reported passing out about 30 or 40.
For the next 90 minutes, the Jodell Awareness Campaign stood on the highway adjacent to the property with giant images of aborted children and signs exposing Jodell as an abortion chain owner. The organizers decided to close the main gate where we were standing. People coming later to see the fireworks then were forced to stop at the main gate to ask for directions on how to get in where some gladly received “information on one of the performers at the event.”
This Awareness Campaign was the first one done by the Florida Pro-life Network on private property, Jay Rogers explained.
“We paid to get in and then distributed flyers. We left when they asked us to leave. At all other events, we have been on public property exercising our first amendment rights. We were immediately tossed, but still over a hundred flyers went out. I was taking video, so I was the last person they noticed. But somehow they did recognize me as being one of the ‘group that was causing trouble.’
“My answer was simply that, ‘We are here only because we want to try to help save babies.”
Two Awareness Campaigns at Jodell’s earlier gigs can be viewed below.
