ARTICLES

Riversiders Demonstrate in Mission Hills

Abortionist for Notorious Clinic Lives on Jackdaw

San Diego Police Department presence was unusually heavy on December 16 as over 100 pro-lifers protested Sharp Hospital in Kearny Mesa and the home of abortionist Diana Barrows in Mission Hills. Organized by the California Life Coalition, the protest included members of Operation Rescue, San Diego Christians United, and dozens of people from a Riverside County ministry named "U-Turn for Christ."

U-Turn members led by John Schwab carpooled to San Diego to pray for Barrows, who travels from her home in San Diego to abort pre-born children at Joseph Durante's Moreno Valley and Palm Desert clinics. Durante gained notoriety in 1996 when 27-year-old Sharon Hamptlon of Barstow bled to death following a botched abortion in Durante's clinic by an associate, Bruce Steir.

Starting at 8:00 a.m. at Sharp Hospital, where protesters carried posters of aborted children from the Genocide Awareness Project, pro-lifers were met by at least 15 uniformed and plainclothes officers. Police monitored events from the hospital's parking lot and drove marked and unmarked patrol vehicles, including a K-9 unit and motorcycles, around the protest site at Frost Street and Health Center Drive.

According to California Life Coalition director Cheryl Sullenger, "There was a paddy wagon stationed about a block down Frost from where we were at Sharp. There were three lieutenants supervising our activities: Lieutenant Mark Angus of the Central Division, a Lieutenant Johnson (he didn't say where he was from), and Lieutenant Larry Lindstrom of the Criminal Intelligence Unit." Lindstrom, who drove a 4-door dark green unmarked SUV during the protests, is specially assigned by SDPD to monitor Sullenger's activities; in October, she found out that he has been following her around for years.

After the Sharp Hospital protest, pro-lifers drove to Mission Hills, where they assembled at the intersection of Washington and Goldfinch Streets. After witnessing there with signs displaying Barrows' name and address, Sullenger said "We had a 'parade' which stretched about a block long on both sides of Goldfinch Street that marched through her neighborhood. Two motorcycle policemen led the way. One of the members waved a large Christian flag at the head of the procession."

As with Sharp, police presence was heavy throughout the Barrows protest. Sullenger, who traveled ahead of the marchers to check the immediate neighborhood, noted that police had cordoned off a cul-de-sac in the 1100 block of West Brookes Avenue. "My first thought was that they were trying to control through traffic, but then I recalled turning around in one of the driveways there on one of my earlier excursions into the neighborhood and remembered that it is not a through street. I thought about it later, and it occurred to me that they may have done that in anticipation of mass arrests."

Pro-lifers sang as they twice marched by Barrows' Spanish-style home at 3601 Jackdaw Street. An armed guard stood in her front yard during the event.

At the end of the protest, police in patrol vehicles watched as the group knelt on a public sidewalk where "Troy Newman of Operation Rescue led us in prayer for Barrows' repentance and for the entire neighborhood," said Sullenger. "I was very pleased at the testimony we left there."

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