85-Year-Old Knocked Down, Kicked by Man Stealing Pro-Life Banner Outside San Francisco Planned Parenthood

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — An 85-year-old man was recently knocked to the ground and kicked while trying to stop a man from stealing a pro-life banner as he stood praying outside of a Planned Parenthood facility in San Francisco.

The incident, which took place on March 21, was recorded on camera, and occured within seconds.

The footage shows a man taking off with a banner and walking briskly to his bicycle. The elderly man, who is only being identified as Ron, followed behind him and put the stake that held the banner in the spokes of the man’s bicycle to stop him from moving.

The man then shoved the bicycle forward, and Ron soon ended up on the ground.

“Old man, you stay on the ground,” the assailant said as he grabbed into his arm.

Ron clung to the banner that the man sought to steal, and the man pulled back. He then began kicking Ron in an attempt to force him to let go.

The video then ends and one does not see if the man was ultimately prevented from taking the sign, or if Ron let go.

“I tried to keep him from taking it and that was it,” Ron told NBC Bay Area. “Then, he knocked me down and kicked me.”

According to the Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF), which posted the video to YouTube, this was not the first time that the attacker had become hostile.

“Just two days earlier, the same perpetrator threw a sign, table and pro-life literature into the street,” it explains on its website. “He knocked two men to the ground during that incident as well, including the same elderly pro-lifer he attacked again on Thursday.”

Police are now investigating the incidents, however, LLDF says that it has not seen “any additional law enforcement presence” at Planned Parenthood following the attack.

Ron, who suffered bruises from the assault, returned to Planned Parenthood days later. He told NBC that he believes the man simply doesn’t like the group’s message. Ron is a part of 40 Days for Life, a Roman Catholic effort that prays outside of abortion facilities nationwide.

As previously reported, at least two similar incidents made headlines last year: One where a man roundhouse kicked a woman who confronted him for allegedly defacing pro-life signs with a marker, and another where a student at Ryerson University in Toronto began knocking down signs, throwing items and shoving a pro-life woman who was a part of a pro-life effort at the school.

Proverbs 29:9-10 states, “If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest. The bloodthirsty hate the upright, but the just seek his soul.”

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