Project LPPPA Notable Incident Reports

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The KANSAS COALITION FOR LIFE, Project Love, Prayer, and Persistent Political Action

5575 South Mosley Street, Wichita, KS 67216-3631 PHONE: (316) 522-8866 FAX: (316) 522-8833

INCIDENT REPORT: Mark S. Gietzen

Friday, September 21, 2007
Shift Start:	Shift End:
6:53 AM	7:59 AM

Just after 7:am, while Dale Weldy and I, Mark Gietzen, were setting Crosses, and while Charles McConnell was holding his sign at the corner of Kellogg and Bleckley Streets, Tiller's Personal Body Guard, who today is acting as Tiller's Armed Security Guard, John Rayburn, opened Tiller's gate for the day, using his remote control.

John drove into Tiller's parking lot in his blue pick-up truck and parked on the southeast side. As he exited his vehicle, I asked him to come over to the gate so that we could talk.

I knew that he was a bit mad at me for taking the photos of him yesterday evening, but at that time I knew nothing of what had happened between him and Donna Lampkin yesterday. (See Incident Report 2007-Sep-20 under Donna Lampkin's name). I got that report after returning home from my morning shift.

That being the case, I certainly did not expect John Rayburn to emotionally explode as he did... normally I am able to talk to John in a civil manner. But instead of talking, John went off in a tirade like I have never seen from him before.

At first I told him that I was surprised that he had used that "smelly substance" to intimidate the volunteers yesterday, and I said that I doubted that it was legal to do so, in that it affected not only KCFL volunteers, but anyone who happened to be on the public side walk.

My intent was to handle this between the two of us without having to involve the Wichita Police.

John immediately began yelling at me, saying that it was perfectly legal for him to do whatever he wanted to do on private property! Then he went into several other unrelated topics, using profane language and continuous threats.

He stated that he is going to hire people to come out and break the Crosses, and that he will have people out here to counter what the sidewalk volunteers are doing, which he described as "harassing clients," making them get confused and making them feel bad.

As to the Truth-truck, he said that he did not know who it is in City government that is "protecting me", but that he was going to find out soon, and that this ______ is going to stop!

He objected to the folding table on-site, and he does not like the fact that we are recording license tag numbers on that table. He told me that I have gone way too far, and that this ______ is going to stop, because he is "declaring war on us", starting immediately!

I just listened and let him vent.

Eventually he stomped off, went inside and turned the water sprinklers on, getting Dale and I wet as we continued putting up the Crosses.

About 45 minutes later, after we had set all the Crosses, and wanting to continue the talk, (and still unaware of what had happened between him and Donna yesterday) I put down some sidewalk chalk on the driveway, using my standard message "STOP - ABORTION KILLS BABIES AND HURTS WOMEN".

I always use my standard message as a way of calling the guard out to the gate to talk to them, and today I did not want to enrage John further with a more provocative of personal message.

When he came out with the water hose to wash off my chalk, he refused to talk to me.

I even mentioned Carl Swinney's name, but all I got from John at that point was a very dirty look!

He still refused to speak to me.

It was only after I got home, and listened to my voice recorder, that Donna Lampkin's report on the incident yesterday, helped me understand the sequence of events that led to his outrage this morning.

<<UPDATE 8:pm>>

Note: No Crosses were broken today, and no smelly substance was placed at the gate. John was gone by the time I got back out on-site to pick up the Crosses, most of which were picked up and stacked neatly by KCFL Volunteers, David Schmidt and Diana Dorland.