Cigar Man

We call the person pictured here, Cigar Man. It's because he waddles up and down the sidewalk in front of the abortion site with a manic grin plastered on his face and an unlit cigar chomped in his teeth. After an incident today when he got his cigar into the face of one of our sidewalk counselors, I decided to reprint some commentary that originally appeared in the August 2012 edition of our Life Advocates newsletter.  

His real name is (we think) Joe Connelly.

About our “friend” the annoying person.  He starting coming out about three months ago.   Here he is pictured below holding his sign that says, “Do the people standing on the sidewalk beside me support the murder of health care providers like Dr. David Gunn and Dr. George Tiller?”   He has stood next to female sidewalk counselors when they are on the speaker and in a loud voice urged them to repent-his rhetoric is somewhat indirect, but that’s its essence.  Many times he has said, “I’ll see you next Wednesday unless your friends kill me first.  He said to a male sidewalk counselor (not me), “I thought you would bring a real man with you today.”   The first time I came to check him out, I videotaped “an interview” with him in which I asked questions about his motives and thinking.  The second time, several weeks later, I called the police, the non-emergency dispatch number, and expressed to the police the following, verbally and in writing: 

 1. We need to know how concerned we should be about this person.  (Does he have a history of violent or psychotic behavior, etc?) 

2.  We want to notify the police of his regular presence. 

3.  We request that the police advise him to not intentionally approach within 15 feet of any of us, especially women. 

   They talked with him and said we didn’t have anything to worry about, but I’m not convinced.  While some of us think he is unbalanced, and that’s a possibility, I’m inclined to believe he’s here to make a point-that he has an agenda to harass us, and his “concern” for abortionists and himself is bogus.   He hasn’t shown up yet today...

I just now found this online:  A WFMY-2 post up of an article from the Asheville Citizen-Times, that refers to Cigar Man.  The title is "Asheville Crowd Rallies For Gun Rights"

Participants carried signs with messages including "Guns have 2 enemies: rust and liberals," "What part of 'Shall not be infringed' confuses you?" and "The Second Amendment protects all the others." 

But Asheville attorney Joe Connelly wasn't there in support of gun rights. He had a sign reading, "Do the people standing on the sidewalk beside me support the murder of health care providers like Dr. David Gunn and Dr. George Tiller?" The message referred to the killing of the two abortion providers. 

"I'm not against guns," Connelly said. "But I am against people imposing on my rights by intimidating me with guns." 

It's hard to believe he's an attorney.  He doesn't seem smart enough.

However, I have wondered for years who the coward was who attacked me anonymously online with these comments.