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Pro-life Volunteer Allegedly Assaulted as Group Unfurls "World's Largest" Sign Overlooking Democratic Convention

By John Jalsevac

DENVER, CO, August 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Tuesday American Right to Life made a world record attempt by erecting a 530-foot tall and 666-foot wide pro-life sign overlooking Denver, where the Democratic National Convention (DNC) is currently taking place.

One of the pro-life volunteers who helped erect the sign told LifeSiteNews today that in the process he was assaulted by a local man who was angered by the giant pro-life display.

The message - claimed by American RTL to be the world's largest sign - initially appeared with three 160-foot tall, bright yellow letters, D-N-C, stacked on top of each other. After those letters appeared on Table Mountain, just west of Denver, American Right to Life unfurled the complete message: Destroys uNborn Children.

Erecting the sign was no small feat. According to the organization the protest sign weighed more than 2,700 pounds and was sewed together with more than four miles of seams connecting 2,400 sheets. It was backpacked onto location and unfurled by 44 letter carriers with spotters a mile away to ensure proper letter placement. Volunteers began to strategically place the sheets around one o'clock in the morning, and did not finish until mid-morning.

17-year-old Josh Craddock, one of the 44 volunteers who helped, speaking on his cell phone from the Rocky Mountains, where he is currently attending a National Speech and Debate camp, told LifeSiteNews that he was assaulted by an angry counter-protestor.

After the massive sign was erected, recounted Craddock, the pro-life volunteers took a break, before beginning to dismantle the giant pro-life message. Craddock says that during that break he saw someone climb the mountain and begin to tear up the sheets that composed the letters. The young man sprinted up the hill and stood in between the man and the sign, telling him that the sheets were private property.

"He basically just screamed a lot of profanity at me," said Craddock. "He shoved me to the ground, down the hill. So I jumped back up and got back between him and the sheets…I called the police and they began to come up the hill. Once he found out that the police were coming - he had shoved me twice to the ground - he acted as if he hadn't done anything."

The man claimed in turn that Craddock had assaulted him, a claim that the pro-life volunteer denies, saying that the only time he touched the counter-protestor was to get out of his grasp.

Craddock said that in the end he chose not to press charges against the man so as to avoid a lengthy legal process.

American RTL Action president Steve Curtis said that his organization decided to attempt to set the world record for the world's largest sign in order to make clear that in nominating Barack Obama the Democratic Party was committing itself to killing innocent human beings.

"The tiniest boys and girls should be loved and protected," said Curtis, "but as nominating Barack Obama emphasizes, the DNC even supports killing kids in the womb old enough to know their mother's voice, sleep and dream, suck their thumbs, and play with their toes."

According to American RTL, the sign erected on the mountain could be seen 10 miles away, including from the hotels where many reporters and DNC delegates are staying.

The Guinness Book of World Records assigned American RTL an official world record attempt number, 228132.

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