Anti-Porn Gathering Sees Signs of ‘Creeping Evil’ in Suburbia

In strong, clear voices the crowd recited the Pledge of Allegiance, chanting the words with a conviction and purpose rarely heard at public gatherings.

It didn’t matter that no one brought a flag to the first meeting of Antelope Valley Citizens Against Pornography.

The 100 people squeezed into a conference room at Lancaster City Hall turned toward a blank wall and, led by Assemblyman Phillip D. Wyman, recited the creed: “ . . . with liberty and justice for all.”

“Amen!” a man barked.

“We are here tonight to talk about pornography,” began Sterling E. Norris, a prosecutor with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Pornography, he warned the crowd, lies at the heart of the “most heinous crimes you can imagine.”

For the next 90 minutes, his comments would be echoed again and again by Wyman, a Tehachapi Republican, Supervisor Mike Antonovich, state Sen. Newton R. Russell, a Glendale Republican, and Antelope Valley residents who gathered to share their concerns and their fears about pornography and its potential impact on their suburban valley.

Erotic magazines, newspapers and videos, they insisted, can warp a person’s mind, setting the stage for rape, molestation and murder. Society itself can collapse from pornography’s influence, they said.

“God knows we don’t need more broken homes,” Antonovich said. “We don’t need more drug-infested communities.”

Antelope Valley Citizens Against Pornography, spearheaded by Sheryl Schull, a Lancaster resident who quit her job to fight pornography full time, is the second anti-porn group to organize in the high desert in four months. Gene McConnell, a roofing contractor who said he was once “addicted to pornography,” launched Concerned Citizens of the Antelope Valley in October.

“I was a victim of pornography,” McConnell said. His obsession, which McConnell likened to drug addiction, almost destroyed his marriage before he kicked his habit, he said.

After four brief months, McConnell said, his group has a membership of 7,500 valley residents. Schull said she hopes to work with the older group.

Russell, a longtime anti-smut crusader, was in his element when he told the assembly at Lancaster City Hall: “This country has turned away from God and the precepts set down by our Creator.

“Pornography dehumanizes. I applaud your efforts to set a moral standard in this community.”

So far, it’s hard to say how much danger community morals face, at least in the Antelope Valley. Russell asked local sheriff’s deputies to assess the prevalence of porn amid the sleepy housing tracts.

“They have told me that they are not aware of a pornography problem in this community,” he said. A few people in the crowd sighed, skeptical of such a dismissal.

Russell also conceded that researchers have yet to find a definitive link between crime and porn, although he said “hundreds of case studies” suggest such links exist.

But for Russell, and many in the audience, the link is clear enough. Throughout the night, as the speakers recounted tales of murder and rape, the audience was somberly quiet. Many frowned, their jaws set with grim expressions usually reserved for funerals.

Outside, a cold fog blanketed the valley, giving even the bland streets of Lancaster an ominous look. It was the perfect backdrop for what Russell called pornography’s “creeping evil.”

“Who are the victims?” Russell asked. “The kid down the block. Your son’s classmate.”

Many legislators have tried to curtail pornography through legislation but those attempts have been defeated by liberals, Russell complained. Antonovich shared Russell’s disgust. “We cannot allow pornographers to hide behind the First Amendment,” he said.

It was one of the few references to the First Amendment all night.

No one noted that, one day earlier, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that the National Endowment for the Arts could not force grant recipients to pledge that they would not create or show obscene works. Signing such an artistic loyalty oath chilled free expression, the judge said.

But the judge’s ruling never came up. If anyone debated the Constitution, they did so internally. Instead, people shared their fears and horror stories.

“My son was molested,” said one woman, blaming pornography for the assault.

“I just read that an 8-year-old girl was almost abducted in Littlerock,” Schull added. The man remains at large. For Schull the attack shows how young children are “easy prey for those who have been perverted by pornography.”

The attempted abduction was “right around the corner” from Tammy Busby of Littlerock. “That’s very frightening,” she said.

There are four video stores near her home, Busby added. Some people in her own neighborhood, she said uneasily, could be renting erotic videos.

Some speakers lashed out against child pornography, others attacked material which moved into the mainstream years ago. A woman complained about a subscription solicitation from Playboy, with a scantily clad woman on the envelope.

“We have a 12-year-old son at home,” she said indignantly. “This came to our front door. It came to us. I want it stopped.”

Another woman said the new NC 17 movie rating, which replaces the infamous X designation, would let pornographers screen their wares in Antelope Valley multiplexes.

Alta Crusan, director of the Antelope Valley Committee on Aging, shuddered at the thought. “I was shocked at PG,” she said.