It’s against the law, Lochner said. Besides, he added, he objected to it on principle.
“I’m making a citizen’s arrest,” Thomas said.
Lochner tried to get in his car. Thomas grabbed him and held him. Lochner, feeling threatened, punched Thomas in the jaw and kicked him, knocking him down.
Thomas got up, opened Lochner’s car door and reached in to take his keys out of the ignition. Lochner grabbed him and threw him out of his car, then drove off.
Talking to the men after the incident, it seems surprising that it erupted into a fight. Lochner and Thomas, an Anaheim business owner, said they regretted their actions; neither man plans to press charges.
Similar situations, some more violent than this one, have been reported up and down the state. The ballot initiative, which would amend the constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, seems to have incited more controversy and conflict — even among usually calm, level-headed people — than most in the recent past.
Sgt. Evan Sailor, a spokesman for the Newport Beach Police Department, said that he can’t think of any other incidents like this one that have happened in Newport Beach during this election season.
But many locals report heated arguments and less-than-civil exchanges about the proposition.
Rev. Sarah Halverson, the senior pastor of Fairview Community Church in Costa Mesa — a church that ardently and vocally supports the right for gays to marry — says that she has been getting angry phone calls from people who say she’s not a Christian and who tell her she’s going to hell.
“People are angry. They’re so passionate about their side,” Halverson said.
