White Male Pro-Life Terrorism

Anybody who has watched a single episode of "Criminal Minds," or read a news story about serial killers knows the profile. White male between the ages of 18 and 55. Childhood bed-wetter. Criminal escalation through animal torture, arson, increasing violence against women. Then, murder.

Now a profile of the Prolife Terrorist is emerging.

White male between 18 and 55? Check.

Bed wetter? Jury's out.

Animal abuser? Check.

Violence against women? Check.

New wrinkle: Vandalism against abortion clinics? Check. Both Dr George Tiller's murderer, Scott Roeder, and the recent Colorado Planned Parenthood murderer, Robert Dear, glued locks shut on women's clinics.

Here's a thought-provoking article about "white male terrorism", which, while long on white entitlement and rage, is rather short on the "male" part.

Another based on court documents submitted by an ex-partner of Dear's is rather more forthcoming about the "male rage," misogyny, and religion parts.

By January 1993, she had had enough. In a sworn affidavit as part of her divorce case, Ms. Micheau [the ex] described Mr. Dear as a serial philanderer and a problem gambler, a man who kicked her, beat her head against the floor and fathered two children with other women while they were together. He found excuses for his transgressions, she said, in his idiosyncratic views on Christian eschatology and the nature of salvation.

“He claims to be a Christian and is extremely evangelistic, but does not follow the Bible in his actions,” Ms. Micheau said in the court document. “He says that as long as he believes he will be saved, he can do whatever he pleases. He is obsessed with the world coming to an end.”

In short, these are men motivated by rage and religion.

And oddly, or not, both the rage and the religion are focussed on women.

So, not surprisingly, but critically, they are finally mobilized by the relentless, violent, misogynist rhetoric from right-wing nutbars, who in the United States are terrifyingly mainstream, represented by Fox News and every Republican presidential candidate, perhaps most notably Carly Fiorina, who not only clings to her lies about the discredited Planned Parenthood videos, but who is now attacking the "left" for suggesting she played a role in the Colorado massacre.

Also among the terrorism enablers and mobilizers are every anti-choice individual and organization that repeats the hateful lies that demonize abortion providers and the people who need them.

And now this kind of terrorism has a name: stochastic terrorism*. (This piece is from 2011, but the term is cropping up again now in light of the most recent example in Colorado.)

Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to incite random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable. In short, remote-control murder by lone wolf.

Here is Valerie Tarico on the Colorado murders.

The formula is perversely brilliant:
1. A public figure with access to the airwaves or pulpit demonizes a person or group of persons.
2. With repetition, the targeted person or group is gradually dehumanized, depicted as loathsome and dangerous— arousing a combustible combination of fear and moral disgust.
3. Violent images and metaphors, jokes about violence, analogies to past “purges” against reviled groups, use of righteous religious language — all of these typically stop just short of an explicit call to arms.
4. When violence erupts, the public figures who have incited the violence condemn it — claiming no one could possibly have foreseen the “tragedy.”

Use of terms like "Nazi," "genocide," "holocaust," and "slavery" abounds, in addition to the usual "killing," "murder," and "dismemberment."

Here's the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform's (yep, that's the name, though I call them the Fetal Gore Porn Gang) "Genocide Awareness Project", a gory duplicitous display trucked around to university and college campuses, as "a powerful way to compel thought and dialogue."

Its spokesthingy, Jonathan van Maren, wrote a beaut of a piece at LieShite, denying any responsibility on the "pro-life movement's" part, while simultaneously demonstrating how stochastic terrorism works.

Joyce Arthur, of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, gives his brain-fart a thorough fisking here.

Sample:

“We will not allow Planned Parenthood and the abortion movement to climb atop a ‘moral high ground’ created from the chopped-up body parts of human beings they have dismembered…”

You’re inciting violence, right there. Also, please stop erasing women and the fact that they need abortion care, which is why abortion providers are there, to protect women’s lives.

I share this blogger's question: Why aren't the inciters of crime -- the radicalizing mobilizers -- prosecuted?

Or as is said in another context: Let's shut down their churches, dismantle their funding networks, block their websites, arrest the ringleaders, and discredit their parrots and followers.

White male prolife terrorism. It's real and way more likely -- seven times more likely -- to kill us than any other religious fundamentalist terrorism.

[Reality note: I said much of this about Bill O'Reilly after he successfully incited the assassination of Dr Tiller. So.]




* Of course, in Canada, we had another recent and vivid display of stochastic terrorism. The mindless, relentless repetition of "jihadi terrorists" hiding behind niqabs at citizenship ceremonies backfired spectacularly on the loathesome Conservatives, but resulted in some real violence and terror for Muslim Canadians.

About those 'peaceful' anti-choice protesters. . .

Now that the MSM has twigged to the Jubilee Jailbirds, some sensible stuff is appearing. Here's Colby Cosh calling BS on the 'civil disobedience' claim by serial convicted clinic harasser and bully, Mary Wagner.

Because, you know, going where you're not wanted, upsetting people, and getting into a 'tussle' is totally like Martin Luther King or Gandhi or Jesus or something.

Look what just happened yesterday in Oregon.

Tolhurst, who gave his address as a motel, had been protesting by himself since June outside the health center. He came and went on a bicycle, with his signs in a duffel bag, said Myrna Shaneyfelt of Josephine County Right to Life, who sometimes stopped by to encourage him and warn that he was vulnerable protesting alone.

Josephine County is a real nice place for abortion clinic harassment/bullying.

Settled during the Gold Rush, politically conservative Grants Pass has a long history of anti-abortion activism. Josephine County Right To Life holds an annual parade, and the city is the hometown of Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon*, convicted of firebombing abortion clinics and the 1993 shooting of a doctor in Kansas who provided abortions. She is serving an 11-year term in federal prison.

What actually happened is in dispute. It seems a young woman was going into the clinic -- where abortions are NOT performed by the way -- and took exception to the loser's signs. She kicked one over.

Then he pushed her. She left and came back with her father who pushed the guy back and punched him in the face. The guy had a knife and stabbed dad 'several times'.

Dad had emergency surgery and is in stable condition. Daughter has cuts on her hand. Nutbar had bruises on his face.

Police are investigating various claims of self-defense.

Or maybe 'civil disobedience' was the cause of the stab wounds.

Cosh is generous to the fetus fetishists, noting that a majority of them are probably not deranged losers, who may or may not be armed.

But enough of them certainly are deranged losers with a fetish not only for fetuses but for violence.

And today on twitter, another lovely example of the double fetish.

@realtinconnor Roeder and Hill** were more noble than you, fool. #prochoice is a euphemism for #prodeath. Be #prolife. @personhoodflpac

— Jim Jordan (@jamesdjordan) October 7, 2012

All abortion clinics should have bubble zones around them. About a mile in diameter should do it.



*We remember Shelley Shannon, don't we? She shot Dr George Tiller in both arms in 1993. Roeder just finished the job.

**Both Roeder and Hill assassinated abortion providers.

Assassination-Enabling Legislation

Now, if Scott Roeder had only waited a bit and lured Dr. George Tiller to South Dakota, that 'justfiable homicide' defense would have worked jim-dandy-great.

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Jensen, a committed foe of abortion rights, alters the state's legal definition of justifiable homicide by adding language stating that a homicide is permissible if committed by a person "while resisting an attempt to harm" that person's unborn child or the unborn child of that person's spouse, partner, parent, or child. If the bill passes, it could in theory allow a woman's father, mother, son, daughter, or husband to kill anyone who tried to provide that woman an abortion—even if she wanted one.

Jensen did not return calls to his home or his office requesting comment on the bill, which is cosponsored by 22 other state representatives and four state senators.

"The bill in South Dakota is an invitation to murder abortion providers," says Vicki Saporta, the president of the National Abortion Federation, the professional association of abortion providers. Since 1993, eight doctors have been assassinated at the hands of anti-abortion extremists, and another 17 have been the victims of murder attempts. Some of the perpetrators of those crimes have tried to use the justifiable homicide defense at their trials. "This is not an abstract bill," Saporta says. The measure could have major implications if a "misguided extremist invokes this 'self-defense' statute to justify the murder of a doctor, nurse or volunteer," the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families warned in a message to supporters last week.

The Excited States is becoming unrecognizably insane.

ADDED: PZ Myers's take.

Yahoo! Ham Sandwiches All Round!

Short squib from AP:

A federal grand jury is investigating whether last year's murder of a Kansas abortion doctor was connected to a broader case involving radical anti-abortion activists, a federal law enforcement official familiar with the case said Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several federal civil rights prosecutors were holding grand jury proceedings in Kansas City, looking into whether a broader case surrounded the May 2009 death of Dr. George Tiller. Tiller was among the few late-term abortion providers in the U.S. before he was fatally shot in his Wichita, Kan., church by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder.

Back in February, we noted that a federal prosecutor was sitting in on Roeder's trial.

One of the offences he -- and hopefully the whole gang of confederates and enablers -- could be charged with is violation of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. These scumbags need to be taught that there are serious repercussions to cheerleading violence against medical practitioners. It's probably too much to hope for, but we've got our fingers crossed that the feds go after the biggest loudmouth of them all.

And we're hoping that the feds have a good prosecutor on the case.

An aphorism in criminal law states that "A good prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich."

MORE. Yup, it seems they're looking for a conspiracy. Two of Roeder's former roommates say they've testified. One named Tim Parks said:

“Based on the questions they asked, they are looking into whether others were involved,” Parks said. “It appeared to me that they are trying to find or fabricate a conspiracy.”

The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.

Also called to appear were members of Roeder's bible study group.

The grand jury hearing apparently focused not on Roeder’s friends in the anti-abortion movement, but on the Bible study group.
. . .

Parks said the federal investigators asked him numerous questions about Roeder’s associates.

“They said something like, ‘Scott doesn’t seem like a lone gunman. He’s not a doer, he’s a follower.’ ”

And inquiring minds would like to know -- a follower of whom?

Is God being cruel to Scott Roeder?

After all, the murderous fetus fetishist claimed to have acted in His Name.

Alas, His servant is now serving time in jail and Roeder does not like it one bit; he has filed a complaint about his treatment there.  The news report is followed by comments such as:

On a certain level, I have compassion for any human being in prison. I would never wish prison rape or any of the other horrors of our American prisons visited on anyone, not even Roeder.

But I sure do not feel sorry for him now that the reality of life in prison has so thoroughly cleared his mind of the religious delusions.

I just want to say: Scott Roeder, you should have left "God's work" to him. God can manage his own universe without your help, thank you very much. If you had minded your own business, Dr. Tiller would still be alive - women would still be able to recieve the medical help they need - and you would still be free to roam happily about the country as a crazy person.

Too late now for regrets. Enjoy your new accomodations provided by the good citizens of the State of Kansas. And by the way, there are innocent people in prison who are doing their time like men, so sit down and shut up. You deserve to be there.

&

I wonder if he has ever stomped his way back to his cell, whining "I wish I'd never been born!"

How long will it take before Roeder starts trading information about the nature of the support his accomplices provided in the killing of Dr Tiller, in exchange for "better" treatment?

We do hope that the caged bird will sing - loudly.

Un grand merci to our regular reader Croghan for the tip.

Hard 50!

Scott Roeder, confessed assassin of Dr George Tiller, will be 102 years old before he is eligible for parole.

Good.

Kansas is not a death penalty state (surprised? I was), but it does have a mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder, the crime Roeder was convicted of last January (plus two counts of attempted murder of the witnesses, additional year each for those).

The only discretion the judge, Warren Wilbert, had in sentencing was whether to grant eligibility for parole after 25 years or after 50 years, the so-called 'Hard Fifty'.

The judge figured that stalking the doctor for months and choosing to kill him at his church because his clinic was 'like a fortress' -- gee, who's to blame for that? -- merited the extra 25.

At the sentencing hearing, the judge allowed a couple of fellow and sister fetus fetishists to testify -- as long as they stuck to Roeder's character and stayed off the subject of abortion, which they seemed to have done.

Then he let Roeder himself speak.

In his statement before the court Thursday, Roeder said he didn't think he deserved the Hard 50. He claimed his views had been silenced by the court. He described late-term abortion procedures. He claimed he killed Tiller "so he couldn't kill again." The decision was to do so was most agonizing. He called Tiller a "hit man" for the state of Kansas and spoke of judgment day coming and God avenging the deaths of aborted babies. Then he started reading from 'Why shoot an abortionist?' by Paul Hill, who was executed for murdering an abortion provider.

And it went on and on and on. It was as if Roeder were trying to filibuster his way out.

Judge Warren Wilbert grew tired of it all.

It ended thus:

The judge and defendant engaged in a dialogue when Wilbert stopped Roeder from criticizing a sitting district attorney.

"If you were to obey the higher power of God, you would acquit me," Roeder said.

"If you think you were going to convince me with some oratory plea, it's not going to happen," Wilbert said.

There are other accounts of his biblical ravings, complaints about not being allowed to show aborted fetus pr0n to the court, and his likening of himself to jeezuz, which I'll spare you.

All of which prompted a a columnist in the Kansas City Tribune to claim that the sentence was wrong. Roeder is nuts, he says, and should have presented an insanity defense.

If Roeder is mad, it's a virulent and common strain of insanity, particularly in the Excited States. Viz., the Tea-Baggers.

Let's have a look at LifeShite's spin:

Scott Roeder, the former militia activist not affiliated with any pro-life organization, was sentenced to life in prison today for the 2009 murder of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.

The rest of the piece makes absolutely no mention of his ranting, his claims to Christianism, or reading of Paul Hill's book. Just a simple murder, justice done, nothing to see here, move along, folks.

What we at DJ! want to know is: are there conspiracy charges in the works for his f.f.friends? And how about federal charges under the FACE Act? Yes, FACE is meant to protect clinics and Dr Tiller was murdered at his church, but couldn't there be a cogent argument made that FACE applies precisely because Dr Tiller and other abortion doctors are forced to turn their clinics into fortresses, a fact FACE's existence recognizes? And therefore determined assassins must stalk their victims to other killing zones?

I'm wondering, though, if the additional 25 years will act as a deterrent to other would-be martyrs. Would someone stop and think: 'OK, I'm prepared to risk throwing away 25 years of my life, but 50? Hell, no!'

I don't think so, either.

With Friends Like These. . .

Catching up on Roeder now.

First, it is still possible that federal charges will be laid against him.

For a week, a federal investigator sat in a Wichita courtroom and listened to testimony that Scott Roeder murdered abortion provider George Tiller.

Even after the conviction came a week ago, federal investigators are still at work.

They are looking into whether the 51-year-old Kansas City man truly acted alone; at least one Roeder supporter made a striking comment about the crime last week. They might consider federal charges against Roeder as well.

It's happened before: Two other anti-abortion activists who killed abortion providers in the 1990s were charged with violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, signed into law in 1994 to prevent clinic violence. Like Roeder, the activists also were convicted of state murder charges.

Why push for federal charges when prosecutors already are assured of a long sentence?

"Additional penalties that can be assessed," said Richard Levy, a University of Kansas law professor who followed Roeder's trial. "That way, they could avoid any chance of him ever being paroled.

"Another reason for a federal prosecution is that if there might be others involved, a federal case might provide a vehicle for getting that information, whereas the state may not have an interest or the wherewithal to investigate a conspiracy that involves people in several states."

Well, we know good and well others were involved.

Federal authorities last week heard Roeder tell jurors that he began thinking about killing Tiller as far back as 1993, when Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon shot Tiller in both arms as he was leaving his clinic. During cross-examination by Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston, Roeder said he sought out people who shared his belief that killing abortion providers was an act of justifiable homicide.

Roeder testified that he visited Shannon in prison in Topeka and that he admired her for shooting Tiller. He also said he and Shannon applauded others who had been involved in abortion-related violence.

"And these individuals were people you might have counted among your friends?" Foulston asked.

"Yes," Roeder replied.

On February 2, Shannon issued a statement from prison.

In her e-mail, Shannon said the judge had been influenced by media and abortion rights activists who said that if Roeder had been allowed to use that defense more abortion doctors would be killed.

"Abortionists are killed because they are serial murderers of innocent children who must be stopped, and they will continue to be stopped, even though Scott didn't get a fair trial," she wrote. "May God bless Scott for his faithfulness and brave actions and stand."
. . .
FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said Shannon's e-mail was not specific enough to require investigation.

We remember nutbar Shelley Shannon, don't we? She was going to contribute her prison cookbook for the aborted (snerk) fundraiser for Roeder's legal costs.

And speaking of legal matters, Roeder's lawyers yesterday signalled their intent to ask for a new trial or order of acquital.

Among other reasons, they cite a decision by the judge at Roeder's trial last month to not allow jurors to consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Apparently, such moves are routine, but the lawyers might wish they'd checked on what one of their client's good friends was up to yesterday.

Army of God associate and good buddy of Roeder's, Dave Leach, posted a YouTubed interview with Roeder.

As he awaits sentencing for first-degree murder, Scott Roeder said in an interview released Monday that he has little sympathy for Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller’s family.

“The fact that George Tiller was involved in the practice that he was, similar to that of a hit man, if you could have sympathy for a hit man’s family, that is the sympathy I would have,” Roeder told anti-abortion activist Dave Leach in interviews recorded last week from jail. “If they would have talked the man into stopping his practice many years ago, this would not have had to happen.”

Leach intends to post a series of such interviews.

But this may not be such a shit-hot good idea.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said Roeder’s statements could be used against him at his sentencing.

“Typically, in this kind of case, the defendant would want to do everything he or she could do to avoid a stiff sentence,” Tobias said. “So what lawyers tend to advise their clients — and clients usually follow their advice — is to say nothing, just because of the concern about prejudicing the sentencing.”

However, he added: “There hasn’t been very much that’s been normal about this case.”

I ask you -- could Scott Roeder be a more perfect patsy for the fetus fetishists?

Roeder Verdict

I've already said that I've been a bad blogger lately. So, catching up.

The Roeder verdict.

To no one's surprise, he was found guilty. What has been commented on is the speed.

The jury took just 37 minutes to convict born-again Christian Scott Roeder for shooting George Tiller, 67, in the forehead as he attended church last May. Roeder, a 51-year-old airport shuttle driver, faces a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

While there was some alarm when the -- as it turns out, very conscientious -- judge allowed the defendant to offer his 'justification' for the assassination, after Roeder's testimony the judge nixed that.

"It would be hard for a reasonable fact-finder to find anything other than the defendant formulating his belief and then planning on multiple occasions ... to carry out his intention to [kill] Dr Tiller," the judge said. Roeder did not deny it.

One wonders why Roeder didn't go for the mad as a hatter defence.

He told the court that he had made up his mind 17 years ago to kill Tiller, who was one of only three doctors in the US to carry out abortions late in a pregnancy.

Roeder said he considered hiding on a roof looking down on Tiller's clinic in Wichita to shoot him with a sniper rifle, or smashing his car into the abortion doctor's vehicle and chopping Tiller's hands off with a sword. But Roeder said he abandoned the latter idea because Tiller would still be able to teach others how to carry out abortions. In the end, Roeder walked up to Tiller at the doctor's Lutheran church and shot him in the head.

Now, about whether the anti-choice forces should wear this. Interestingly:

Roeder's lawyer told the jury how his client had grown increasingly frustrated over the years by the continued operation of Tiller abortion clinic despite a vigorous campaign against it by anti-abortionists. The clinic was bombed in 1986 and the focus of a mass blockade five years later.

So. The anti-choicers make big (fund-raising) claims about shutting Dr Tiller down. They don't. Some nutbar gets 'frustrated'. And assassination ensues.

This murder is definitely on them. And Bill Fucking O'Reilly too, of course.

And, today, a jury member speaks.

Abortion?

"It was never spoken of," said the 54-year-old, whose first service as a juror came in a trial that drew reporters and activists on both sides of the abortion issue from coast to coast.

He said the jury discussed only the question of whether Roeder was guilty of first-degree murder for shooting Tiller while Tiller served as an usher in his Wichita church, and whether Roeder was guilty of aggravated assault for pointing a handgun at two people who tried to block his escape.

Because of security concerns, the juror asked that his name not be used. He said he didn't want to take any chances that someone might lash out against him.

The guilty verdict was unanimous from the beginning of the deliberations, he said.

"There wasn't much to argue about."

They found the evidence against Roeder "overwhelming."

That's why it took only 37 minutes to decide, he said.

Then there's this rather chilling -- but really not surprising -- news.

For security during the trial, he said, jurors were picked up at an undisclosed location. Officers carefully checked vehicles used to transport them, passing mirrors underneath.

The measures reassured him.

"We never felt like we were in any danger."

He said he wanted to give "a big thank you" to Sedgwick County sheriff's officers and to District Judge Warren Wilbert, who presided over the trial.

"He was very passionate about our safety," the juror said of Wilbert. "He went to great lengths" to protect the jurors' identities.

So, it is mostly over. The anti-abortion terrorists and enablers did not get the circus they hoped for.

Justice was done and swiftly.

Next, the sentencing. In Kansas, first degree murder merits a life sentence, usually with no chance of parole for 25 years. But there is another option -- something called 'Hard 50'. No chance of parole for 50 years. There's much speculation on whether the prosecution is going for it.

I'm hoping so. Roeder is in his 50s. Hard 50 would about do it for me.

No 'Necessity Defence' for Tiller's Killer

Scott Roeder, confessed assassin of Dr George Tiller, will not be allowed to use the 'necessity defence', a judge has ruled today.

WICHITA — A Sedgwick County district judge ruled this morning that Scott Roeder's murder trial will begin next month in Wichita and limited the use of the so-called "necessity defense."

But Judge Warren Wilbert said he would "leave the door open" for Roeder's defense to present other evidence and arguments that he killed Wichita abortion provider George Tiller in belief that he was saving the lives of unborn fetuses.

That leaves open the possibility that Roeder's public defenders could ask jurors to consider crimes less than first-degree premeditated murder. Kansas law, for example, defines voluntary manslaughter as the "unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force."

. . .

Wilbert said that he will not, however, allow Roeder to use what has been called a "necessity defense," where the defendant claims that he or she broke the law to prevent a greater harm. Roeder has said he killed Tiller to save the lives of fetuses who were being aborted.

But Wilbert said the necessity defense is not recognized under Kansas law, and appeals court have ruled it unacceptable in cases of trespassing on abortion clinics. If courts have ruled it not a viable defense in misdemeanor cases, it wouldn't apply to murder, Wilbert ruled.

Earlier in the day, Wilbert ruled that the defense would not be allowed peremptory jury strikes based on a juror's beliefs about abortion.

More information on the 'necessity defence':

The necessity defense has been used with sporadic and very limited success in the area of civil disobedience since the 1970s. The most common circumstances involve public protests against Abortion, Nuclear Power, and Nuclear Weapons. Virtually all abortion protesters who have tried to avail themselves of the defense have lost. The courts have reasoned that because the right to an abortion is constitutionally protected, it cannot simultaneously be a legally recognized harm justifying illegal action.

Indeed, it was used unsuccessfully by Shelley Shannon who was convicted of attempted murder for the crime of shooting Dr Tiller in both arms in 1993.

We'll be following the circus trial in January.

Dr Tiller's Assassin Confesses

Looks like he's going with the 'imminent danger' defence.

The man accused of shooting a Kansas abortion provider has confessed to the killing to The Associated Press, saying he has no regrets.

In a telephone call from jail today, Scott Roeder told the Associated Press: "Because of the fact pre-born children's lives were in imminent danger, this was the action I chose."

I figured he'd take this route. I hope it works as well for him as it did for Paul Hill.

New York Gets Tough on Anti-Abortion Violence

Here's a direct result of the assassination of Dr George Tiller -- a tough new law in New York intended to protect abortion clinic workers, patients, and volunteers.

Lynne Slepian picks her public appearances carefully — and sparingly — since she was thrown into the public eye after the slaying of her husband, Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, by an anti-abortion activist with a rifle in October 1998.

But she did not hesitate to attend Thursday’s news conference trumpeting the enactment of a law toughening state penalties for violence committed against reproductive health care workers.

“It’s extremely important,” she said of the new law after the news conference. “This is the crux of the whole issue. It’s going to set a precedent for the whole country, we hope. The issue [of clinic violence] is not going to go away. The issue will never go away. Hopefully, strong penalties will decrease the violence.”

The law was championed by Buffalo Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and was passed quickly with support from both parties in the Assembly and the State Senate.

The main provisions of the new law include:

• Causing physical injury to someone at a reproductive health clinic rises from a misdemeanor to a new Class E felony that can lead to a sentence of up to seven years in prison.

• Causing serious physical injury becomes a Class C felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

• Repeat offenders can face more serious charges and longer sentences than they now do.

• Volunteers are explicitly covered under the new law, in addition to people providing or obtaining reproductive health care.

And police are taking it seriously.

More than 80 law enforcement officials, reproductive health care providers and advocates from across New York last Wednesday held a conference at state police headquarters to discuss how to better protect reproductive health care workers from anti-abortion terrorism.
. . .

Reproductive service providers such as Planned Parenthood find themselves targeted by anti-abortionists, even if they do not provide abortions, said [deputy secretary for public safety Denise E.] O'Donnell.

"The employees and volunteers who provide reproductive health services face violent rhetoric and threats far too often," Hoyt said. "[The bill's] purpose is to penalize criminal, violent conduct that causes injury to these health care providers and patients."

Some reproductive health care workers shared their stories with police at the conference.

"We had a long history of dealing with harassment," said Paul Drisgula, co-president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson in Schenectady County. "We know what works and what doesn't work.

"Over the years, we have developed an incredible communications network," he added. "We wouldn't be able to have the communications that we have without the state police intervening for us."

Maybe the cops in Kansas will get the message.

A week before Dr Tiller's murder, accused assassin Scott Roeder was recognized as a 'regular' and chased away after trying to glue the locks shut at an abortion clinic in Kansas City. The clinic worker properly informed the FBI because damage or destruction at clinics is covered by the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). But there was no follow-up.

Remember that Roeder was well-known to the Kansas City FBI. In 2000, he was strongly suspected of glueing locks at the same clinic several times. The vandalism stopped then after the FBI had a word with him.

Lynne Slepian is probably right -- anti-abortion violence will never go away. But cooperation and vigilance from police plus stronger penalties would go a long way to help reduce the potential for it.

Best seller? You betcha!

As CC asks in Canadian Cynic: Coming soon ... where could all those pre-publication sale orders possibly be coming from?

We at DAMMIT JANET! have some ideas regarding readers for Palin self-agrandizing opus memoirs too. And also.

How about this potential market? After all, if zygote zealots would contribute to Scott Roeder's criminal defense fund by acquiring some unique The Fetus©™ fetishists ephemera and artefacts from anti-abortion terrorists, they're bound to want to buy Sa-wah's book.

Double the rightwing batshit crazy bang for the buck!

Get your anti-abortion terrorism fetishes here!

There's one word for this: surreal.

An Army of God manual. A prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons. An autographed bullhorn.

These are among the items that abortion foes plan to auction on eBay and other Web sites in a fundraiser for Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

“This is unique,” said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who will sign the bullhorn. “Nobody’s ever done this before. The goal is that everybody makes money for Scott Roeder’s defense.”

One abortion-rights leader called the auction deplorable and said it could lead to more violence.

“The network of extremists promoting and defending the murder of doctors is contributing to escalating threats against clinics and doctors across the country,” said Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

These twisted fetishes represent a veritable Who's Who of the anti-abortion terrorists who enabled the assassination of Dr George Tiller.

The Army of God manual is a handbook on tactics to shut women's clinics down, including bomb recipes, donated by Dave Leach, who reprinted the 'underground' manual in 1996.

The prison cookbook's author is Shelly Shannon, in prison until at least 2018, for shooting Dr. Tiller in both arms in 1993.

And there will be other items associated with other 'heros' of the anti-abortion terrorism gang.

Dinwiddie is a friend of Roeder. She also was a friend of Paul Hill, who shot an abortion doctor and his escort to death in Pensacola, Fla., in 1994. Hill received a death sentence for the killings and was executed in 2003.

“Regina is digging out her old VHS tapes of Paul Hill in her home praying before Shelley’s trial,” Leach said. “She wants to start that one off at $500.”

The bullhorn autographed by Dinwiddie is similar to those she used when protesting outside abortion clinics.

The money raised will go to Roeder's defense. Roeder is pretty thrilled about it, having been thrown under the bus by another prominent gang of terrorists, Operation Scumbag Rescue.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “I appreciate all of the efforts going into that. I’m all for anything that might bring some donations in.”

I have some thoughts about other items that might fetch a few dineros from the demented.

How about some fake anthrax letters identified by the FBI as coming from Army of God members?

Maybe some good old-timey 'Wanted' posters featuring abortion-providers?

And, to go with that bullhorn, a blood-stained autographed copy of this:



written by the cheerleader-in-chief for Dr Tiller's assassination.

Roeder Watch

In the comments to this post at JJ's, I discovered Roeder Watch, a site devoted to keeping track of the trial -- and no doubt antics surrounding the trial -- of accused assassin Scott Roeder.

I'm going to put it in our blogroll.

Roeder + Operation Rescue = Assassination

In a longish piece in the Kansas City Star, accused domestic terrorist Scott Roeder addresses several topics, including his enablers:

In a phone interview Friday, Roeder said he was upset at the president of Operation Rescue, Troy Newman, who had condemned the killing and said his organization had nothing to do with Roeder.

“He said that I never was a member and I never contributed any money,” Roeder said. “Well, my gosh, I’ve got probably a thousand dollars worth of receipts, at least, from the money I’ve donated to him.”

Roeder said he wrote Newman a letter from jail.

“I told him, ‘You better get your story straight because my lawyer said it’d be good for me to show that I was supporting a pro-life organization.’ ”

Newman said Friday he didn’t believe Roeder gave money to his group.

“We have a database, but I haven’t been able to find him in the database,” he said. “If he did (donate), we have probably over the past 10 years over 50,000 people who have contributed to us.”

Well, no, Newman, because your database like your website has been scrubbed.

But I understand that the FBI has some pretty smart tech-dudes and dudettes who could unscrub the database to prove conspiracy charges against you and your organization in Dr Tiller's assassination.

Bonus: The New York Times has a comprehensive piece on Dr Tiller's persecution.

Added: His preliminary hearing is scheduled for this Tuesday.

Compare and Contrast

Amy Goodman absolutely nails it in Two Standards of Detention.

On the one hand, a white Christian charged with murdering a doctor in a church:

Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion zealot charged with killing Dr. George Tiller, has been busy. He called the Associated Press from the Sedgwick County Jail in Kansas, saying, “I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.” Charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault, he is expected to be arraigned July 28. AP recently reported that Roeder has been proclaiming from his jail cell that the killing of abortion providers is justified. According to the report, the Rev. Donald Spitz of the Virginia-based Army of God sent Roeder seven pamphlets defending “defensive action,” or killing of abortion clinic workers.

Spitz’s militant Army of God Web site calls Roeder an “American hero,” proclaiming, “George Tiller would normally murder between 10 and 30 children ... each day ... when he was stopped by Scott Roeder.”

The site, with biblical quotes suggesting killing is justified, hosts writings by Paul Hill, who killed Dr. John Britton and his security escort in Pensacola, Fla., and by Eric Rudolph, who bombed a Birmingham, Ala., women’s health clinic, killing its part-time security guard.

On Spitz’s Web site, Rudolph continues to write about abortion: “I believe that deadly force is indeed justified in an attempt to stop it.”

Then there's a brown Muslim charged with, well, um, being a host.

[Fahad] Hashmi is a U.S. citizen who grew up in Queens, N.Y., and went to Brooklyn College. He went to graduate school in Britain and was arrested there in 2006 for allegedly allowing an acquaintance to stay with him for two weeks. That acquaintance, Junaid Babar, allegedly kept at Hashmi’s apartment a bag containing ponchos and socks, which Babar later delivered to an al-Qaida operative. Babar was arrested and agreed to cooperate with the authorities in exchange for leniency.
. . .
Fahad Hashmi was extradited to New York, where he has been held in pretrial detention for more than two years. His brother Faisal described the conditions: “He is kept in solitary confinement for two straight years, 23- to 24-hours lockdown. ... Within his own cell, he’s restricted in the movements he’s allowed to do. He’s not allowed to talk out loud within his own cell. ... He is being videotaped and monitored at all times. He can be punished ... denied family visits, if they say his certain movements are martial arts ... that they deem as incorrect. He has Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) ... against him.”

Hashmi cannot contact the media, and even his lawyers have to be extremely cautious when discussing his case, for fear of imprisonment themselves. His attorney Sean Maher told me: “This issue of the SAMs ... of keeping people in solitary confinement when they’re presumed innocent, is before the European Court of Human Rights. They are deciding whether they will prevent any European country from extraditing anyone to the United States if there is a possibility that they will be placed under SAMs ... because they see it as a violation ... to hold someone in solitary confinement with sensory deprivation, months before trial.”

Well, lest we get all Canucky smug, don't forget white (religious affiliation unknown) Canadian Brenda Martin convicted of fraud in Mexico, whose case attracted the attention of the highest Canadian government officials who went so far as to spend $82,000 on a chartered airplane to fly her home.

On the other hand, for brown Muslim Canadian Abousfian Abdelrazik, cleared of all charges, not so much.

Blob Blogging Wingnut: Shut up, Roeder. Just shut up.

LuLu at Canadian Cynic: What’s the big deal?

Shrieeekkk! Blob Blogger Wingnut is accusing mainstream media such as the Associated Press, of covering the minutiae of Scott Roeder's lonely life behind bars in order to attack the pro-lies, abortion criminalizing, The Fetus©™ fetishizing movement.

This is what got HERSELF's knickers all in a knot.

DAMMIT JANET! encourages Scott Roeder to blab as much as he likes and wants to. Especially to the press.