On his last show, Keith Olbermann has called for a semi-boycott against Fox. I do support such boycott. Nevertheless, there is something more that we can do: the case won by the Southern Poverty Law Center for Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw against Tom and John Metzger’s White Aryan Resistance and the trials against the hate media at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of 2003 could be starting points of a new juridical milestone and a good way to honor Dr. George Tiller.
I wasn’t expecting to make this entry. I expect some of you find it useful.
In his last show, Keith Olbermann asked us to semi-boycott Fox News (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...), to ask the owners of business places where Fox News is on air to change the channel explaining them why and take our business somewhere else if those business owners didn’t share our reasons. Nevertheless, there is a legal venue that should be worth the pain to explore.
In 1988 two skinheads attacked in Portland Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw and his Ethiopian companions, killing Seraw. In 1990, Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center (http://www.splcenter.org/...) got Tom and John Metzger (Mulugeta Seraw’s estate v. Tom and John Metzger, Kenneth Mieske, and Kyle Brewster, 1990) to pay, together, with their organization White Aryan Resistance and the two skinheads who perpetrated the attack, a total of 12 million dollars in damages in favor of the family of Mulugeta Seraw (Hate Crimes Revisited. Jack Levin and Jack McDevitt, Colorado, 2002, pp. 100-103). The link to the judgment (http://www.splcenter.org/...) includes the questions asked to the jury in order to reach such judgment. Question number 2 says:
"Did one or more of the California defendants -- through their agents -- substantially assist in, or encourage, the conduct of the Oregon defendants that caused the death of Mulugeta Seraw?"
The jury answered yes. The Metzger had tried to keep distance from the skinheads, the direct attackers, with the same line of defense used by William Pierce after the Oklahoma bombing: He had just used his first amendment so he could not be blamed by McVeigh’s actions. Worse, as Jonathan Turley has reminded us, in the Brandenburg case (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 1969) the Supreme Court declared that violent speech is protected unless it is directed to inciting or likely to incite imminent lawless action. Nevertheless, the jury considered the "encouragement" a key consideration in their decision. Of course, there was another consideration in the verdict: the Metzgers had sent an organizer, Dave Mazzella, to promote violence against blacks and it was Mazzella who contacted the direct perpetrators. Nevertheless, Mazzella’s importance was not to be the middleman in a hit but to be the channel of the Metzgers’ hate message to the direct perpetrators. As the Freemen Militia, to which Scott Roeder belongs, the skinheads had an existence of their own and, as Bill O’Reilly and his employer, Fox News, the Metzgers gave them a justification.
In the murder of Dr. George Tiller, of course, there was not a Dave Mazzella and that is why the role of Mazzella is so important. If his role was to channel the Metzgers’ hate message, as it seems so if you compare his role with that of a middleman in a murder by contract, then Seraw v. Tom Metzger and others is relevant because Bill O’Reilly did not need a middleman to reach Roeder with his hate message.
Maybe you can not prosecute Bill O’Reilly criminally but you can still sue him (like in the precedent mentioned above) and you can sue Fox News as his employer.
The remaining questions are, then:
- Can we prove that Bill O’Reilly’s hate message reached Roeder?
We have a very good starting point: In the link to Olbermann’s show posted above, you find that in the Operation Rescue’s Web page, there is an entry of April 6, 2007:
"Has Bill O’Reilly been invited to any of the Tiller events and if so what has been his reply? Has Fox News covered any of the events?" (April 6, 2007. Source: operationrescue.com).
The ninth comment to this entry, of May 19, said "Bleass (sic) everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and closing of his death camp" and would have been made by Scott Roeder [complete quote below].
Randall Terry, head of Operation Rescue, said of Dr. Tiller, after his murder, that Tiller was a "mass murderer" and that what "he was doing that was literally demonic". Other Far Right anti-abortion groups like ‘Operation Save America’ and ‘Army of God’ have celebrated Roeder’s actions. ‘Army of God’ has actually called Roeder an "American hero".
- Can we prove that Bill O’Reilly’s hate message was strong enough to move Roeder to murder Dr. Tiller?
The same link to Olbermann’s show let us see O’Reilly saying "The Factor has been looking into Dr. George Tiller of Kansas. For $5,000, he’ll perform late-term abortions" and then labeling him repeatedly as "Tiller the baby killer". Worse, in 2006 O'Reilly 2006 said: "[I]f I could get my hands on Tiller -- well, you know. Can't be vigilantes. Can't do that. It's just a figure of speech." (http://mediamatters.org/...) and O’Reilly’s attacks continued even after in 2007 someone named Scott Roeder posted in Operation Rescue’s Web page:
"Bleass everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp. Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller."
Why is this so disturbing? Because Roeder belonged to the "Freemen" anti-government militia group in the 1990s and was once arrested for having bomb-making materials in his car. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...)
As Maddow (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...) mentioned, O’Reilly had been systematically attacking Dr. Tiller since 2005.
- Do we have reasonable factual precedents to appreciate how effective could be the link between hate speech and lone gunners?
Jim David Atkinson engaged in a killing spree in February. Last July he had written "This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate and House, the one hundred people in Bernand Goldberg’s Book." The book to which Atkinson referred was Bernand Goldberg’s "100 people who are screwing up America"
As Rachel Maddow showed last night (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...), the precedents on how dangerous these groups can be. In 1993 Michael Griffin, who also was associated with Rescue America, murdered another doctor. Months later Shelley Shannon shot Tiller in both arms and declared herself a supporter of Paul Hill, who murdered another medical doctor 1994. Six months later John Salvi, killed another doctor and in 1998 Eric Rudolph planted bombs in abortion clinics. In 1998, James Kopp, from the Lambs of Christ, killed another doctor.
- What has been the evolution of the juridical doctrine on hate speech?
I am not a specialist on Rwanda so I will trust Wikipedia on this end (http://en.wikipedia.org/...):
"The trial against "hate media" began on 23 October 2000. It is charged with the prosecution of the media which encouraged the genocide of 1994.
On 19 August 2003, at the tribunal in Arusha, life sentences were requested for Ferdinand Nahimana, and Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, persons in charge for the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, as well as Hassan Ngeze, director and editor of the Kangur newspaper. They were charged with genocide, incitement to genocide, and crimes against humanity, before and during the period of the genocides of 1994. On 3 December 2003, the court found all three defendants guilty and sentenced Nahimana and Ngeze to life imprisonment and Barayagwiza to imprisonment for 35 years. On 28 November 2007, the Appeals Chamber partially allowed appeals against conviction from all three men, reducing their sentences to 30 years' imprisonment for Nahimana, 32 years' imprisonment for Barayagwiza and 35 years' imprisonment for Ngeze."
Of course, the International Court for Rwanda was a criminal court and that is a route that could backfire at the light of the Brandenburg v. Ohio Supreme Court decision of 1969 but trying to use the Seraw v. Metzger and other precedent could prove to be a more fruitful route. Of course, for the same reason, Randall Terry and Operation Rescue could be included in the same lawsuit.
Of course, Roeder is still a ‘person of interest’ but as soon as he is considered the direct perpetrator of the murder of Dr. Tiller, the path I propose here, a civil suit, could be a interesting way to set a precedent that sends hate groups a clear message: The First Amendment will not be abused any more for those who see it as a convenient way to escape responsibility and to continue inflaming and inspiring the direct perpetrators of hate crimes.