A Texas man faces felony charges after filing a document in a federal court theatening to use deadly force at a women's clinic to stop an abortion. Source. Erlyndon Joseph Lo of Plano, Texas has been arrested and charged with federal crimes after filing a complaint in a supposed class action lawsuit against the Supreme Court, seeking some $999 trillion in damages and seeking to force the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Lo's complaint named a specific clinic at which he would take a human life, purporting "My religious beliefs include the beliefs that an individual is alive at the moment of conception, abortion is murder and is the worst murder of all murders possible because these babies are completely defenseless, and I am entitled under my religious beliefs to use deadly force if necessary to save the innocent life of another". The FBI and local authorities provided security at the named clinic until Lo was apprehended. No one was injured.
This time.
When Scott Roeder walked into the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, put a handgun to the head of Dr. George Tiller, and pulled the trigger it was not a random act of violence. It was not a crime of passion. It was not a robbery gone bad. It was not the inexplicable act of a psychopathic murderer. It was terrorism.
According to the criminal code of the United State terrorism is "violent or life-threatening acts that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and... appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping." 18 U.S.C. 2331. The assassination of Dr. Tiller served his killer's political purpose of coercing women into not exercising their "unalienable right" to their own bodies, of intimidating reproductive physicians into not offering legal and necessary medical services, of influencing public policy concerning reproductive health and constitutionally protected rights. The assassin succeeded; late term abortions have plunged in the State of Kansas. Source. The terrorist won, perhaps a small victory, perhaps a temporary one, but still the terrorist has won.
Yet our political leaders at the highest levels seem incapable of responding appropriately, condemning domestic anti-abortion terrorism for what it is and proposing effective strategies to combat that terrorism. President Obama issued a "Statement on the Murder of Dr. George Tiller" saying only: "I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence." Source. United States Attorney General Eric Holder added his own statement, "The murder of Doctor George Tiller is an abhorrent act of violence, and his family is in our thoughts and prayers at this tragic moment. Federal law enforcement is coordinating with local law enforcement officials in Kansas on the investigation of this crime, and I have directed the United States Marshals Service to offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation. The Department of Justice will work to bring the perpetrator of this crime to justice. As a precautionary measure, we will also take appropriate steps to help prevent any related acts of violence from occurring." Source. Kanasas Governor Mark Parkinson couldn't be bothered to issue an official statement, but only gave this tepid remark to the press after being pressured by the AP, "I am shocked by this senseless tragedy. My thoughts are with Dr. Tiller's family during this difficult time."
Source.
Murder? Yes. Abhorrent? Yes. Tragic? Yes. But what else is it, and why can't that word be uttered in an official statement?
Our political leaders lack the will to face domestic terrorism, preferring to pretend it is something else, something less dangerous, less threatening. That failure breeds only more terrorism. Terrorism is different from other crimes. Its core purpose is to create fear, to have that coercive and intimidatory effect, and spilling the blood of innocents generates that fear quite effectively. It demonstrates to the intended target, the civilian population, that the authorities cannot protect them. Most importantly, when one act of terrorism succeeeds it breeds only more, and more violent, terrorism. When the government refuses to even acknowledge domestic anti-abortion terrorism, it not only precludes the effective development of strategies to counter that terrorism, but it adds to the climate of fear that is the very purpose of that terrorism. Not only does the terrorist act say to society that the authorities cannot protect you, if you seek to assert your constitutionally protected rights, but the government itself is saying that it will not even try.
Dr. David Gunn assassinated in Florida in 1993. Dr. John Britton and James Barrett assassinated in Florida in 1994. Lee Ann Nichols and Shannon Lowry assassinated in Massachusetts in 1994. Officer Robert Sanderson assassinated in 1998. Dr. Barnett Slepian assassinated in New York in 1998. These are only a few of the names, among countless acts of violence, arson, bombings, only those who lost their lives to domestic terrorism. There are many more names of those injured, physically and emotionally, while the authorities hide their heads in the sand. Source
Now we have Erlyndon Joseph "Joey" Lo. The complaint he filed in the Eastern District of Texas, better described as a diatribe, is heavily excerpted in a press release by the United States Attorney's office in the Northern District of Texas:
My life is at stake. I could be MURDERED AND KILLED as early as Friday, April 2, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. NOON in Dallas, Texas ("TX") if you do not IMMEDIATELY GRANT MY REQUEST for in the very least a TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER!!!
I plan on saving at least one human life in Dallas, Texas at 12:00 p.m. at the Southwestern late-term abortion facility, 8616 Greenville Ave. at Royal Ln. (NE corner), Dallas 75243.
My religious beliefs include the beliefs that an individual is alive at the moment of conception, abortion is murder and is the worst murder of all murders possible because these babies are completely defenseless, and I am entitled under my religious beliefs to use deadly force if necessary to save the innocent life of another.
[Specific facts: ON FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2010, TOMORROW, I WILL BE AT THE SOUTHWESTERN LATE-TERM ABORTION FACILITY LOCATED AT 8616 Greenville Ave. at Royal Ln. (NE corner), Dallas 75243, I will try to stop an abortion using oral words, and if words are not enough. I will use physical force if necessary, and if anyone tries to physically stop me, I will overcome that force, and if I must use deadly force to defend the innocent life of another human being, I will.
Source. What would have happened if Lo had acted first, and made his diatribe public only after yet another assasination? We cannot pretend that all acts of terrorism can be prevented, but unlike common criminals terrorists explicitly publicize their intentions and their deranged political views. Publicity, before and after they act, is the sine qua non of terrorism. In this case Lo publicized his intentions with so much specificity that the authorities were forced to act. But who would have died if he had dissembled? The anti-abortion terrorists are not shy about stating publicly that they consider political assassination to be justifiable homocide. They openly discuss the ways and methods and purposes of such violence, and they publicly hail the assassins as heroes. By not calling such acts terrorism, the government legitimizes speech in support of assassination. Speech advocating the repeal of Roe v. Wade, speech addressing a viewpoint of abortion as morally insupportable, is legitimate political speech. Speech equating abortion with murder is on the borderline, on the constitutionally protected side of that line, but still on the edge. Speech equating the assassination of medical doctors and their staff with justifiable homocide is terrorism. Words can be weapons more effective than bullets.
It is long past time for our leaders to stop treating anti-abortion violence and incitement to violence as politically inconvenient, and to start calling it and treating it for what it is: terrorism.