Monday, June 01, 2009

SUSPECT IN MURDER OF DR. TILLER SAID KILLING ABOUTION DOCTORS IS JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE

The christo-fascist who is accused of being the trigger man in the murder of Dr. George Tiller believes that killing abortion doctors is justifiable homicide.

Scott P. Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kan., has also had brushes with the law in the past. In one of those he was arrested three days before the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing "after police discovered a blasting cap and other materials to build an explosive device in his car when his car was pulled over because his car was not registered."

His friends say Roeder has supported killing abortion providers.

From McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Suspect in Tiller's death supported killing abortion providers, friends say

The suspect in custody for the slaying of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller was a member of an anti-government group in the 1990s and a staunch opponent of abortion.

Scott P. Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kan., a Kansas City suburb, was arrested on Interstate 35 near Gardner in suburban Johnson County, Kan., about three hours after the shooting. Tiller was shot to death around 10 a.m. inside Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita.

In the rear window of the 1993 blue Ford Taurus that he was driving was a red rose, a symbol often used by abortion opponents. On the rear of his car was a Christian fish symbol with the word "Jesus" inside.

Those who know Roeder said he believed that killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide.

"I know that he believed in justifiable homicide," said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who made headlines in 1995 when she was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. "I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn."

Dinwiddie said she met Roeder while picketing outside the Kansas City Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996. Roeder walked into the clinic and asked to see the doctor, Robert Crist, she said.

"Robert Crist came out and he stared at him for approximately 45 seconds," she said. "Then he (Roeder) said, 'I've seen you now.' Then he turned his back and walked away, and they were scared to death. On the way out, he gave me a great big hug and he said, 'I've seen you in the newspaper. I just love what you're doing.'^"

Roeder also was a subscriber to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated the justifiable homicide position, said publisher Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa.

"I met him once, and he wrote to me a few times," Leach said. "I remember that he was sympathetic to our cause, but I don't remember any details."

Leach said he met Roeder in Topeka when he went there to visit Shelley Shannon, who was in prison for the 1993 shooting of Tiller.

"He told me about a lot of conspiracy stuff and showed me how to take the magnetic strip out of a five-dollar bill," Leach said. "He said it was to keep the government from tracking your money."

Roeder, who in the 1990s was a manufacturing assemblyman, also was involved in the "Freemen" movement.

"Freemen" was a term adopted by those who claimed sovereignty from government jurisdiction and operated under their own legal system, which they called common-law courts. Adherents declared themselves exempt from laws, regulations and taxes and often filed liens against judges, prosecutors and others, claiming that money was owed to them as compensation.

In April 1996, Roeder was arrested in Topeka after Shawnee County sheriff's deputies stopped him for not having a proper license plate. In his car, officers said they found ammunition, a blasting cap, a fuse cord, a one-pound can of gunpowder and two 9-volt batteries, with one connected to a switch that could have been used to trigger a bomb.

Jim Jimerson, supervisor of the Kansas City ATF's bomb and arson unit, worked on the case.

"There wasn't enough there to blow up a building,'' Jimerson said at the time, ``but it could make several powerful pipe bombs...There was definitely enough there to kill somebody.''

Roeder, who then lived in Silver Lake, Kan., was stopped because he had an improper license plate that read "Sovereign private property. Immunity declared by law. Non-commercial American.'' Authorities said the plate was typical of those used by Freemen.

Roeder was arraigned on one count of criminal use of explosives and misdemeanor charges of driving on a suspended license, failure to carry a Kansas registration and failure to carry liability insurance.

He was found guilty and sentenced in June 1996 to 24 months of probation with intensive supervision and ordered to dissociate himself from anti-government groups that advocated violence.

But in December 1997, his probation ended six months early when the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned his conviction. The court held that evidence against Roeder was seized by authorities during an illegal search of his car.

Morris Wilson, commander of the Kansas Unorganized Citizens Militia in the mid-1990s, said he knew Roeder fairly well.

"I'd say he's a good ol' boy except he was just so fanatic about abortion," said Wilson, who now lives in western Nebraska. "He was always talking about how awful abortion was. But there's a lot of people who think abortion is awful."

Suzanne James, former director of victim's services for Shawnee County, said she remembered Roeder.

"He was part of the One Supreme Court, a Freemen group based out of Shawnee County," James said. "He was fanatic about a lot of things. I went to one of his court appearances and thought, 'This guy is dangerous.' There were a lot of red flags that came up about him."

In recent years, someone using the name Scott Roeder has posted anti-Tiller comments on various Internet sites. One post, dated Sept. 3, 2007 and placed on a site sponsored by Operation Rescue called chargetiller.com, said that Tiller needed to be "stopped."

"It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the 'lawlessness' which is spoken of in the Bible," it said. "Tiller is the concentration camp 'Mengele' of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation."

On May 19, 2007, a Scott Roeder commented on an invitation by Operation Rescue to join an event being held May 17-20 in Wichita, "the 'Nation's Abortion Capital,' to pray for an end to George R. Tiller's late-term abortion business and for all pre-born babies everywhere to once again come under the protection of law."

The post said: "Bless 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."


For video reports, click this link: VIDEO REPORT: How abortion doctor's murder unfolded

14 comments:

Unknown said...

These people are complete and utter fucking fools. They devote their lives to destroying a man whose work they don't even understand (or bother to investigate).

I'm so glad I got that story I posted from the person at HuffPo whose cousin had the baby with a fatal bone disease. NOW my argument against the fucking fundie bible-humpers will be: So Dr. Tiller should have let that baby be born even though in the process he/she would have broken every bone in his/her body and been in extreme agony and then died anyway?

That's it in a nutshell. The man saved so many lives. It's such a tragedy.

I hope Bill O'Reilly gets called to the mat for this but I won't hold my breath.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Helen - I'm glad you had that to post, too.

As far as O'Reilly goes....that fucking bastard will be eating this up and will make the shooter look like the offended party in this whole thing.

Riot Kitty said...

So this guy was fucking crazy - just like O'Reilly.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Riot Kitty - I'd say just a little crazier. He fed off O'Reilly's crazy talk and pulled the trigger.

Remember, O'Reilly and all the other fascists/extremists will deny inciting this guy to do anything. Although we all know they did and rejoiced that he did it.

Anonymous said...

I believe that all these people should be prosecuted under Federal Stalking and Hate Crimes Laws. And Have posted my reasoning at my place. I plan to link here and to other blogs because I believe we all have something of value to say on this matter. These differing perspectives offer a depth to this discussion that these Anti-choice, Anti Freedom assholes ignore. Thanks Grandpa for being one of the good guys. No little girl grows up thinking, "Wow, I cant wait til I am a woman and can have an abortion." Its a weighty life changing decision either way you go. I resent these people for trying to defame the women who have this procedure and consider it an option in a given future where bearing a child would be a terrible financial burden, a threat to the mother's life and health, or worse yet, prolonging the life of a fetus or baby, who has a crippling, debilitating disease or defect that lends itself to that tiny soul's own personal hell.

Unknown said...

The wingnuts tend to come from a place of hate and resentment, so it's natural they would gobble up O'Reilly's claim that the doctor deserved death because he was a monster who killed babies for $5K a pop. That's what he's been saying in as much as 29 broadcasts/reports involving Dr. Tiller.

Ignorant, hateful people love to have someone to revile, so it goes without saying these people love to believe that Dr. Tiller is some sort of monster or murderer. It's so galling, it makes me sick.

You could show these people the facts about what Dr. Tiller did - the babies who had no brain, or one with fatal bone disease who would have been crushed in the birthing process - and they will stare at you blank-eyed.

And where is the MSM about this ASSASSINATION??? Silent. Utter bullshit.

IF this doesn't prove once and for all that the mainstream media is owned by the right, I don't know what will.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Seeing Eye Chick - They should either be prosecuted under Federal Stalking and Hate Crimes Laws, or the Anti-Terrorism Laws that were passed during the Bush/Cheney debacle. Either way, this has to be more than just murder or homicide.

Although I may not agree with all the aspects of abortion, I have no right to tell any woman what she can or can not do with or to her body. She has her Constitutional rights just like I have mine.

My wife was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in April of 2005, just 3 months after we were married. She went through chemo treatments, and has remained cancer free...so far. She already said that if the cancer were to return that she would not go through chemo again. Although I don't like the thought of losing my wife, I stand by her right to make her own medical decisions the same way I do with a woman wanting an abortion.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Helen - It seems like hate and resentment is a way of life for them.

The thing that blows my mind is that the most hateful and resentful come from the people who follow a supposed "loving god" and the teachings thereof. I really suppose it shouldn't surprise me though, especially with all the hate for non-believers they have had for 2000 years. And these fucking religious radicals have the fucking balls to say the Muslims are evil!

David Aquarius said...

Lifer wingnuts have no problem washing their hands of this murder. To them its all in a day's work.

This is what they do. They ramp up the rhetoric, knowing that a good portion of their viewers and listeners are getting their emotions played into psychotic territory. They put the victim's face on page one, demonize them into something less than human and machine-gun the reasons for 'eliminating' the problem relentlessly in their media. They know that eventually one or two of the 'sheep' will crack and do the deed.

Shake the bottle enough and the cork will pop. Then blame the cork.

Grandpa Eddie said...

David - You are so right! They wash their hands of this just like they washed their hands of the Crusades and the slaughter of the Native Americans.

"Shake the bottle enough and the cork will pop. Then blame the cork."

Yeah, blame the cork or the person who was killed. These are some of the same people who thinks it's the woman's fault when she gets raped!

David Aquarius said...

These goons are as criminal as Roeder. This is classic blaming the gun, not the shooter analogy. Roeder is a known rightwing loon. He's a tool. A ready-made instrument of death waiting for his masters to pull the trigger.

O'Reilly, Dobson, Randall Terry, the list goes on. Do they know that their words incite this kind of violence? Hell, yes! They count on it. They sow the seeds, fertilize the ground and protect this 'crop' from the eyes of the media.

Harvest time!

Grandpa Eddie said...

David - Roeder is a tool of these criminals who lead him around by the nose. But once they get the desired results they deny having anything to do with any part of it, although they know they got the result they wanted.

They all know they incite these nut-cases, and they use them to the fullest extent.

Unknown said...

I'll bet O'Reilly is on cloud 9. After all, he won.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Helen - No doubt he's on cloud 9, along with Terry and Dobson.

Each of them probably cracked open a bottle of the bubbly when they heard the news of Dr. Tiller's murder.