From the Lawrence Journal-World:Three Wichita-based anti-abortion groups say they have received death threats in response to last month’s killing of abortion provider George Tiller.For years, Operation Rescue has received threats, but the number increased dramatically after Tiller’s killing, the group’s president, Troy Newman, said Thursday.
Some of the threats have been aimed at anti-abortion activities planned in Wichita this weekend, Newman said.
While I know everyone who is a friend of women is angry at the anti-choice nuts right now- lord knows I'm angry- but it's wrong of us to sink to the same level they have been on for so, so many years. Threatening their lives is wrong, and certainly committing acts of violence against them is wrong. However wrong you believe Troy Newman is, he doesn't deserve to die or to be hurt in any way.
Again, don't stoop to the level of the people who called Dr. Tiller "Tiller the Baby Killer."
13 comments:
Oh please, Troy is such a drama queen. He knew protesting at Tiller’s clinic would provoke a response, that’s why he’s doing it. He wants to play the victim since he’s been receiving so much heat for being connected to Roeder. It’s just another publicity stunt by Troy.
There was a similar article in the Wichita Eagle. I see this as a ploy by the the anti-abortion movement to portray themselves as the victims of the assassination.
Handling hate calls is a routine part of the job for people who work for any left-leaning organization. While it's not acceptable, there's a huge difference between threatening violence and committing violence. Their side violence commits violence. Nine lives violently taken in the United States. Millions of dollars of damages wrecked, including arson and bombings. If people are a bit peeved about that, I can understand.
What's next for these newspapers--an article about how rude African-Americans are to Neo-Nazi skinheads? Or maybe we'll see articles interviewing the Basij about how offensive the Iranian protestors were before they shot them?
Jason this is utter bullshit. They haven't received any death threats! The forced birther drama queens are talking about the women who have appointments to have abortions. Troy and his fellow assassin defenders consider potential abortions death threats - against babies.
I totally agree with the 3 previous comments. Why should anyone take Newman's word for anything? That guy is a master at whipping up the rabid, violent right--and this is exactly the kind of crap that would do it. Now we'll have winger nutjobs out there itching to 'protect' themselves.
I also hate the fact that articles about anti-choice orgs receiving death threats are getting play. As Anjikan pointed out, orgs that support reproductive rights get death threats all the time, but that's treated like "dog bites man" news in the paper. C'mon, they just assassinated a guy and the news is about nasty phone calls? Gimme a break.
The Wichita Eagle is totally in the pocket of the anti-choice movement, and this was such a magnificant puff piece. The anti-choice nuts have been painting themselves as the victims of Tiller's assassination, and this piece is about only that. Let's not pretend the two are anything alike at all. An assassination of a man that takes target at all women, and all of us knowing the right-wing rhetoric is what caused it, yes, we're going to get mad at them and, as a stage of grief thing, say "I hope you die". Most people vent to each other, some vented to these groups. Any threats Operation Rescue West has received are probably not actual death threats and sort of like "if you feel attacked by feminism, it's probably a counter-attack." ORW and Troy Newman, beyond being drama queens and over-exagerating *everything*, have been stalking, stalking people for years. NOT THE SAME THING.
At this point, I think you can tell the Wichitans from the non-Wichitans ...
While I trust Newman as far as I can throw him, I think it is wise, regardless, to make a point that we mustn't sink to that same level. I doubt many are- if any are- but no one should.
But, each of the previous 5 comments make a good point that I didn't make in my original post.
No, we shouldn't sink to their level and the newspapers shouldn't feed their martyr complex. This would be a major problem if anyone read newspapers anymore.
http://kansaskidconservative.blogspot.com/2009/06/pro-abortion-wack-os-send-death-threats.html
Newman lists 7 e-mails he got that he refers to as death threasts. That's 7 from the entire nation after his group made headlines for their association with Roeder. Dr. Tiller probably got that amount on a weekly basis.
The difference between Newman and Tiller is Tiller didn't wet his pants every time he got a threat. The clinic would get these sorts of calls on a daily basis.
What I don't understand is OR attached a name to every e-mail. What person sends their full name along with a death threat? Not that they were really death threats any way, many were just people calling hoping that OR gets killed, not that they are going to kill them.
Troy = drama queen.
I'm willing to assume Troy is a liar, but it doesn't follow that phone threats didn't happen, and it's bad politics to assume it without strong evidence--almost impossible to obtain in the case of phone threats (unless they left on an answering machine and can be shown to be forgeries). Of course there are nut cases on both sides. The pro-choice side has always tried to distinguish itself by being the more reasonable side--which is very different from compromising any principles.
I'm more interested in the claimed email threats. Are complete copies available online?
From that blog:
"The Pro-life movement is the most peaceful protest movement in U.S. History."
Is this delusion or denial? Maybe a combination of both with a bit of insanity thrown in.
Jason, The Pitch has a link to the emails and phone calls.
Here are the calls:
http://operationrescue.org/audio/OR%20Death%20Threats%204mp3.mp3
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2009/06/operation_rescue_reports_death_threats_george_tiller.php
the operation Rescue site has a purported list of email and audio recorded threats. of the seven or so Emails one or two are what you could call threats the rest just basic run of the mill crank calls the kind of stuff and organization gets
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