Michelle Goldberg in The Daily Beast:
“The man arrested for Tiller’s murder, Scott Roeder, posted at least one comment on the Web site of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue suggesting that antiabortion activists attend Tiller’s church en masse. According to local news reports, he had the group’s phone number on a Post-It in his car when he was arrested. He could be a lone lunatic, but he might also be part of a movement that’s reemerging after years of relative dormancy.”
Here’s what the Washington Post had to say about that comment on the Operation Rescue site:
“A posting from May 2007 on Operation Rescue’s Web site, from a person identifying himself as ‘Scott Roeder,’ sought volunteers to ‘attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside)’ to ‘ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members. . . . Doesn’t seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller.'”
I repeat: the pot has been stirred enough, and in a terrible way. To use the above comment as a lead in to saying that “he might be part of a movement that’s reemerging after years of relative dormancy” is deeply unfair. Roeder’s post to OR, the suggestion he made to the organized pro-life movement, was about talking – however awkward the social circumstance of what he proposed. What he did on his own was about shooting. Don’t conflate the two.
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