The After Is The Before
posted by Silvana
Our chief blog proprietress IM'ed me this story, about how a caravan of famous and not-so-famous anti-abortion militants have been traipsing through the lockup in Sedgwick County, Kansas. They are all visiting Scott Roeder, who is alleged to have assassinated Dr. George Tiller last month. At first blush, it's not at all surprising. The visitors include: "two convicted clinic bombers. The man behind the Army of God Web site. Several activists who once signed a declaration that defended the killing of abortion doctors." All these people believe that they must "take matters into their own hands," that these murders are justified. And they are supported by a larger network of individuals who talk out of both sides of their mouths—one the one hand saying that they don't encourage violence, and on the other hand saying that the violence was justified. From the second page:
In law school, I took criminal law like every other law student. We were taught that crimes carried out by multiple people, who are engaged in a conspiracy, can be much more damaging and much more far-reaching than those carried out by individuals. They are less easily thwarted and often have complicated schemes for concealment. Just as the formidable human capacity for cooperation and division of labor enabled the development of or civilization as we know it today, that same capacity can enable far more frightening and complex criminal activity than what a single person is capable of.
Thus, we punish conspiracy as a separate offense with separate (i.e. additional) penalties from those than attend the commission of the crime itself. In fact, even if the crime is ultimately foiled, those who formed and furthered the conspiracy can still be prosecuted.
As far as I can tell, this is the main reason that we haven't had a scandal about some anti-abortion activist or group funding Scott Roeder's legal defense. As I tweeted with blog buddy Amanda Marcotte a couple weeks ago, no one has come forward to help out with the legal bills. Roeder is being represented by the Sedgwick County public defender's office. The day he was arraigned, multiple news articles mentioned the names of his lawyers, one of whom, Steve Osburn, is actually the chief public defender for Sedgwick County. Which I thought was a big deal, because I live in Cook County, where the public defender's office has hundreds of lawyers. As it turns out, Sedgwick County, Kansas, has about twenty-five. Presumably Roeder's getting the best they can offer.
But as much as I'm sure Randall Terry or similar would love to foot the bill for Roeder to get a private lawyer, I think the attention that has been drawn in recent months to Joe Scarborough's acting as defense attorney for the last iteration of abortion practitioner murder is standing in the way.
Money talks. And a private citizen or organization paying money for Roeder's defense fund suggests more strongly than almost anything could that there was a conspiracy before the crime was committed.
I've often felt discomfort with the public calls demanding for one party or another to condemn the words or actions of another party. I found it tiresome when anti-Muslim politicians complained that Muslim clerics didn't condemn 9/11 strongly enough (even though, really, they did). I found it tiresome when Barack Obama was pressed to "reject and denounce" the words of Jeremiah Wright. Indeed "reject and denounce" was actually a blogospheric punchline for a couple months.
Instead, I thought, it's more important to condemn these things before they happen, rather than condemn them with sufficient outrage after the fact. It's more important to refrain from engaging in rhetoric that implies that violence is justified, or rhetoric that whips your supporters into an outraged frenzy against health care personnel.
But I was missing something crucial. This is not a one-time incident. Far from it. Anti-abortion activists are engaging in violent or proto-violent activities on a weekly, if not daily basis. Shouting at women as they try to enter abortion clinics is violent. Shoving placards bearing (doctored) disturbing pictures of aborted fetuses in a woman's face while she is trying to obtain health care is violent [warning: that last link contains photos you may find upsetting].
The after is the before. We are not in a phase where we are "after" the violence. The rhetoric of anti-abortion activists making the distinction between "encouraging" (before) and "justifying" (after) the killing of abortion practitioners makes a false and meaningless distinction. What they do now, what they say now, is a message to the people who have not yet committed violence. What they say is "you will be a hero to us."
And being a hero, for these self-styled martyrs swept up by hatred and fear, is worth much more than any material support for a conspiracy could ever be.
Leake, who for years has vocally supported the use of force against abortion doctors, said he is not talking to authorities and has forwarded their inquiries to his attorney. He said he didn’t think anyone persuaded Roeder to go after Tiller.Okay, let's try to parse this, if we can. You wouldn't encourage someone to murder, but you support the murder. It seems bizarre to make this distinction, but I know why they're doing it. They're trying to avoid making any statements that could implicate them as part of a conspiracy. As most of you surely know, conspiracy to commit a crime is a separate charge from committing the crime itself. Being part of a conspiracy, and taking material steps in furtherance of the conspiracy, is something you can be criminally charged with even if you never actually committed a crime. Whereas giving someone money and a knife isn't a crime, if you give someone money and a knife as part of a plot to kill someone, that is a crime.
"I don’t believe anyone in good conscience could encourage someone to take a step like that," Leake said. "That’s something they’d have to do on their own."
He added, however, that "I support the shooting of George Tiller as justifiable homicide. I only wish that it would have happened in 1973, before he was able to murder his first child."
In law school, I took criminal law like every other law student. We were taught that crimes carried out by multiple people, who are engaged in a conspiracy, can be much more damaging and much more far-reaching than those carried out by individuals. They are less easily thwarted and often have complicated schemes for concealment. Just as the formidable human capacity for cooperation and division of labor enabled the development of or civilization as we know it today, that same capacity can enable far more frightening and complex criminal activity than what a single person is capable of.
Thus, we punish conspiracy as a separate offense with separate (i.e. additional) penalties from those than attend the commission of the crime itself. In fact, even if the crime is ultimately foiled, those who formed and furthered the conspiracy can still be prosecuted.
As far as I can tell, this is the main reason that we haven't had a scandal about some anti-abortion activist or group funding Scott Roeder's legal defense. As I tweeted with blog buddy Amanda Marcotte a couple weeks ago, no one has come forward to help out with the legal bills. Roeder is being represented by the Sedgwick County public defender's office. The day he was arraigned, multiple news articles mentioned the names of his lawyers, one of whom, Steve Osburn, is actually the chief public defender for Sedgwick County. Which I thought was a big deal, because I live in Cook County, where the public defender's office has hundreds of lawyers. As it turns out, Sedgwick County, Kansas, has about twenty-five. Presumably Roeder's getting the best they can offer.
But as much as I'm sure Randall Terry or similar would love to foot the bill for Roeder to get a private lawyer, I think the attention that has been drawn in recent months to Joe Scarborough's acting as defense attorney for the last iteration of abortion practitioner murder is standing in the way.
Money talks. And a private citizen or organization paying money for Roeder's defense fund suggests more strongly than almost anything could that there was a conspiracy before the crime was committed.
I've often felt discomfort with the public calls demanding for one party or another to condemn the words or actions of another party. I found it tiresome when anti-Muslim politicians complained that Muslim clerics didn't condemn 9/11 strongly enough (even though, really, they did). I found it tiresome when Barack Obama was pressed to "reject and denounce" the words of Jeremiah Wright. Indeed "reject and denounce" was actually a blogospheric punchline for a couple months.
Instead, I thought, it's more important to condemn these things before they happen, rather than condemn them with sufficient outrage after the fact. It's more important to refrain from engaging in rhetoric that implies that violence is justified, or rhetoric that whips your supporters into an outraged frenzy against health care personnel.
But I was missing something crucial. This is not a one-time incident. Far from it. Anti-abortion activists are engaging in violent or proto-violent activities on a weekly, if not daily basis. Shouting at women as they try to enter abortion clinics is violent. Shoving placards bearing (doctored) disturbing pictures of aborted fetuses in a woman's face while she is trying to obtain health care is violent [warning: that last link contains photos you may find upsetting].
The after is the before. We are not in a phase where we are "after" the violence. The rhetoric of anti-abortion activists making the distinction between "encouraging" (before) and "justifying" (after) the killing of abortion practitioners makes a false and meaningless distinction. What they do now, what they say now, is a message to the people who have not yet committed violence. What they say is "you will be a hero to us."
And being a hero, for these self-styled martyrs swept up by hatred and fear, is worth much more than any material support for a conspiracy could ever be.
Labels: m. leblanc
Posted at 9:07 AM
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