UPDATE: The shooter has been captured.
UPDATE 2: Three people were killed in the shooting, officials say, one police officer and two civilians
A reminder that some people take the war on women quite literally. As USA Today reports:
A man wearing hunting gear and armed with an assault-style weapon was barricaded inside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs Friday after a shooting spree that left four officers and at least five civilians injured, police and hospital officials said.
In a dramatic operation, with the gunman still on the loose, officers crept into the building and rescued six or seven civilians cowering in a bathroom.
As I write this, the shooter remains barricaded inside the clinic. So far, according to CNN, nine people have been taken to local hospitals with injuries.
Ongoing coverage here.
Shootings like this are the inevitable result of the propaganda campaign that is being waged against Planned Parenthood. Indeed, as the Huffington Post’s Laura Bassett noted in a recent piece, abortion rights advocates are reporting
an alarming spike in death threats and violent acts against abortion providers, clinics and companies that work with them since the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood were released. Two Planned Parenthood clinics have reported arsons, anti-abortion protesters are showing up in large numbers at doctors’ homes, and commenters on conservative websites and online forums are calling for the bombings of abortion clinics across the country, according to Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation. Saporta is so alarmed by the escalation of threats against providers that she asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations to intervene.
“In my 20 years at NAF, I have never seen such a volume, intensity and escalation of hate speech, threats and criminal activity, and we would like to prevent a serious violent act from occurring,” she told The Huffington Post in an interview. “We have enlisted law enforcement’s help.”
To offer your support to Planned Parenthood, by donating money or time or simply by posting an “I stand with Planned Parenthood” graphic online, go here.
And here I was just having a conversation over dinner about how the biggest terrorist danger in this country is right-wing reactionaries. What an ugly way to have my opinion confirmed.
For brain bleach, I give you baby raccoons discovering milk:
https://youtu.be/yd1IeNRFGcY
Y’all’Qaeda is tricky that way.
This is the fifth Planned Parenthood attack since august. The other four were arsons, this one was a bit more… personal :/
For anyone who was wondering: This is a breakdown of PP’s services.
A policeman got killed? People might actually care now. Blue lives matter far more than any others, after all.
My best wishes to your community, Machinique. I hope people pull together to help the survivors and victims’ families.
To all of you, you’re in my thoughts.
I was wondering, at first, if we had another weird instance of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Priesthood, but from the low death toll I’m now wondering if a particular patient was targeted. We shall see, since the shooter survived and is in custody.
The person is a terrorist and I hope they throw the book at him. I also hope they interrogate him and find out anyone who encouraged him and arrest them as well.
Usually these guys kill themselves so they can’t be taken into custody, which makes my blood boil. It’s their final eff u to the world. Maybe the authorities and experts will be able to learn something from this guy about his motives and his method. And I hope that his capture helps to dissuade anybody else who’d like to do this.
Will this make AVFM rethink it’s current campaign of posting up the personal addresses of doctors who perform circumcisions? I think not 🙁
I’m glad the shooter is in custody and not dead; with any luck the truth will come out during the trial. It’ll be harder for anti-choicers to disown him if he’s spouting their rhetoric.
@flrpwll: “Y’all’Qaeda” — that made me smile in spite of myself.
When I’m in one of my grim fantastical moods I wish I could inflict a modified version of the fate of the character Stone in “Lukundoo” on the “pro-life” people. “Why yes, I invite you to take care of those precious, precious preborn…”
@littleknown: BULLS ON PARADE
The killer was named Robert Louis Dear.
The vast majority of Republican state legislators in my state just sent a letter to the Governor demanding that he not let in any Syrian refugees fleeing ISIS, because they might be terrorists. There’s no rational reason to think they might be, and the vetting process is through. And, of course, the Governor has no say in this, as it’s a federal matter.
This is already pretty farcical, but the ongoing spree of right-wing terror attacks–that are never recognized as such and quickly swept under the rug–just sends it into the realm of self-parody. We have to keep out the dispossessed people running from our enemies (send them back to ISIS, I guess), but we can’t even acknowledge where the majority of the actual terror attacks come from. Our current political situation would be hilarious if it wasn’t so horrible and depressing.
I wonder when all those white, gun-toting, “freedom-loving” vigilantes will step off of armed protests at mosques and start guarding reproductive health clinics against acts of terror like this one.
…No? *crickets*
Local coverage: http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2015/11/27/colorado-springs-shooting/76454812/
Ever wondered what would happen if the news networks called up Daesh and had their spokesperson justify an attack WHILE IT WAS IN PROGRESS?
Well here’s the American Taliban version of exactly that:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/11/27/3726100/congressman-slams-planned-parenthood-on-live-tv-during-active-shooting-at-planned-parenthood-clinic/
I don’t know if this local law was a factor, but it may have been (is under investigation) in another very recent shooting here: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/11/open-carry-mass-shooting-colorado-springs
@Fruitloopsie
You’re right in saying that I shouldn’t have to apologize on behalf of murderers like this.
As others have pointed out, however, it’s baffling that terrorists who happen to be Christian are given the benefit of the doubt, whereas even Muslims who oppose terrorism are treated with suspicion at best.
http://m.newser.com/story/216738/planned-parenthood-shooter-idd-as-nc-man.html
The shooter has been charged with animal cruelty and peeping tom in the past. Why am I not surprised?
http://gawker.com/suspect-of-planned-parenthood-identified-as-robert-l-d-1744975821
As an aside, these things happen with some regularity in the US. No wonder some Europeans are wary of visiting.
Gah, this was what I actually meant to post the second time:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/28/457674369/planned-parenthood-shooting-police-name-suspect-procession-for-fallen-officer
CBC Headline: “Suspect in Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting ‘just seemed off,’ neighbour says”
Quelle surprise. Nope, no terrorism here, obvs — he’s not a bearded (oh wait he is) man (oh wait) with slightly darkish skin (yay, we can continue hating on muslins! And other fabrics as the need arises.)
As I was looking up information on this guy, I came across several sites claiming that this guy is a liberal (well, they use “democrat” and “liberal” synonymously, because those are totally the same, right!!). Others are claiming that the shooter is transgender and hit this PP because they weren’t giving enough abortions…. sadly, on all these sites, there is much rejoicing and revelry (even though they are desperately trying to distance themselves too…)
I live about 1.5 hours away from the shooting. My mom grew up in the springs, and I spent an inordinate amount of time there as a kid because my grandmother still lived there. I’ve been fond of their politics at all, but I do have a lot of friends down there still and the area where this was (Kissing Camels, part of the Garden of the Gods) is one of the most beautiful places in the world and was a place where I used to spend a lot of time as a kid.
I think I’ll spend the rest of the day hugging my dog.
Oh, and Y’allQaeda did help me feel a little better 🙂