From The Albany Times-Union:

BUFFALO -- A man already serving time in a state prison for the sniper-shooting murder of a doctor was convicted Thursday on a federal charge of targeting and killing the man because he provided abortions. [...]

"You do not decide that you are the judge, the jury and the executioner, that's what [the defendant] Mr. Kopp did," U.S. Attorney Terrance Flynn said after the verdict.

The government will seek a prison term of life without parole at sentencing, scheduled for June 19, Flynn said.

Kopp, affiliated with the domestic terrorist groups Operation Rescue and The Army of God, killed – executed is a better term – Slepian with a high-powered assault rifle as the latter was making dinner in his kitchen; his children watched their father bleed to death. Following the murder, Operation Rescue released a statement that justified the murder. After Slepian's execution, pro- and anti-choice groups took out a full-page ad in a Buffalo newspaper calling for civility and abjuring violence, which OR also denounced as a "pitiful philosophy and vision", urging followers to take to the streets.

So, while Kopp's conviction is doubtlessly a good thing, you have to ask why the organizations supporting him aren't banned. We do that when a group condones or promotes murder and violence in the Middle East – why not here?

Bookmark/Search this post with:

| | | | | | | |