Posted on 11/21/2002 10:18:14 AM PST by Marianne
Some were stunned, many were outraged, and others felt betrayed.
There was nearly universal condemnation from the mainstream pro-life community Wednesday over James C. Kopp's admission that he shot and killed Dr. Barnett A. Slepian four years ago.
Those condemnations would appear to throw into question whether Kopp and his attorney Bruce A. Barket's strategy of using his upcoming murder trial as a national referendum on abortion will be successful.
In distancing themselves from Kopp, those identifying themselves as pro-life said it is wrong to use violence against doctors who provide abortions.
"It is inconsistent for anyone in the pro-life movement to take a life. One can't in Catholic teaching go out and shoot doctors who perform abortions or anyone else. Our ways are not the ways of violence," Bishop Henry J. Mansell said in reacting to Kopp's confession in Wednesday's Buffalo News.
The bishop, while declining to comment on Kopp's legal strategy, said he hoped there would be more discussion on abortion in the coming days and weeks.
"We're condemning the violent act. We're glad he confessed. He needs to own up to it. He needs to repent and seek God's forgiveness," said the Rev. Robert L. Behn, executive director of Last Call Ministries, a local anti-abortion group.
In Texas, Kopp's stepmother questioned why it took him so long to confess.
"He said he didn't mean to kill but that he meant to protect unborn children. Isn't that a contradiction?" Lynn Kopp said. "If you did it, if you had such intense feelings, why hide from them after you've done the deed."
In Canada, where Kopp, 47, is suspected of shooting and wounding three doctors, the leader of an Ontario-based pro-life organization said Kopp's action demonstrates disregard for life.
"He does not represent the pro-life movement or our philosophy. We have a commitment to nonviolence in defense of our pro-life position," said Jakki Jeffs, president of Alliance for Life Ontario. "I would state emphatically there is no room for violence."
Abortion opponents closest to Kopp grappled with his words - that he did not regret shooting Slepian, only that the Amherst doctor died.
"He went off the rails. See what happens if you don't do what Christ wants - the worst possible thing. How does Jimmy know that poor man (Slepian) wouldn't have repented the next day?" said Barrie Norman, a pro-life activist from Vancouver, British Columbia, where Dr. Garson Romalis was wounded in 1994.
Without people such as Norman, who considered Kopp a good friend, the question arises: Who will take Kopp's side and turn his courtroom strategy into a widespread abortion debate?
Buffalo talk radio Wednesday was filled with callers identifying themselves as pro-life and in the same breath calling Kopp a coward for killing Slepian, who died in the presence of his wife and four young sons the night of Oct. 23, 1998.
By day's end, only a small, radical element of the pro-life community stood in Kopp's corner.
The Rev. Michael D. Bray said he was canceling his annual Washington, D.C.-area White Rose Banquet, where abortion clinic bombers and killers of doctors have been honored, to instead hold a Jan. 22 rally in Buffalo to pay tribute to Kopp.
"It will be some type of presence proclaiming our support for Mr. Kopp and calling for justice for the preborn," said Bray, of Maryland. "He ought to be praised, not condemned."
The date of the Kopp gathering will coincide with the yearly anniversary of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
Neal Horsely, who runs a news service and Web page fiercely critical of the pro-choice movement, said he identified with Kopp's justifications for shooting Slepian.
"What Jim said was very revealing, that it was a terrible thing to take the life of another human being. He clearly felt deep remorse, but the most revealing thing he said was the only thing worse would be to do nothing and allow abortion to continue," Horsely said.
William Koehler, who with Kopp protested at New Jersey abortion clinics, described Kopp's action as a "pre-emptive strike to stop a killer."
"Jim is not a person who would take that step lightly. I'm sure he prayed about it and thought about it. My big concern is that there are so many people defensive of Jim, and that with this confession they'll just discard him now," Koehler said.
A number of people in the pro-life movement thought Kopp might have been framed because of questions raised by his supporters over the collection of physical evidence in the case.
Among those who struggled to reconcile the Kopp they know with the confessed killer was Joseph Roach, a retired Philadelphia banker who was the first friend and supporter of Kopp to appear in a Buffalo courtroom in June hours after the accused man was extradited from France and flown here.
"I am very disappointed in what I've heard about Jim Kopp. I believe Jim truly regrets what he did, that the abortionist was killed. The killing of anyone, even an abortionist, is objectively wrong. I cannot judge Jim's state of mind. Jim is really a victim of our society's behavior regarding the sanctity of human life," Roach said.
About two weeks ago, Kopp sent Roach word he was on the verge of confessing. "He wanted me to know he was deeply sorry (and) he felt sorry for misleading so many people," Roach said.
Joan Andrews Bell, regarded by many in the pro-life movement as a spiritual leader who is against violence, offered a statement in which she said she could not support the shooting, if Kopp is guilty of it.
But like Roach, the New Jersey woman took an analytical view in trying to understand what has happened.
"I also believe that if Jim did this act, he is a victim of what (Mohandas K.) Gandhi said of a corrupt and evil society, and President John F. Kennedy later reiterated: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.' "
Susan Andrews Brindle, her sister, called Kopp a liar. "Either he's really evil and insane, or people have gotten to him and he's covering for someone," said Brindle, a Tennessee resident who traveled to France three times to visit Kopp after his 2001 capture. Closer to home, Stasia Zoladz Vogel, president of the Buffalo Regional Right to Life Committee, offered a grim assessment of the nation. "This country has devolved into such a pathetic state that no life is secure, born or unborn," she said. "The whole country is desperately in need of prayers, repentance and penance."
The fact that he's telling the story he's telling right now proves that he knew this - but he went ahead and did it anyway. He has now made it more difficult to save the unborn.
All this publicity detracts from the true tragedy in all this: all the anonymous little innocents whom Slepian murdered and who are now even further away from justice.
This is very interesting. Mr. Kopp in effect declared war on abortionist doctors. I can't say I disagree with what he did. These people are butchers of babies.
I don't promote such actions but neither do I oppose them when undertaken by others. Mr Kopp is no "crazy" and has thought through his actions very carefully. The trial should prove interesting, to say the least.
He was still entitled to a trial and due process, however, just like Eichmann was.
Kopp is a murderer plain and simple and he should get the rest of his life to think about what he did.
Kopp is a murderer plain and simple and he should get the rest of his life to think about what he did. The end does not justify the means and never has. Every murderer and despot in history has used that argument.
Ditto that.
Sorry, but that's just WRONG.
Slepian did not commit "crimes," because by definition a "crime" is a breaking of the law--and he broke no laws that we know of.
In the U.S.--especially the South--a century ago, if you caught your wife in bed with another man, you were LEGALLY justified in killing them on the spot. Since then, that has become a CRIME, and a husband who kills a wife and her lover is no longer an executioner, but a MURDERER.
Now, it was not MORAL what Slepian was doing, and abortion is wrong. But the practitioners do not deserve to be murdered as Kopp murdered Slepian. Instead, the laws have to be changed to allow the individual states to determine the legality of abortion for themselves.
Justifying a crime because YOU think a "criminal" is being punished is the sort of convoluted thinking that the radical Islamists engage in to justify killing thousands of American civilians.
Abortion doctors are modern day equivalents of concentration camp operators. If someone had assasinated Eichmann, the only people upset about it would be Nazis and their sympathizers.
This question has been hashed out time and again and the answer is always the same. The difference between the abortion industry and the concentration camps is that America 2002 has a working political process that can and will eventually shut abortion down, or at least allow it to be banned in states where people don't want it.
Germans had no such avenue.
People like Kopp muddy the water and provide cover for the abortionists, allowing preening self-righteousness for abortion enablers and complicating the legal situation for abortion protesters.
Not even in Self-Defense?
Or to defend another person whose life is in imminent danger?
Can you see where I am going?
Certainly, its wrong to shoot a man doing nobody any harm in his home. Kopp should be hung at dawn based on his confession of murder. Especially if the rumors are true that Slepian was thinking of getting out of the business.
But let's think about this. If abortion is murder, is it wrong to do anything within your power to stop an abortionist at the commencement of the abortion, including the use of lethal force if necessary to prevent the abortion?
If you answer no, please tell me if you would act the same way towards someone comitting infanticide, or threatening someone else with bodily harm.
If you would act different, on what do you base your difference in actions?
If you would be non-violent in both situations, how can you call yourself a defender of life? How can you stand idly by as the innocent are murdered?
Why? You don't think someone who routinely slaughters babies deserves to die? Yet, wideawake is correct. None of us as individuals have the right to render that judgment--just the state and God. What Kopp did was wrong; wideawake says that. The problem is when the state, ie society, does not mete out justice, inevitably individuals step up to do it, even if that is also wrong. Kopp is a murderer; Slepian was one many times over.
The Rev. Michael D. Bray said he was canceling his annual Washington, D.C.-area White Rose Banquet, where abortion clinic bombers and killers of doctors have been honored, to instead hold a Jan. 22 rally in Buffalo to pay tribute to Kopp.
"It will be some type of presence proclaiming our support for Mr. Kopp and calling for justice for the preborn," said Bray, of Maryland. "He ought to be praised, not condemned."
And Neal Horsely
Neal Horsely, who runs a news service and Web page fiercely critical of the pro-choice movement, said he identified with Kopp's justifications for shooting Slepian.
"What Jim said was very revealing, that it was a terrible thing to take the life of another human being. He clearly felt deep remorse, but the most revealing thing he said was the only thing worse would be to do nothing and allow abortion to continue," Horsely said.
And William Koehler
William Koehler, who with Kopp protested at New Jersey abortion clinics, described Kopp's action as a "pre-emptive strike to stop a killer."
And not Bishop Henry J. Mansell
"It is inconsistent for anyone in the pro-life movement to take a life. One can't in Catholic teaching go out and shoot doctors who perform abortions or anyone else. Our ways are not the ways of violence," Bishop Henry J. Mansell said in reacting to Kopp's confession in Wednesday's Buffalo News.
Or Rev. Robert L. Behn
"We're condemning the violent act. We're glad he confessed. He needs to own up to it. He needs to repent and seek God's forgiveness," said the Rev. Robert L. Behn, executive director of Last Call Ministries, a local anti-abortion group.
Or Kopp's stepmother, Lynn Kopp
"He said he didn't mean to kill but that he meant to protect unborn children. Isn't that a contradiction?" Lynn Kopp said. "If you did it, if you had such intense feelings, why hide from them after you've done the deed."
Or Jakki Jeffs
"He does not represent the pro-life movement or our philosophy. We have a commitment to nonviolence in defense of our pro-life position," said Jakki Jeffs, president of Alliance for Life Ontario. "I would state emphatically there is no room for violence."
Or Barrie Norman
"He went off the rails. See what happens if you don't do what Christ wants - the worst possible thing. How does Jimmy know that poor man (Slepian) wouldn't have repented the next day?" said Barrie Norman, a pro-life activist from Vancouver, British Columbia, where Dr. Garson Romalis was wounded in 1994.
Or Joseph Roach
Joseph Roach, a retired Philadelphia banker who was the first friend and supporter of Kopp to appear in a Buffalo courtroom in June hours after the accused man was extradited from France and flown here.
"I am very disappointed in what I've heard about Jim Kopp. I believe Jim truly regrets what he did, that the abortionist was killed. The killing of anyone, even an abortionist, is objectively wrong. I cannot judge Jim's state of mind. Jim is really a victim of our society's behavior regarding the sanctity of human life," Roach said.
About two weeks ago, Kopp sent Roach word he was on the verge of confessing. "He wanted me to know he was deeply sorry (and) he felt sorry for misleading so many people," Roach said.
Or Susan Andrews Brindle
[C]alled Kopp a liar. "Either he's really evil and insane, or people have gotten to him and he's covering for someone," said Brindle, a Tennessee resident who traveled to France three times to visit Kopp after his 2001 capture.
Or Stasia Zoladz Vogel
Closer to home, Stasia Zoladz Vogel, president of the Buffalo Regional Right to Life Committee, offered a grim assessment of the nation. "This country has devolved into such a pathetic state that no life is secure, born or unborn," she said. "The whole country is desperately in need of prayers, repentance and penance."
While they were actually committing the acts they were hung for, they were not only not breaking any laws, they were considered to be doing something positive for the community.
The question is not whether Slepian "deserved" to be killed. If he was the practicing abortionist everyone says he was, then he certainly did.
The question is whether Kopp is allowed to run off half-cocked and make decisions about Slepian's crimes outside the context of any court, without any chance for Slepian to make an argument, without any judges to hear evidence, without providing Slepian with any advocate.
The mark of a civilized society is that (1) you do not allow people who did evil to hide behind the excuses of "it was legal" or "I was just following orders" and (2) you extend to evildoers the protections and due process that they didn't extend to their victims.
There is nothing remotely approaching a "radical Islamist" position here. The question is: did Slepian kill innocent infants for money. The question needs to be decided by a court which guarantees the accused due process and a presumption of innocence.
If the question, after due deliberation, is answered in the affirmative, then a Slepian needs to be punished in a way fitting someone who has killed, for hire, hundreds of innocent people.
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