Posted on 01/24/2003 9:30:51 AM PST by Marianne
They call themselves the Army of God, but if Wednesday's protest for accused murderer James C. Kopp is any indication, they'd have trouble filling out a military squad, let alone an army.
The dozen or so abortion foes who gathered in front of the Erie County Holding Center, where Kopp is jailed, are united in their belief that violence to stop abortions is justified.
Outnumbered by twice as many counterdemonstrators, they held signs and chanted support for Kopp, the admitted killer of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. Kopp said he shot Slepian so he could perform no more abortions.
"The message is that Mr. Kopp ought to be freed. He ought to be acquitted," said the group's leader, the Rev. Michael Bray, a Lutheran minister from Maryland. "He should be acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide."
Bray, a boyishly handsome man who always wears a clerical collar, is united with many of his Army of God brethren in at least one other way: They can't vote, because they are convicted felons.
Bray, convicted in a half-dozen bombings of abortion clinics in the mid-Atlantic states, was sentenced to four years in federal prison.
Bray led a rogue's gallery to Buffalo that included:
Neal Horsley, 57, creator of a Web site called the Nuremberg Files that lists the names and addresses of abortion providers. He crossed out Slepian's name the day after he was killed by a sniper's bullet on Oct. 23, 1998. Horsley served 21/2 years in federal prison for dealing hashish oil.
Bob Lokey, 60, a truck driver who has a huge billboard of an aborted fetus next to his home in Alabama. Lokey served 20 years in San Quentin for first-degree murder.
Josh Graff, a man who appears to be in his 20s who wore a black beret with AOG on it Wednesday. He is a convicted arsonist.
Chuck Spingola, a street preacher from Ohio, who was arrested in Wisconsin and accused of choking a gay man when Spingola spoke against abortion and homosexuality at the University of Wisconsin.
Also on hand were Jonathan O'Toole, 21, Horsley's acolyte who was featured with him on an HBO special last year on the Army of God, and Bill Koehler, who like most of those present had signed a declaration advocating violence to stop abortion.
Donald Spitz, a Chesapeake, Va., minister who administers the Army of God Web site, was also in town.
Only one woman was among the Army of God protesters - Linda Wolfe, who described herself as a grandmother of 16 from Oregon.
She said other women shared her belief that violence is acceptable to stop abortion but said they were home caring for their children. She also said that Buffalo was a dangerous place to come because of death threats.
Bruce A. Barket, who represents Kopp and accompanied two Buffalo News reporters to the jailhouse interview when Kopp admitted killing Slepian, suggested that Wednesday's protest should set the stage for more of the same debate on the abortion issue during Kopp's trial.
"I think it certainly will create a platform for the debate, and how the debate goes, we'll wait and see," said Barket. He was asked by reporters earlier at a court hearing for Kopp about the criminal records of those who came to support Kopp.
"So what?" Barket said. "Nobody came to commit any violence. They came to pray and visit with Jim."
What about Bray?
"He seems like a very decent individual," Barket said,
Barket said he had met Bray and his family.
It was Bray, using Kopp's nickname Atomic Dog, who announced on Horsley's Web site a week before Kopp's confession ran in The Buffalo News: "Yes, of course Atomic Dog shot Abortionist Barnett Slepian. The termination of the murderer was a deed quite consistent with Mr. Kopp's life of service for the innocent, brutalized womb children of America. It was a good deed that brought peace for many innocents through the death of a wicked serial killer."
And it was also Bray who praised the beheading of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia, saying Saudi Arabia "had executed another homosexual pervert."
Glenn E. Murray, a lawyer for pro-choice groups in Buffalo who tracks the radical fringe of the anti-abortion movement, said Bray's views are consistent with the Army of God.
"They not only hate abortion doctors," Murray said, "they hate Jews, they hate gays. These guys are hatemongers."
Murray said that while the numbers who came to Buffalo were small, he was insulted by their being here to praise Kopp.
"I think it's ghoulish and sick to celebrate a murder," he said. "How would New Yorkers feel if someone came in and celebrated Islamic terrorism? These are Christian terrorists who come in to celebrate a murder based on a faith-based agenda."
Army of God members who came here Wednesday said they hoped to return to Buffalo in mid-March, when Kopp's murder trial in Erie County Court is expected to begin.
After spending 45 minutes in the bitter cold outside the Holding Center, outshouted and outnumbered by the counterdemonstrators, they were led in prayer by Bray, who prayed that Buffalo should understand that God created all children "and that Jim Kopp has protected them."
Too bad the media ignores lefty groups.
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