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Officer murdered in Colorado Springs attack was Melrose native
By adamg on Sat, 11/28/2015 - 12:27pm
Wicked Local Melrose reports on the death of Garrett Swasey, one of three people murdered yesterday at a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Peter Gelzinis says the attack brings back memories of John Salvi's rampage in Brookline.
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Comments
Im still so confused by the way
The media is reporting this.
So the guy was shooting in a parking lot, PP called the cops, cops arrive and return fire, guy shoots two cop (this is after citizens were already shot), guy runs into PP to take cover, then begins firing at cops from the windows of PP.
From sifting through all the crap being reported, it doesn't sound like he targeted PP. He sounds like a lunatic who targeted a strip mall.
This is from a local news station in CO.
http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/Dispatch-Tapes-Describe-Scene-of-Shoo...
Yeah
Right
This guy lived alone
in a shack in the woods.
http://gazette.com/pro-life-regulars-in-colorado-springs-say-shooting-su...
Sorry, i find it hard to believe everything i read in the media. Now if i could only be a sheepish as you.....
So did the UNABOMBER
Your point?
The UNABOMBER isn't legally insane.
I-93 Protestors, Dan Rae Called Them Terrorists, On Air
Some "pro-lifers" called Robert Dear a hero.
I call a movement that endorses using violence to kill people who are getting contraception, preventative healthcare, screenings and Constitutionally-protected abortions at Planned Parenthood terrorism.
Robert Dear opened fire inside the Planned Parenthood clinic which means he targeted patients and perhaps family, and workers. He kept people in the clinic captive for five hours with a loaded AK-47 style assault rifle.
Oftentimes, these events end in suicide. Not this one. This guy killed three and injured 9 and surrendered to police.
He killed the officer with two kids from Melrose and shot five other police officers and lived. White privilege doesn't usually survive when you shoot or killed a police officer.
Remember all the criticism about protestors on I-93 in January? They used non-violent civil disobedience that was enormously disruptive to people's commutes. This guy used violence, killed, injured, terrorized and traumatized. Where are all the comments complaining about his tactics?
Everywhere, including here.
Stop it
You're not advancing the narrative.
This will. Suspect in custody said: "no more baby parts"
It is confusing
because one would think someone who was targeting a Planned Parenthood would actually target the Planned Parenthood's facility, staff, and patients...not use it for cover while shooting cops out the windows. (I wonder if this PP location was reinforced like the one on Comm Ave, which would make it an ideal bunker for someone looking to cause chaos outside.)
But I like the way we tend to assume that people are of sound mind vs. insane based on whether they attack something we feel strongly about vs. something we do not.
CBS News had this to say.
https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/670378828527603712
Giving you the benefit of assuming you're mistaken, not a liar
"So Confused" anon, are you honestly, deep in your heart, suggesting that
1) John Lewis Dear parked in a Planned Parenthood parking lot, got out of the car, and
2) started firing shots, which were
3) called into the police by the Planned Parenthood staff
and this had nothing to do with it being a Planned Parenthood?
Below is an overhead view of the Planned Parenthood in question, from Google earth.
As is the case with Planned Parenthood locations where they have the room to do so, it is not near other buildings. This is for both privacy, and the safety of neighbors should the building be attacked.
The Planned Parenthood parking lot is not shared with any other business.
The Planned Parenthood is on a minor road.
Here is another view, just so you can see how unlikely it is that anyone would end up in that parking lot-- with a gun and an agenda-- at random.
There is nothing in the news story you linked that indicates Dear wasn't targeting Planned Parenthood. It is merely a basic timeline story-- published at 8:20 this morning-- that does not impute reasons or motives. As well it shouldn't, given that it was based on the investigating police officers comments and it would have been premature.
As observers, especially those of us living in a city where clinics offering abortions have been attacked, knowing the long and the recent history of Planned Parenthood attacks (very recent), we can assume that when someone shows up in the remote parking lot of a Planned Parenthood and starts shooting at the clinic escorts and the windows, that he is targeting Planned Parenthood.
It's not fair....
... for you to bring facts into the discussion.
I held back my evidence that the Masons are behind it.
.
"no more baby parts"
On its face, this is a pretty clear case of a radicalized "pro-life" "Christian" Caucasian, upper-middle age male extremist who used lethal violence and threat of lethal violence to hold patients, workers and police hostage at gun point, to terrorize and murder people and police officers at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood Clinic.
Shame on the concern trolls. They've been distracting, dismissing and minimizing since the massacre and siege began. They use all the familiar excuses for killing and terrorizing people--moms, sisters, police, medical workers and receptionists-- with an AK-47 style assault rifle. Well done conservatives and Republicans. A round of applause please.
These values--indiscriminate use of lethal violence in opposition to Planned Parenthood-- are from the "Christian" far right caucus today's Republican party that Barry Goldwater warned us about:
Look at the gun policy and reproductive rights policy of the candidates for the Republican primary. It isn't just a few on the far right, they are all far right.
Baloney
You will not find this republican advocating this stuff or making excuses and apologies for it.
You will find me making a clear and loud distinction between the crazies that need to be put away regardless and the rest of us.
the crazies that need to be put away
How many of the Republicans running for president are on your list?
You may want to talk to your fellow GOPers, Roman
they oppose abortion. Dear is their hero, he killed people
Fever swamp. Is Planned Parenthood the new Benghazi?
It is truly unbelievable. 3% of their budget is for abortions. 97% is for all of the other services they provide.
How many cops were
How many cops were competitive figure skaters? I love that detail about his life. Two kids, married, and so damn young. What a horrible, horrible tragedy.
And how impressive that the cops brought Dear in alive so that a**hole can stand trial and explain why he thought this was a good idea.
Don't expect anything coherent.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/planned-parenthood-shooter-identif...
Nice narrative you got there
So wonderful that the excuse factory is already in full swing and coming up with all sorts of wonderful "explanations" to rationalize the kind of event that is far more common and more deadly to Americans than foreign terrorism.
What excuse factory?
Oh, the one for not immediately lumping this (seemingly apolitical) lunatic with responsible gun owners and people of good conscience who lean pro-life. Got it.
Sorry. Didn't have all my coffee yet. Took me a while to catch on.
lumping this (seemingly
Hey man, but if even one of them could be dangerous, that's enough to keep the Syrians out!!!
Oh wait, what's the topic this time?
I think I might know
Be careful who you let in (to the country).
Be careful who you let out (of the loony bin).
Be careful to reserve judgement.
Lest your heart write checks your brain doesn't want to cash.
Be careful? From the same
"Be careful?" From the same people who throw up their hands and say, "well, what are you gonna do!" every time there's a shooting? Yeah, I bet. LOL.
So you agree: institutionalize all the mentally unstable.
This guy most likely did not suddenly become a mentally unstable person. To prevent "explanations to rationalize" these actions, he should have been institutionalized long ago. Same goes for the countless other mentally unstable people in our society. Institutionalization would have prevented this crime and many others. Would our permissive society allow it?
All?
But that could decimate UHub!
Here's a better idea
Lock up all the guns and keep them away from the crazies.
Guns don't have rights. People do.
Sounds great! But how do we do that?
I'm not one to want to paraphrase a mantra of the NRA, but...
How do we lock up ALL the guns? Who takes the guns away from the drug dealers? The gang members? The crazed recluses?
Some links:
"So wonderful that the excuse factory is already in full swing and coming up with all sorts of wonderful "explanations" to rationalize the kind of event that is far more common and more deadly to Americans than foreign terrorism."
Swirl, ya, I understand you have personal feelings about this. I know about your friend. I feel bad for her family and friends. Salvi can rot in prison. OK, but you're just blasting folks here on a personal level because they're offering their opinions on what they've observed in the media and it doesn't fit your personal view. As far as being "far more common and more deadly to Americans than foreign terrorism", well, here's some interesting links. Feel free to insult the ones you don't like.
So, some links for informational purposes:
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt
There's eight people on it.
one amored car robber that killed two cops and a guard
one FALN bomber
1 Black Panther
2 May 19 commies
2 ELF/ALF
1 U Wisc bomber
Still wanted, still on the list.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/16/eight-facts-...
"The FBI says that there "is no single, universally accepted, definition of terrorism," but the U.S. federal code defines it as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”"
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/05/terror-trends-40-years-...
" Summary of Research:
Between 1969 and 2009, there were 38,345 terrorist incidents around the world. Of these attacks, 7.8 percent (2,981) were directed against the United States, while 92.2 percent (35,364) were directed at other nations of the world:
Nearly 5,600 people lost their lives and more than 16,300 people suffered injuries due to international terrorism directed at the United States;
Between 2001 and 2009:
There were 91 homegrown terrorist attacks of all kinds against the United States, while there were 380 international terrorist attacks against the United States"
"The Data"
"The data used in this descriptive analysis by The Heritage Foundation stem from the RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents (RDWTI).[3] The version of the RDWTI used in this analysis contains information on nearly 38,700 terrorist incidents from across the globe between February 1968 and January 2010. For this analysis, terrorist incidents were counted only if the recorded incidents were officially confirmed as a terrorist incident by RAND in the database. In addition, state-sponsored terrorist attacks are excluded from the analysis."
Salvi
...cannot rot in prison. They took his body out after he killed himself.
Has John Kerry commented on Planned Parenthood killings?
Swirly, speaking of trying to rationalize the irrational, may we hear from SoS Kerry on this case too? Pro-lifers abhor the killing of all innocent life, whether they are lives of French cartoonists, U.S. police officers or viable babies killed for their vital organs. The killer in this case is the antithesis of pro-life people. He killed and is no longer innocent life. He deserves the death penalty. Will the Boston Globe, WGBH and others ask for leniency as they did for Mr. Tsarnaev? God Bless you Officer Sweasy. R.I.P.
A*hole?
Deer is an alleged terrorist.
So horrible that he murdered two people and this officer, who really was "a good guy with a gun". All condolences to his family.
99.99999% of all cops are
99.99999% of all cops are "good guys with guns".
Dictionary time
Terrorist: n. A person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action, to further political goals.
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/terrorist]
There's a good place for that dictionary
Too bad your head has to move aside, first.
Seriously. Terrorist. Just like John Salvi. Terrorist.
When one of these TERRORISTS murders YOUR neighbor, maybe you'll get it?
Naw. You'll keep making the excuses.
RIP Officer Swasey
Truly sad.
Swirly, where are you getting information that substantiates equating this perp with Salvi and in fact with terror?
Everything I've seen so far points to him being a nut job, and trust me I have no motive to force a narrative. I abhor terrorists, including Salvi.
dear may well have political or terroristic motives but are there reports of that yet? Seems like a knee jerk reaction on your part unless you can point to some reported facts.
Not all murderers are terrorists. Pointing this out doesn't mean anyone is carrying water for the NRA or the far right.
I'm not partial to either group.
Once again, RIP to the officer and the other victims.
It's a tragedy regrdless of the killer's intent.
Again, with the personal attacks.
"Deer is an alleged terrorist."
By whom? The FBI? The DOJ?
Andrew Kehoe blew up a school, killed 38 kids and six adults. Mass murderer? Yep. Biblio's 'a**hole'? Definitely.
But, not a terrorist.
Oxford: "A person who uses terrorism in the pursuit of political aims"
Webster: "Noun 1. terrorist - a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities"
M/W: ": the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal"
Maybe all the dictionaries are wrong.
And, so is the FBI: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/terrorism/terrorism-definition
""Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:
1. Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
2. Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
3. Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S."
Salvi: Murderer. Asshole.
I'm all coffee'd up now
but I still don't remember: when a lefty implies you should be separated from your cranium, did you win the argument or lose it?
terrorism in the law and terrorism colloquially
Roof was charged with violating hate crime statutes, not violating terrorism statutes, even though he readily admits he massacred 9 Black Christians in church because of his racist politics-- to start a race war.
The law treats terrorism differently than we understand it colloquially. For some reason, US laws seem to reserve 'terrorism' charges for foreigners.
John Dear's actsare clearly intended to terrorize. He walked the halls of the clinic shooting into the walls. He aimed his rifle at people's heads and pulled the trigger. Motive, as stated by the suspect, is not necessary to prove intent. Pulling the trigger proves intent unless he was unaware of his actions.
Colorado Springs is a big evangelical christian, pro-life community. And what I didn't realize until recently, because it's counter-intuitive, is that evangelical Christians are gun nuts. I don't know if Dear is any of these things. I know he was surrounded by it.
What part of "attacking a Planned Parenthood Clinic"
... is NOT political?
The part where his motive is not clear
Look, I am ready in hindsight to look bad with this, but where we are now, we don't know why he did it. It is truly strange that he killed a cop outside of Planned Parenthood, went inside, didn't shoot anyone there but continued shooting out of the building. Could be he just wanted to get into a shootout with the cops and figured it was the best place. Maybe he didn't know what the place was. Or maybe the narrative is what most think it is, but we don't know. He's alive, so hopefully we will get the story.
I think shooting up an abortion clinic is horrible, and I'm pro-life, but if the scum didn't care about abortion, if his goal was purely carnage without any political aims, he's no more a terrorist than most people who kill in America.
According to NBC news tonight
The shooter was talking about "Obama, abortion, and baby parts". Is that clear enough for all you right wing terrorists? Lets be honest for a change. Fox news and the rest of the right wing noise machine, the Repub party, and the NRA, are all responsible.
Wait, are you calling me a terrorist?
You know, the guy who wrote how deplorable this case was, even moreso if the guy was killing in the name of ending killing.
As I began my comment, I could be wrong and most likely will be wrong, but much like in the situation of that Arizona massacre a few years ago (and it is truly sad we have a catalogue of these events) when people were very quick to blame Fox News (which I never watch) just to find out the kid was a liberal Democrat with issues, the final story might not match the narrative. There is a difference between being a homicidal nutjob and a terrorist. Yes, there is overlap, but there is a difference.
Since when do you care about
Since when do you care about anyone else?
This, folks, is the very definition of Ironic
Pretty damn amazing that someone who is so proudly Republican that he would put it as his user name, in this day and age, is making such a statement about another person.
Are you sure you are a human and not a multi-screen theater?
Never mind. Enjoy your clean air and water, dear.
So condescending.
"Pretty damn amazing that someone who is so proudly Republican that he would put it as his user name, in this day and age, is making such a statement about another person."
Surprising. Oh, on the pic...citation, please, dear.
on the pic...citation, please
Most people would be embarrassed to admit they don't even pay a passing interest in the most covered news stories of the week. Kudos to you for being an inspiration to clueless people everywhere!
RIP Officer Swasey,
"Most people would be embarrassed to admit they don't even pay a passing interest in the most covered news stories of the week. Kudos to you for being an inspiration to clueless people everywhere!"
Actually, I do pay attention. Missed that one, though. Obama must be having a really tough week...
So: RIP Officer Swasey, who was a white, Christian pastor from Colorado (well, to Colorado, but you get my drift).
So, I'll go out of my way to call the pic a bit tacky, in light of how and why he died.
Anyway, I was outside playing in the real world most of this week.
I was outside playing in the
So you didn't follow the news, but felt compelled to comment anyway. Nice double down!
Your response was so "swirly"
Your response was so "swirly". Thanks for sharing sweetie.
Much greater chance
That you or someone you love will be murdered by this kind of terrorist than any other.
It has happened to me. It will continue happening so long as you are all in denial about the reality of who does the murdering, killing and mayhem in this country. So long as people like you support and arm the most murderous terrorists this country has to offer, it will keep happening.
10,000 murders a year with guns. That's a Paris massacre in less than a week, all year.
Reality isn't your strong suit, dear. That's okay, though - reality is a bigger bitch than Karma.
Meanwhile, in the Catskills ...
Armed anti-Muslim activist heads to Islamberg; Catskills cops on high alert.
you have a problem with me calling him an a*hole?
I agree that he's a terrorist. He's also an asshole. When I was really commenting on one of his victims, and the sadness of his loss, I didn't think it needed to be parsed out.
Still no motive?
Still no motive?
motive was terrorism
Prima facie. Shot up a Planned Parenthood. With an AK-47, which should be illegal and was illegal from 1994-2004 under the assault weapons ban.
Political aim: to scare women and their medical providers. Anti-abortion. Probably anti birth control, too.
War on women.
Enjoy this weekend with family
Suffice to say, families lost a loved one this Thanksgiving weekend and here we are bickering amongst one another like kids at a schoolyard. Grab a cold one, or hug a loved one, and pray for these families.
So. Smoking gun. He targeted Planned Parenthood.
I've gotta give these cops credit; they are much more cautious than most of us would be...
Whole story: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/planned-parenthood-shooting-suspect-...
Jesus Christ, the comments
Jesus Christ, the comments above are insufferable. Every one of you sucks, and my condolences to the officer's family. It's really a testament to this man's good spirit that he, as a college police officer, went out of his way to put his life in harm's way to assist others.
Amazing Spin or Misprint?
Gentile loner, maybe?
Gentle loner...
It's like responsible gun owner. You are until the moment you aren't.
Stop talking about the shooter...
...and what his motives might/might not have been. An officer was killed in the line of duty while fighting to keep people safe. That's what we should be talking about. I know most of you don't care since it's fashionable to sneer at the police nowadays, but at least try to show a little respect.