Anti-Choice Activist Fatally Shot
Anti-choice activist James
Pouillon (63 years old) was fatally shot today outside of Michigan’s Owosso high school. James was known as the “anti-abortion sign guy,” as he frequently protested with signs depicting aborted fetuses. The police department has taken a suspect into custody by the name of Harlan Drake on two counts of first degree murder, one count of using a gun in commission of a crime, and carrying a gun with the intent to commit a crime.
Drake was apparently arrested after a witness called in reporting the license plate of the car from which the shots were fired. At about the same time James was shot, gravel company owner Mike Fuoss was found dead in his office at work due to a shot wound. This has lead the police to believe that the fatalities are interconnected. On top of that, it is suspected that there was a potential third victim.
I’m not quite sure where to go with this information as of yet. What I do know is that violence in this country as a result of ideological differences is getting pretty damn ugly. As a pro-choice feminist, I understand the outrage at Pouillon for his signs and his position on women’s reproductive rights. What I do not understand is the impulse to transform that anger into violence. Plenty of hard working, intelligent feminists around the country work tirelessly to protest anti-choice advocates, and they do it peacefully.
I don’t want to jump the gun here though. The police have stated that they lack any concrete proof of the intent behind Harlan Drake’s actions. With that being said, I have a strong feeling the anti-choice community is going to use this incident as a spring board for increased efforts to attack women’s reproductive freedom. I hope i’m wrong, although religious right wing twittering seems to indicate otherwise.
1Serena
wrote on 12 September 2009 at 0:01
Great coverage of this story, Steph. Operation Rescue does, indeed, seem to be jumping on these murders as an opportunity for politicking and bandwagon hopping. I’m certainly sad for both men and their families. But we definitely need to wait until all of the facts come out before jumping to conclusions. Great job providing a balanced point of view on the story.
2steph
wrote on 12 September 2009 at 7:43
Serena, it wasn’t me who posted!
AJ got something up before I could. The article is probably more balanced than what I would’ve written. Props to AJ.
I really do NOT think this is an incident of “prochoice terrorism” or whatever the hell antichoice people are screaming about on twitter. But I’ll keep my mouth shut until the facts come out.
3aj
wrote on 12 September 2009 at 11:32
I definitely agree with you steph. I don’t think this is so called “pro-choice terrorism” either. This guy is being charged for the murder of another person completely unrelated and was also suspected of attempting to attack a real estate agent. It seems to me like these actions are one’s of insanity, not political motivation.
4Lothar
wrote on 12 September 2009 at 12:17
“As a pro-choice feminist, I understand the outrage at Pouillon for his signs and his position on women’s reproductive rights. What I do not understand is the impulse to transform that anger into violence.”
Fuh, it’s because of the Internet & talk radio echo chamber outrage machine. Both sides have basically been cut off from each other and made cartoon caricatures of “those bastards”. It’s made angry cowards out of the lot of them, and cowardly acts like a shooting from a car are unsurprising from that kind of climate.
Now if this leads to both sides directly confronting each other face-to-face and changing their form of violence (e.g. a shouting match escalating to a fistfight, strangling, or knifing), then I’ll be surprised because that would go against the distance that they have put between themselves. That kind of violence wouldn’t be cowardly.