Kansas Progress Institute

How To Get Away With Murder Incitement: An Ongoing Social Mystery Series from KPI

Many citizens of Kansas and elsewhere couldn’t help being disconcerted by the May 31, 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller. Yet the murder was almost predictable in light of Tiller’s status as a highly visible, frequently threatened, and previously assaulted abortion provider. Indeed, an intense nation-wide publicity campaign extending well over three decades had presented Tiller as an evil person unjustly evading the harsh punishment he richly deserved. What is most disconcerting isn’t the murder itself—the act of an extremist who very likely received little or no direct assistance from others—but rather the response of many of our fellow citizens who happen to oppose abortion. Their reactions allow one to believe they privately sympathize with the murder, and may even have encouraged it. The antiabortion movement has always had clear opportunities to pursue its goal of criminalizing abortion without using language that encourages private violence. They have consistently failed to take those opportunities. Yet in other respects the movement as a whole has been clever and inventive in its language and tactics. This presents a serious puzzle: how could an entire movement ever voluntarily expose itself to charges of moral complicity in murder?

Publications

• How to Get Away With Murder Incitement Case File #3

  September 23, 2016

  Case File #3: Scott Philip Roeder (1958 –)1   a. Biographical facts Scott Roeder was born in Denver and grew up in Topeka, Kansas. He was said to have had a good relationship with his loving father, a Methodist minister, but had rebelled as a teenager. A high school acquaintance described him as a “stoner.”2 Roeder was married ...

• How To Get Away With Murder Incitement Case file #2

  September 2, 2016

  Case file #2: Troy Newman (1966 –) and Operation Rescue The antiabortion movement uses the terms “mainstream” and “fringe” to distinguish its nonviolent wing from its overtly violent wing. Operation Rescue (OR), which is headquartered in Wichita, might be characterized as operating at the near-fringe or hard edge of the “mainstream.” Nevertheless, inclusion in the antiabortion ...

• How To Get Away With Murder Incitement Case File #1

  May 26, 2016

  Case File #1: Dr. George Richard Tiller (August 8, 1941 –May 31, 2009) by David Burress May, 2016 This is the first in a series of case files presenting some of the raw facts, together with some immediate interpretations. I will leave it to the reader to draw any deeper conclusions. Case File #1: Dr. George Richard Tiller (August ...