Yet Another Completely Isolated Act of Terrorism

[Trigger warning for gun violence, eliminationism, misogyny, vigilantism, Christian supremacy, and body policing]

On Wednesday night, police in Madison arrested a man who had come to town with plans to kill people at the local Planned Parenthood.

Ralph Lang, 63, told a Madison police officer at the Motel 6, 1754 Thierer Road, that he had a gun “to lay out abortionists because they are killing babies,” according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Lang said he planned on shooting the clinic’s doctor “right in the head,” according to the complaint. Asked if he planned to shoot just the doctor or nurses, too, Lang replied he wished he “could line them up all in a row, get a machine gun, and mow them all down,” the complaint said.

And of course, that was just the beginning of his plans:

Sgt. Bernie Gonzalez looked around Lang’s motel room and saw a box that contained several documents, including a map of the U.S. with dots in each state and the handwritten words “some abortion centers.”

Also written on the map was “Blessed Virgin Mary says Hell awaits any woman having an abortion.”

Police only found out about the plot because the man accidentally shot his gun off in his hotel room.

Of course, this wasn't the first time Lang had threatened Planned Parenthood. He was cited for disorderly conduct in 2007 after standing outside Planned Parenthood's Madison clinic calling for the assassination of everyone inside. That happened three years before he bought a gun for the purpose of doing "what [he felt] police officers fail to do.”

I can't imagine where Lang [TW] got the idea that this sort of behavior is appropriate. Oh [TW] wait, I do.

Interestingly enough, just yesterday President Obama signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act, an act designed to give the US government absurd powers that many politicians claim are necessary to protect its residents from acts of terrorism.

Yet the president has been silent as virtually every state (Louisiana is still on winter break) [Correction: they're back!] has seen the introduction on legislation seeking to restrict women's rights to abortion.

Yet the president acts as if there are two equal sides to this "issue".

Yet police are unable to do anything about a known anti-choice terrorist until after he buys a gun and shoots a hole in his hotel.

Obviously, I'd like to think that the arrest of yet another violent vigilante will finally alert those with political power to the dangers of their (at best) indifference. Sadly, I'm afraid I know better.

Via