Today, there was a five hour long standoff in a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic that ended with three dead and several others injured. So far, the exact motivations haven’t been discussed but Reuters referenced Vicki Cowart, the president of the Rocky Mountains chapter, talking about how the bitter climate around abortion in the US has really set the stage for violence.
You know, I don’t need to know all the facts of the (still happening) CO PP shooting to know that we have a massive clinic violence problem.
— ClinicEscort (@ClinicEscort) November 27, 2015
This incident is just one of unfortunately many that have happened against Planned Parenthood clinics and death threats on abortion providers have spiked in the last year. There was a fire at one Planned Parenthood in Washington that was labeled as arson, clinic escorts are necessary because of anti-abortion protesters and their alarming scare tactics, a small bomb exploded outside a Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinic back in 2012, among so many other incidents in the history of anti-abortion violence. This past summer was particularly awful because of the heavily edited and controversial video released several months ago by the Center for Medical Progress.
There’s so much more to what happened today, like how we should stop naming mass shooters in situations like this and deprive a shooter of any sort of recognition or that . And another big thing has been that the shooter from today was a white man and despite killing three people and injuring even more, the police managed to talk with him and take him alive. His whiteness worked for him to protect him like many other white shooters from the past, despite the fact that white men are the biggest terrorist threat in the US.
There have been plenty of situations in which white people have pointed guns or were violent in some way or actually killed people but were brought in by police alive and well. The Charleston church shooter killed nine people at the Emanuel AME but was arrested with no injuries and the 2012 Aurora shooting at a theater showing The Dark Knight Rises ended with 12 people killed and 70 injuries but even then, the shooter was arrested alive and with no injuries. And those are just some examples, with many others also fitting into this narrative. Even the media participates in this – so much of the mainstream media treats white suspects better than black victims.
A white man shot four officers and killed one and is alive. But Laquan. But Tamir. But Rekia. But Eric. But Matthew. But Sandra. But Mike.
— Mamacita (@audacityofDOPE_) November 28, 2015
But Mike Brown, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Rekia Boyd and so many other black people weren’t given that same privilege. Police brutality has resulted in the unnecessary and extremely unfortunate deaths of so many black people over many, many years. Tamir wasn’t given any sort of a chance and was shot within just a couple seconds, Aiyana was sleeping on a couch when she was shot, Eric repeatedly told the officers he couldn’t breathe while being held in a banned choke hold.
I am here for Planned Parenthood and similar clinics for all the services they provide and even if they only provided abortions, I would still be here and supportive of them. The violence against Planned Parenthood clinics around the nation (whether today was intentionally against the clinic or not) is infuriating and saddening. It’s bullshit that black people are constantly gunned down and killed and that white people are given an enormous amount of leeway. I am here to #SayHerName, to remember the all the lives lost because of police brutality, to acknowledge and call out the white supremacy and privilege that protects people that share my skin.