A Note On Richard Poplawski

Yes, they found him guilty. Yes, he killed those three police officers. And yes, he deserves to be punished for it.

All these things are true.

Know what else is true?

He was a right wing extremist, a right wing terrorist. A right wing domestic terrorist.

From the Trib in 2009:

A secret U.S. Department of Homeland Security report on "right-wing extremism" mentions by name only one potential domestic terrorist: accused cop killer Richard A. Poplawski.

The report was finished by Homeland Security's Extremism and Radicalization Branch and the FBI on April 7 — three days after the Stanton Heights gunfight during which Poplawski allegedly killed three police officers, Eric G. Kelly, 41; Stephen J. Mayhle, 29; and Paul J. Sciullo II, 36.

The report was intended only for law enforcement leaders, but the Tribune-Review was able to obtain a copy. It paints a disturbing picture of the rise of American hate-based groups that reject governmental authority in an era of foreclosures, unemployment and dwindling credit.

The report cites Poplawski, 22, as an example of "white supremacist lone wolves" or "small terrorist cells" inflamed by the possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the recent election of America's first black president.

From that DHS report:

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that a number of economic and political factors are driving a resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization activity. Despite similarities to the climate of the 1990s, the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years. In addition, the historical election of an African American president and the prospect of policy changes are proving to be a driving force for rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization.

— (U) A recent example of the potential violence associated with a rise in rightwing extremism may be found in the shooting deaths of three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 4 April 2009. The alleged gunman’s reaction reportedly was influenced by his racist ideology and belief in antigovernment conspiracy theories related to gun confiscations, citizen detention camps, and a Jewish-controlled “one world government.”

Don't ever let them tell you there's no such thing as a right wing domestic terrorist.

Poplawski gets death penalty and you get fries with that

No matter how you feel about the death penalty in general or the sentence in this case in particular, can we all agree that this sign on the door of a South Side bar is fucked up?
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The New Civility

GOP Rep. Rehberg: Federal Judges Should Be ‘On The Endangered Species List’

Alabama State Senator Advises Politicians To ‘Empty The Clip’ To Stop Undocumented Immigrants

Of course none of this matters because words don't matter and even if they did matter, there are no right wing domestic terrorists -- only "crazies" -- and those crazies don't listen to violent right wing rhetoric and even if they do, it just doesn't matter because words don't matter.

Glad that I cleared that up for everyone!

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White Supremacist Wounds Kills Security Guard at U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

From the April Department of Homeland Security report that assessed the threat of “right wing extremists":

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

First Dr. Tiller, Poplawski, then Dr. Tiller, now this.

Napolitano should have never apologized.

Lots on the background of the shooter at Talking Points Memo and AMERICAblog.

UPDATE:
From Think Progress: "Brunn has been approvingly cited on Stormfront, a national white supremacist website." If you recall, Poplawski kept an account at Stormfront.

UPDATE II:
Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, security guard at U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, has died of his injuries.

Can we all agree that shooting up a Holocaust museum is the very definition of evil?
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More On The Shooter

From Chris Potter:

I can't wait until the day when we no longer have to think about Richard Poplawski. But as we pass through one of the worst weeks in city history, it might be worth searching for whatever small blessing we can find, no matter how little comfort it brings.

Here's the best I can do: As horrific as the Stanton Heights shooting was ... it could have been even worse.

Potter's found what might have been an alternative plan for the shooter. He and "a group of friends" were looking to buy "a lot of military surplus rifles" in mid-February.

Potter's right (as he often is). Things could have been a lot worse.

From Conspiracy Theories To Cable News

When you feed teh crazie:


Don't be surprised when the fringe erupts violently.

More Poplawski Details

From Jerome Sherman of the P-G:

Richard Poplawski thought Officer Stephen J. Mayhle was faking being dead as he lay in front of a Stanton Heights home on Saturday morning. So he shot the officer again, investigators said he told them.

He also shot Officer Paul J. Sciullo II a second time as he lay inside the house, police said Mr. Poplawski told them.

Sherman also quoted the police as saying Poplawski had a "cold demeanor" and sometimes yawned while answering their questions. He thought he killed five.

Jill King Greenwood and Jeremy Boren of the Trib have this:

During interviews with police, Poplawski, 22, described how he fired extra bullets into the motionless bodies of Officers Stephen J. Mayhle and Paul J. Sciullo II "just to make sure they were dead," detectives said.

Initially it was going to be a martyrdom by ZOG but at some point things shifted. Sherman of the P-G:

The gunman later told investigators he had planned for police to kill him. But he changed his mind and agreed to surrender, hoping to go to prison so he could write a book.

According to Greenwood and Boren, there are some discrepancies between Poplawski's story and his mother's:

Margaret Poplawski told investigators she answered the door, let the officers in and said, "Come and take his ass," according to a police affidavit. She said once Sciullo and Mayhle got about 10 feet into the living room, she heard gunshots and turned to see her son about 6 feet away with a rifle in his hand. She said she screamed "What the hell have you done?" and ran into the basement.

Richard Poplawski told detectives that he put on a bulletproof vest and got a shotgun, AK-47 and handgun before his mother opened the door to admit the officers and that she knew he was armed, investigators say.

A few paragraphs later they say that detectives are looking into whether they can charge the mother.

More From Roddy

On The Shooter:

Accused cop-killer Richard Poplawski spent hours posting racist messages on an extremist right-wing Web site, decrying blacks and Latinos and warning of forthcoming economic collapse fueled by the "Zionist occupation" of America, an expert in political extremism has determined. Earlier, he had praised the "AK" rifle as his ideal weapon.

And then there's this:

On March 13, according to the site, Mr. Poplawski wrote a lengthy post predicting economic collapse, engineered by a Jewish conspiracy.

"The federal government, mainstream media, and banking system in these United States are strongly under the influence of -- if not completely controlled by -- Zionist interest," the post declares. "An economic collapse of the financial system is inevitable, bringing with it some degree of civil unrest if not outright balkanization of the continental US, civil/revolutionary/racial war . . . This collapse is likely engineered by the elite Jewish powers that be in order to make for a power and asset grab."

The 923-word post clearly outlines the apocalyptic ideas that Mr. Poplawski's friends earlier attributed to him.

"One can read the list of significant persons in government and in major corporations and see who is pulling the strings. One can observe the policies and final products and should walk away with little doubt there is Zionist occupation and -- after some further research & critical thinking -- will discover their insidious intentions," the post adds.

What an asshole.

Pintek Tonight

Like Fred Honsberger, Mike Pintek has a Facebook page. And also like Fred, Mike announces the day's topic to his Facebook friends.

Here's today's anouncement:

What genetic mutation motivates a person to wallow in paranoid delusions and then decide to kill to defend his warped world? A criminal justice expert who studies these scumbags tackles that one...

Plus, Washington Times columnist Frank Gaffney warns that the Obama administration is giving away US Sovereignty...

Obviously, the first part's about The Shooter. But what of the second? I didn't hear the show and so I have no idea exactly what they said (or how they said it) but I wonder if Pintek's thought this fully through.

Here's the thing, Mike: There are crazy unbalanced people all over the place. Fueling their crazie only makes things worse.

Some fuel for teh crazie? Washington Times columnist Frank Gaffney.

Point one:

Another question yet to be resolved is whether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States, a prerequisite pursuant to the U.S. Constitution. There is evidence Mr. Obama was born in Kenya rather than, as he claims, Hawaii. There is also a registration document for a school in Indonesia where the would-be president studied for four years, on which he was identified not only as a Muslim but as an Indonesian. If correct, the latter could give rise to another potential problem with respect to his eligibility to be president.

Point two:

When [Obama] uses the word "respect" in the context of a waist-bow to the King of Saudi Arabia for example and talks about respectful language. Which is code for those who adhere to Sharia that we will submit to Sharia.

And Pintek said he was going to talk to Gaffney about how the Obama administration is "giving away US Sovereignty." Presumably they discussed this column from the Washington Times:

How many Americans are aware that some, let alone an actual majority, of the Supreme Court's justices believe that this country should be ruled by something other than the Constitution of the United States, laws made pursuant thereto and treaties clearly consistent with it? Assuredly, few of us know that such an assault on our sovereignty is afoot; in all likelihood, fewer still would support it.

The same would likely apply to Harold Koh's embrace of myriad other controversial transnationalist initiatives. He favors U.S. submission to the International Criminal Court, enabling that tribunal to have the right tomorrow to take up the sort of foreign prosecutions of Americans contemplated by Spain's Judge Garzon today.

Richard Poplawski was determined to protect his constitutional rights.

The Shooter

Dennis Roddy at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Richard Andrew Poplawski was a young man convinced the nation was secretly controlled by a cabal that would eradicate freedom of speech, take away his guns and use the military to enslave the citizenry.

And:

"He was really into politics and really into the First and Second amendment. One thing he feared was he feared the gun ban because he thought that was going to take away peoples' right to defend themselves. He never spoke of going out to murder or to kill," said Edward Perkovic, who described himself as Mr. Poplawski's lifelong best friend.

Mr. Poplawski's view of guns and personal freedom took a turn toward the fringes of American politics. With Mr. Perkovic, he appeared to share a belief that the government was controlled from unseen forces, that troops were being shipped home from the Mideast to police the citizenry here, and that Jews secretly ran the country.

Carl Prine at the Tribune-Review:

Richard Andrew "Pop" Poplawski's ex-girlfriend said he dragged her by the hair and threatened to shoot her.

He slept with a gun under his pillow in a basement room filled with firearms and ammunition, convinced that Jews controlled the media and President Obama was scheming to take away his arsenal, friends and relatives said Saturday.

But those who know the man accused of killing three police officers and shooting a fourth also described Poplawski, 22, of Stanton Heights as quiet, clever and kind to dogs.

Well that's nice. I mean all the violence, racism, antisemitism, and frightening fringe wingnut politics aside, it's good to know The Shooter's not a puppy-kicker.

Jon Schmitz, of the P-G, has more from the affidavit:

A police criminal complaint described the sequence of events that began with a domestic-violence call at 7:03 a.m. and led to the shooting deaths of Officers Paul Sciullo III, Stephen J. Mayhle and Eric Kelly at 1016 Fairfield St.

The suspect's mother, Margaret Poplawski, called 911 to say that she had argued with her son after she discovered that a dog had urinated on the floor of the house. She told police she wanted him removed.

Officers Sciullo and Mayhle radioed at 7:11 that they had arrived at the home. Mrs. Poplawski told police she opened the door and told police "come and take his ass."

When the officers were 10 feet into the residence, "she heard gunshots, turned and saw her son about six feet away with a long rifle in his hands, at which point she fled downstairs after asking him 'what the hell have you done?' " according to the report.

While I presume he was kind to the dog that pissed on the floor what follows is truly scary:

An unidentified witness in another house on Fairfield Street, awakened by gunfire, looked out the window and saw an officer down near the front stoop and a man standing in the doorway. The witness saw the suspect fire two or three more shots into the downed officer, later identified as Officer Mayhle, before going back inside.

And a summary from mom:

The report quoted Mrs. Poplawski as saying her son, after being kicked out of the Marine Corps for assaulting his drill sergeant during basic training, had been "stockpiling guns and ammunition, buying and selling the weapons online, because he believed that as a result of the economic collapse, the police were no longer able to protect society."

Allan Walton (also of the P-G) has a timeline. It ends with this:

About 90 minutes after the initial call and following an evacuation of some neighbors, a SWAT armored vehicle that had arrived at the residence was fired upon. The suspect, who police said was wearing a bullet-proof vest, was wounded in the leg, perhaps multiple times, from police fire.

Telephone negotiations with Mr. Poplawski ensued. After making calls to family and friends while also talking directly with police, he agreed to surrender. His mother, Margaret, who was in the house during the standoff, also was removed from the premises.

He was taken into custody after indicating he no longer held a weapon and was transported to UPMC Presbyterian, where he reportedly was in fair condition.

Obama's coming to take your guns. Jews control the government. Jews control the media.

The violent fringe of the fringe is a scary place.

UPDATE: You can read the criminal complaint here.