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By Pete Kotz in Creeps, homicide
Monday, Sep. 14 2009 @ 9:02AM
James-L-Pouillon.jpg
Pouillon, left, even protested outside church daycare centers
​After anti-abortion protestor James Pouillon was murdered in Owosso, Michigan Friday, pro-life activists and conservative Christians began calling him a martyr, comparing him to slain Dr. George Tiller, and demanding condolences from President Obama.

They wondered how Tiller, an abortion doctor, could create so much outrage -- even from pro-life camps -- after being murdered in a Wichita church, while Pouillon could be gunned down and not get a peep from Obama or groups like Planned Parenthood. But the answer's pretty simple. He's just not a sympathetic character.

You may have not liked what Tiller did for a living, but he did it in private with those who willingly sought his services. Pouillon, by contrast, protested outside churches, high schools, even car dealerships, with signs depicting aborted fetuses. We still don't know if his killer was rabidly pro-choice, or just didn't like the way Pouillon shoved his beliefs so graphically in front of kids. And therein lies the rub...

Though Pouillon had run-ins with the law, he was a largely peaceful protester. But it's one thing to pray or chant outside a Planned Parenthood. It's entirely another to scream at pregnant ladies, moms taking their kids to daycare, or wave signs with aborted fetuses outside a high school.

These kinds of things violate so many rules on so many levels that it's hard to muster empathy. Perhaps 16-year-old Curtis Wisterman distilled it to its bluntest when he told the AP, "I can see someone spitting on him or punching him, but shooting him is pretty stupid."

He's right. No one wanted Pouillon dead. But there were probably a good many parents in Owosso, Michigan who would have loved to kick his ass 16 ways to Tuesday, were he not so old and sickly. The rules of America -- especially in places like Michigan -- say grown men don't scream at women and children. And they just don't shove their politics graphically in the face of school kids.

So the pro-life fringe can demand outrage all it wants. But it probably won't be getting much. With all the tragedy in the world, people have only so much sympathy to extend. And they'll probably be extending it to more worthy candidates.