Police Charge Career Criminal in Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Bombing

Posted on | April 4, 2012 | 29 Comments

Jim Collar of the Appleton (Wisc.) Post-Crescent reports:

Police and federal investigators suspect a Brillion man who has an extensive criminal record was responsible for planting the homemade explosive that ignited a Sunday fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic.
The 50-year-old man was jailed early Tuesday morning for violating terms of his probation, though police have not yet recommended charges related to the bombing at the clinic at 3800 N. Gillett St. The man’s criminal history includes convictions for cocaine possession and delivery, resisting or obstructing police, bail jumping and disorderly conduct, court records show.

The Associated Press reports:

The FBI says 50-year-old Francis Grady is charged with arson of a building used in interstate commerce and intentionally damaging a facility that provides reproductive health services.

The “bomb” was reportedly “built of a plastic bottle and chemicals that included an incendiary agent,” and was previously described as a “small device” that did “minor damage” to the empty office.

Grady seems to have the proverbial police record “as long as your arm,” and we don’t know what inspired him to commit this particular crime. The dope-dealing bail-jumper would seem to be an unlikely agent of a Republican “War on Women,” as MSNBC portrayed this crime.

Not your typical “Values Voter,” IYKWIMAITYD.

So the whole jumping-to-conclusions method of media analysis has once again failed, and I must now also confess that my own hunch about the case was wrong. During the hours Tuesday afternoon when we knew a suspect had been arrested, but his name had not yet been released, I found the county jail’s inmate listing online. There was one name on the list that seemed to kind of stand out from the rest, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.

Well, now that Francis Gerald Grady has been named as the suspect, it is therefore necessary to say that obviously Kamel Mohamed Khatib — who apparently has performed as a rapper under the stage name “Arabe” — had nothing to do with the Planned Parenthood bombing. Whatever alleged crime got Khatib booked into the Outagamie County hoosegow, this wasn’t it, and I apologize for even thinking he might be involved, although I never actually claimed he was.

Good thing I don’t have a cable news network with which to broadcast my unsubstantiated guesswork nationwide, or else I might have made a complete fool of myself, like those idiots on MSNBC.

Exactly how this Grady character could fit MSNBC’s “profile” of a Republican misognynist, I don’t know, but I’m sure they’ll try to squeeze him into their pre-fab narrative template.

Remember how the two-bit hoodlums who killed Matthew Shepard got transformed by the media into international symbols of right-wing homophobia, as if these lowlife punks — one of them with a dope charge on his record, the other on probation for burglary — had been inspired to their infamous crime by listening to Focus on the Family seminars and attending Promise Keepers rallies? And remember how, even after Jared Lee Loughner had been clearly identified as an atheist 9-11 Truther obsessed with the left-wing conspiracy flick Zeitgeist, the liberal media still wanted to blame the Tea Party for the Tucson massacre?

Those media narrative templates are flexible, you see.

Therefore, expect a lot of vague talk from the liberal media about a “climate of hate” that somehow turned dope-dealing bail-jumper Francis Grady into a mind-numbed robot programmed to attack a Planned Parenthood clinic, even if there’s no actual evidence to suggest Grady ever voted Republican or listened to Rush Limbaugh. The symbolic meaning of this crime is what’s important to the MSNBC types, and to hell with minor details like facts and stuff.

Category: Crime, Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin

Comments

29 Responses to “Police Charge Career Criminal in Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Bombing”

Larimerica
April 4th, 2012 @ 7:50 am

I’m sure they’ll try to squeeze him into their pre-fab narrative template

…said the blogger who imagined the guy with the Arabic name was a terrorist.
Bob Belvedere
April 4th, 2012 @ 7:58 am

Well put.

And another reminder that we have to investigate each and every Narrative the Left produces in that underground Orc workshop under Sarumen’s Tower at Isengard.
Bob Belvedere
April 4th, 2012 @ 7:58 am

Wow…Stacy flung one at you and it went right over your head – cleared it by a few feet.
ThomasD
April 4th, 2012 @ 8:23 am

Arson of a building used in interstate commerce?????

Anyone know the impetus of such a specific law, how long it has been on the books, and how many times it has been used before?

Curious and curiouser.
SDN
April 4th, 2012 @ 8:48 am

Like I keep saying, too dishonest to have around.
Bob Belvedere
April 4th, 2012 @ 8:52 am

That’s just another violation of the Tenth Amendment.
vermontaigne
April 4th, 2012 @ 9:12 am

His name is Francis. Another kooky pro-Life Catholic saint worshipper.
richard mcenroe
April 4th, 2012 @ 10:28 am

The Irish Catholic rampage in the streets of Wisconsin continues!

I will confess, though as hindsight I will not claim credit for, not being able to think at the time of a reason why a Muslim would make a priority of torching a PP clinic. On the other hand, it would have wasted a good sight gag if I took counsel of my uncertaity, so there’s that…
Staks Rosch
April 4th, 2012 @ 10:28 am

For the record, Zeitgeist is Libertarian leaning, not left leaning.
Rachael
April 4th, 2012 @ 10:41 am

Here’s Grady’s rap sheet: http://wcca.wicourts.gov/pager.do;jsessionid=5296132FB4C51FE8D7167BC9A0E5483C.render6?cacheId=319C3A62D1ECFB9826C0ABDBFA250A19&offset=0&sortColumn=0&sortDirection=DESC
robertstacymccain
April 4th, 2012 @ 11:22 am

The whole point of calling attention to the wrongness of my hunch — a hunch, as I say, that I never actually put in writing — was to demonstrate that guesswork is a fallible tool in journalism. Even an educated guess, made by someone with more than a quarter-century of experience in this racket, can obviously be wrong. This is why we don’t turn our hunches into headlines.

But you see that the “War on Women” meme — which dominated MSNBC’s Monday lineup — was based entirely on the supposition that this incident at Planned Parenthood was somehow related to recent GOP political discourse. This seemed so damned convenient, one of those just-so stories, that I thought it must be some sort of hoax, and said so: “Question the Timing.”

So when the first news about the suspect mentioned that he had been held on a warrant for a probation violation, I immediately recognized that this did not fit the template. While we don’t yet know Grady’s motives, we have enough information to see that he doesn’t seem to match the depiction of this crime as something inspired by Republicans: He’s a common criminal.

Well, OK: My hunch about Khatib was wrong, and I have no problem admitting that. But now that police have named Grady as the suspect, where are the admissions from the MSNBC personalities that their “War on Women” hysteria on Monday now appears to have been misguided nonsense?

They lack integrity — that’s the real problem.
Adobe_Walls
April 4th, 2012 @ 12:53 pm

What does Khatib rap about? Let’s not be too hasty in clearing him entirely.
Adobe_Walls
April 4th, 2012 @ 12:56 pm

So true, I still see no reason why we should refrain from reckless, baseless speculation it’s all the rage don’t you know.
Adobe_Walls
April 4th, 2012 @ 1:03 pm

Isn’t traveling from Georgia to Florida putting a bounty on someones head and inciting murder and or kidnapping a violation of the Commerce clause? After all if someone kills Zimmerman for the NBP bounty the Federal Government will not be able to force him to engage in health insurance commerce or collect the nottax notpenalty. Or are ones heirs responsible for paying the notpenalty because their dead relatives cease purchasing health insurance?
Adobe_Walls
April 4th, 2012 @ 1:04 pm

You made the correct choice.
Ian Vaughan
April 4th, 2012 @ 1:38 pm

On the other hand, Grady is exactly the kind of person a sleazy Dem operative would hire for the job……
Taxpayer1234
April 4th, 2012 @ 3:23 pm

Oh, look–another kooky anti-life troll-dung worshiper.
Taxpayer1234
April 4th, 2012 @ 3:24 pm

Well, libertarian in that tinfoil hat “none dare call it conspiracy” kind of way.
How Wrong Was Michelle Goldberg About Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Bombing? : The Other McCain
April 4th, 2012 @ 3:26 pm

[…] 4: Police Charge Career Criminal in Wisconsin Planned Parenthood BombingApril […]
Cliff McSparran
April 4th, 2012 @ 3:28 pm

Referring to 1994’s Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 248), Thomas D asks what “the impetus for such a specific law” is. The impetus would be Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U. S. Constitution (also known as the Commerce Clause), which states that the United States Congress shall have power “to regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” For legal precedent, you may want to read a Supreme Court case from back in 1819 called McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U. S. 16. Also, take a look at the SCOTUS case styled Wichard v Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, from 1942. Hope this helps.
Cliff McSparran
April 4th, 2012 @ 3:48 pm

Regarding your assertion in this piece that Matthew Sheperd’s killers were not motivated by homophobia, I’d ask you to read the following information from The Denver Post about the man believed to be the primary actor in Mr Sheperd’s murder, “Matt Shepard needed killing,” Aaron McKinney bluntly told Tectonic company member Greg Pierotti for the epilogue, which includes the first interviews with McKinney and Russell Henderson since 2004. “As far as Matthew is concerned, I don’t have any remorse,” McKinney said during nine hours of talks with Pierotti. “The night I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals.” Sounds unequivocally like a hate crime to me…I’m not sure what more an already-convicted defendant could say to make it any clearer.
ThePaganTemple
April 4th, 2012 @ 4:36 pm

Stacy, that was a really silly thing for you to say. Are you actually asserting that the only people who might be motivated to kill homosexuals are people who listen to Focus On The Family Seminars or attend Promise Keeper’s rallies? I would hope not. People that might be motivated to do that are precisely the kinds of “two-bit hoodlums” you say these were. Or don’t you think its possible to be a two-bit hoodlum plus a homophobic gay basher?

Do people that pick up gays in nightclubs just to beat them up and maybe rob and murder them attend Focus On The Family events?

I never thought I’d ever say this to a well-know journalist, but-you need to get out more.
richard mcenroe
April 4th, 2012 @ 4:48 pm

Uh… no.
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April 4th, 2012 @ 7:27 pm

[…] from the nearby town of Little Chute. Stacy’s been on top of the case, and refers to him as a “career criminal,” though his career is hardly stellar. He has one felony conviction, for possession of cocaine with […]
Taxpayer1234
April 4th, 2012 @ 8:01 pm

I get cranky when my religion gets dissed.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 4th, 2012 @ 8:57 pm

I am curious what the motivation was for the accused they do have?
vermontaigne
April 4th, 2012 @ 9:05 pm

Am I going to have to start using sarc tags on Stacy’s site? Really?
Taxpayer1234
April 4th, 2012 @ 10:06 pm

As long as commenting is 100% text-based, then yeah, sarc tags are good things.
Donald Spitz
April 5th, 2012 @ 8:39 am

I wish Francis Grady had burned that babykilling abortion mill to the gound.