Right Wing Cop

Yes, they are everywhere.

From The Nation Online...

On May 14, on the eve of the Senate debate on President Bush's far-right judicial nominees, the Washington Post published an opinion piece by Tony Perkins in which he laid out his vision of the coming apocalyptic battle between Bush's nominees, people of faith and Democrats who are determined to wage a "campaign against orthodox religious views." Only if the Senate votes for Bush's appointments, Perkins argued, will the judiciary eventually come to respect the law. "In their zeal to preserve an imperial
judiciary," he wrote, "liberals have taken abuse of the confirmation process to a new low."

Time and again, Perkins, the president of the Christian right lobbying powerhouse the Family Research Council, hits the theme that it is Democrats, liberals and judges who are out of step with the law. Meanwhile, Perkins plays up his former career as a cop
to buttress his authority: "A former police officer," his Family Research Council biography states, "Mr. Perkins brings a unique perspective to the public policy process." But an incident from Perkins's past sheds light on his real record when it comes to the
law--an episode that Perkins has conspicuously omitted from his biography.

More than a decade ago, Tony Perkins pledged to uphold an oath as a reserve officer in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police force. He violated this oath in 1992 when, according to a witness, he failed to report an illegal conspiracy by antiabortion activists to his
superiors, then publicly criticized police tactics designed to stop the activists from restricting access to a local abortion clinic. As a result of these actions, he was suspended from duty and subsequently quit.

The long, hot summer of 1992 marked the climax of antiabortion protests in Baton Rouge. Declaring a "Summer of Purpose," organizers from Operation Rescue came to town with the intent of shutting down the city's Delta Women's Clinic--a longtime target of
antiabortion militants, who firebombed it in 1985. Operation Rescue shepherded hundreds of shock troops from local fundamentalist churches onto clinic property, where they staged daily protest vigils, confronted patients and occasionally engaged in violent acts.