Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
A little under a year after one of its facilities was severely damaged by pro-abortion extremists, a pro-life pregnancy center was allowed to share video footage of the crime.
About a week ago, CompassCare, a pregnancy center whose Amherst, New York, facility was firebombed last June, tweeted a video of surveillance footage that had previously been withheld by local police, apparently at the recommendation of the FBI.
“The following surveillance video is what the FBI and local police do not want you to see,” CompassCare CEO the Rev. Jim Harden says in the video.
BREAKING: CompassCare Wins Lawsuit as Threats Increase.
This is what the FBI didn't want you to see… pic.twitter.com/nvu8Bte834— CompassCare (@compasscare) April 14, 2023
CompassCare had tried for more than 300 days to be given the video footage, which was captured by the company’s security system, but was resisted by law enforcement throughout the process.
Eventually, in September of last year, the company sued the Amherst Police Department in state court for access to the video, which CompassCare leadership said was essential in its efforts to build a civil lawsuit and establish to identify the people responsible for the planning and execution of the firebombing.
“The video feed is CompassCare’s private property which was withheld from CompassCare’s attorneys and private investigators by local police and FBI,” Harden said. “After six months of litigation against the Amherst Police Department – 305 days after the attack – CompassCare won the lawsuit, and the Amherst police relinquished the surveillance of the crime.”
The FBI had previously released still photos taken from the video, but this effort has not yet yielded an arrest.
Jane’s Revenge, a pro-abortion terrorist group, long ago claimed responsibility for the attack and other acts of violence, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has testified before Congress that identifying the individuals connected to this group has proven difficult.
As previously reported by FISM, the Justice Department has offered a cash reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the New York case. The promise of $25,000 also had no impact.
Indeed, Garland’s Justice Department has produced precious little of substance in investigating hundreds of attacks on pro-life locations around the country.
“Ridiculously, while under oath, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told the Senate Judiciary the lack of arrests and convictions is because the crimes perpetrated against organizations like CompassCare are being committed at night in the dark,” Harden said.
It remains to be seen whether the video will provide any additional leads. If nothing else, the video at least gives the viewer a sense of what happened last summer.
As Hardin described it, Jane’s Revenge staged “not a loose grassroots protest, but a highly organized and calculated international, Antifa-style hit job, using Molotov cocktails growing into a blaze that would injure two firefighters.”
Nationwide, attacks on pro-life properties have eclipsed 300 cases. Pro-abortion groups began acts of vandalism even before the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs ruling – the Amherst attack occurred after the leak of the draft decision – and those attacks intensified after the end of Roe v. Wade.