Many Lubbock citizens have questioned the level of collusion between the city of Lubbock and Planned Parenthood and now documents obtained by the Sandstorm Scholar answer some questions, but raise even more: Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas gave the Lubbock Police Department a watch list targeting Pro-Life protestors before January’s March for Life.
Police are in the report-taking business, but what happens when a tip comes from a taxpayer-supported quasi-political organization looking to weaponize the police against its enemies? And is that what happened here?
Those concerns and more arise from a document prepared by Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas and emailed to an assistant police chief with the Lubbock Police Department. The list is photos, names and dates of birth of 13 people who Planned Parenthood said organized, attended or spoke at the January 29 March for Life.
What happens when a tip comes from a quasi-political organization looking to weaponize the police against its enemies?
When asked, Lubbock Police Chief Floyd Mitchell initially denied such a document existed but promised we’d have it if it did. Mitchell still challenges the characterization this was a “watch list,” but when its existence became undeniable the chief was true to his word and released the watch list with this statement:
Yesterday, you asked about a document referencing individuals associated with the March for Life protest on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. After further review, the public information unit learned of a document produced by Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas and supplied to the Lubbock Police Department as part of communications prior to the protest. Chief Mitchell believes this is the document Scott was referring to as a “watch list.” This document included 13 individuals Planned Parenthood identified as living “in and around the city of Lubbock, while the others are the ‘big names’ who will be coming in and are listed as speakers at the rallies on Friday and Saturday.” Officers assigned to coordinate police operations surrounding the logistics of the march conducted a search using open source methods of the individuals and found that all were publicly associated with the March for Life, West Texas For Life or speakers expected at the events being hosted during the weekend’s events. LPD does not maintain lists of protesters identified as pro-life or pro-choice (via email to KCBD Investigates unit).
One supposes that last sentence to be true only because no watch list existed for pro-choice marchers. It was unnecessary to identify them as “Pro-Life,” it’s all they had.
In the email from Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, to which the watch list was attached, some of the names were tagged with warnings as “aggressive” because of previous-anti-abortion activities. Images from social media were provided along with detailed information about families and personal history.
One might reasonably assume Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas distributed similar watch lists across the state
It’s a garish document which appears set to look like mug shots from a police line-up. This was an intelligence report produced by Planned Parenthood targeting innocent people, with what goal in mind, other than to create suspicion and doubt within the Lubbock community by demonizing its citizens, we really do not know or understand. The very format, with photo, date of birth and name suggests someone who ought to be, sorry chief, watched.
Since it was prepared centrally (Waco), not locally, one might reasonably assume Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas distributed similar watch lists across the state. There are other marches and other marchers to be denounced.
It was in December when Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Alexis McGill Johnson spoke to the Washington Post about Planned Parenthood and abortion.
“So I think when we say, ‘It’s a small part of what we do,’ what we’re doing is actually stigmatizing it. Like: It’s really not a big deal that Planned Parenthood does this. We are a proud abortion provider.”
It’s not necessary for any further definition of the organization: it’s an abortion factory and proud of it.
It is the moral equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan providing intel to the police about a Black Lives Matter march
For Planned Parenthood, an organization that takes lives by violence on a daily basis, to prepare a watch list for a Pro-Life rally is the moral equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan providing intel to the police about a Black Lives Matter march.
Does the organization have a right to target protestors to police? Yes. Should the police be circumspect about how it handles such a report? We’d hope so, but when we asked for the distribution email the city of Lubbock response was to defer to the attorney general.
What we do know is the watch list was widely distributed at the Lubbock Police Department in its raw form because that’s how we learned about it: from someone who thought the information was being mishandled as a matter of police policy and standard procedure.
If this information was handled properly, the city ought to release the emails showing that.
Police may be in the business of taking reports, but there exist procedures for gathering, investigating and validating the information in those reports before it’s distributed as actionable intelligence. Whether these procedures were followed might be known if the city would simply release the information. When it comes to information it may withhold, i.e., that is discretionary, the city of Lubbock is rarely transparent.
Pro-Life supporters may find themselves on city watch lists produced by Planned Parenthood
The chief, who attends council meetings, undoubtedly watched as the mayor and council berated, denigrated and harangued Pro-Life supporters when it voted 7-0 against the sanctuary city ordinance. And Mitchell is a police chief who has demonstrated a willingness to even violate the city charter in order to curry favor with the council.
The takeaway, as Lubbock approaches its May 1 vote on Lubbock’s Sanctuary City for the Unborn election, is that Pro-Life supporters may find themselves on city watch lists produced by Planned Parenthood, endorsed by City Council vote and distributed to your friendly police.