Discovery building gunman confronted pro-life demonstrators in 2009, group says

Sep 2, 2010 / 15:33 pm

James J. Lee, the alleged gunman who took hostages at the Discovery Communications building, also published demands for an end to programs which encourage the birth of “parasitic human infants.” A pro-life group which believes Lee started an argument at one of their protests said his “utter disdain for human beings” is at the core of the mindset pro-lifers oppose.

On Wednesday the 43-year-old Lee held three men hostage at the Silver Spring, Maryland headquarters of Discovery Communications, which runs cable channels such as the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and TLC.

Lee had a handgun and a live bomb strapped to him. Police shot and killed him after a standoff. No one else was injured.

The Washington Post reports that police have not publicly named Lee, but several local and federal law enforcement sources identified him as the gunman.

In a list of demands published on the internet, Lee said the Discovery Channel must focus on “how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution.” He said the channel should host more forums of leading scientists who agree with “the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation.”

He said Discovery Health-TLC programs must “stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions.” In the place of “pro-birth programs,” he said, should be “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.”

Lee called for programs dedicated to stopping “ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that,” he said, using a derogatory term for a baby whose birth in the U.S. supposedly helps his or her immigrant parents stay in the country.

Saving the planet, he claimed, means decreasing the human population and “stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies!”

“It is the responsibility of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES!”

Karen Walker, communications director of the American Life League (ALL), told CNA that ALL believes Lee started a conversation at an ALL demonstration called “The Pill Kills Day” in June 2009.

“I looked the guy in the face. It’s the same one. The voices match as well,” she commented, saying she sent videos of the event to authorities.

Videos of the incident, published on the website Creative Minority Report, appear to show Lee at the event.

According to Walker, one video was made by Lee. The video includes a discussion with a demonstrator about religion in which the cameraman says he is an atheist. He adds that he does not tolerate other people’s religion because it is “unsustainable” and characterizes having children as “harmful.”

Walker further reflected on the frightening nature of the encounter.

“The thing that struck us the most was his utter disdain for human beings,” she told CNA. “That’s an attitude we encounter pretty often in the pro-life movement. It’s the mindset and the philosophy that’s really at the core of what we’re fighting against.

“What really scared us that day back in June continues to be even more real, now that he has taken these twisted philosophies to their logical end,” she told CNA.