Ebay blocks Roeder auction

By JUDY L. THOMAS

The Kansas City Star

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An online auction to raise money for the Kansas City man charged with killing a Wichita abortion doctor was short-lived.

EBay took down most of the auction items Monday within hours of the listings being posted.

“They said we had violated their rules,” said Regina Dinwiddie, one of the auction organizers. “This is egregious censorship with pro-abortion bias.”

On Monday, eBay released a short statement:

“Today, eBay removed several listings on our site that violated several of our policies including our offensive materials policy. This policy prohibits items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance, or promote organizations with such views.”

Auction organizers posted the items Sunday night and early Monday under two listings. Dinwiddie’s listing contained 10 items, including several drawings submitted by Tiller’s accused killer, Scott Roeder; an Army of God manual that describes dozens of ways to shut down abortion clinics; and a prison cookbook compiled by Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller in 1993 and is serving time for clinic arsons.

But organizers also posted two items that were less controversial under a different listing — a Bible that belonged to Shannon and a Catechism written by Michael Bray, an abortion foe who served time in prison in the 1980s for a series of clinic bombings.

Those items were pulled about 4 p.m. Monday.

Dinwiddie said her listings were removed within six hours.

In an e-mail to Dinwiddie, the company categorized the items as “murderabilia.”

“We don’t allow items that are closely associated with individuals convicted of a violent felony to be listed on eBay,” the e-mail said. “Such items can be deeply offensive to the families of victims.”

To reach Judy L. Thomas, call 816-234-4334.

Posted on Mon, Nov. 02, 2009 10:33 PM

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