Paw Paw man sentenced to five years for Planned Parenthood arson

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A Paw Paw man convicted of setting fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Kalamazoo has been sentenced to five years in prison. Joshua Brereton has also been ordered to serve two years of supervised release and pay $32,000 in restitution for the fire in July of last year. He pleaded guilty in October to arson. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Brereton set fire to the building on July 31 after purchasing tiki torch fuel, a fire starter log, a utility lighter, and a hat at the Paw Paw Walmart. He was seen on surveillance footage at Planned Parenthood breaching a fence and setting fire to the bushes before lighting the fireplace starter log and throwing it on to the roof. He’d previously posted videos to social media in which he referred to abortion as genocide. U.S. Attorney Mark Totten says Brereton’s actions were “an attack on a health care clinic.” He says his office will “continue to use every tool at our disposal to defend those rights protected by federal law.”