Great news
I was at this funeral. This is in today's paper.
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1152714013265180.xml&coll=5
Funeral protesters to get $5,000 bill
MUNDY TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
By Sally York
[email protected] • 810.766.6322
QUICK TAKE
At issue
Mundy Township plans to bill a Kansas church for extra security costs at a recent military funeral service. Church members, who have conducted protests at military funerals across the country, had said they were coming to the township but never showed.
MUNDY TWP. - Military funeral protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., asked for special police protection for a recent planned visit.
Now they're getting something they didn't ask for: a bill.
The controversial group - who say military deaths are God's retribution for the country's failure to condemn homosexuality - planned to demonstrate at the July 1 memorial service for fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon Webb of Swartz Creek. But they didn't show up, and now they'll be charged more than $5,000 for the cost of providing security.
Mundy Township's message: You don't show up, you pay up.
Police were ready for the notorious protesters - who demonstrate at military funerals across the country, hurling insults at mourners and spitting on American flags - at Webb's memorial service at Swartz Funeral Home. But the church members, who had told authorities they were coming in a letter dated June 28, never appeared.
Police Chief David Guigear said Westboro's failure to show broke a verbal contract with the township for security services.
"They didn't even give me a courtesy call to say they weren't coming," he said.
Westboro parishioner and attorney Shirley Phelps-Roper said group members bought airline tickets, but they were told by the Holy Ghost at the last minute to stay home.
"(The police) took an oath, and their duty is to keep the peace," Phelps-Roper said. "If they do anything as foolish as (sending a bill), I'll laugh all the way to the trash can."
Guigear said officers from Mundy Township, Fenton, Grand Blanc Township and Swartz Creek worked at the service, and 15 fire trucks from area departments lined W. Hill Road with their lights flashing.
He said the extra security measures were needed, given the protesters' inflammatory messages.
"We probably would have had a presence at the memorial (anyway), but with the protesters coming, we thought it had to be much larger," Guigear said.
"I guess they have a right to demonstrate, but they evoke anger. People just want to break their necks."
He said he and other officers spent many hours planning for the service, including obtaining an overhead map from Genesee County, consulting with the township attorney on legal issues and asking the Patriot Guard Riders for support.
Members of the Patriot Guard Riders, which formed last year in response to the military funeral protesters, line the perimeter at services and hold American flags high to create a buffer between mourners and the protesters.
More than 450 Riders from all over the state came to Webb's memorial service.
"I think it's great," said Rider Capt. Larry Helster, a retired Marine, of the township's plan to send the church a bill. "These people need to be spanked."
The protesters had Guigear's cellphone number and could have called at any time to say they weren't coming, the chief said.
Westboro parishioners in March demonstrated at two military funerals in Flint Township and Flushing.
