Bellevue pays $17K to Military Funeral Protester

[CatholicZ09]

BELLEVUE, Neb. –
Shirley Phelps-Roper let her son stomp on the American flag outside a Bellevue soldier’s funeral in 2007. Now she’s getting paid by the city of Bellevue.

The settlement to the controversial Westboro Baptist Church of Wichita, Kan., totals $17,000 and was agreed to by Bellevue officials after a federal judge permanently blocked Nebraska’s flag mutilation law.

As part of the settlement, Phelps-Roper agreed to drop her lawsuit against the city, but she said the battle isn’t over yet.

“You don’t get to violate people’s constitutional rights,” she said. “It might cost you something.”

KETV NewsWatch 7 reached Phelps-Roper by phone Tuesday evening. She framed the settlement as vindication.

“We were obedient to the law and they ambushed us,” said Phelps-Roper.

The criminal charges and subsequent lawsuit were the result of a June, 2007 incident. She was arrested by Bellevue police while protesting at a military funeral. Phelps-Roper was charged with flag mutilation, negligent child abuse for involving her son in the protest and disturbing the peace.

The event sparked a three-year legal battle in which Phelps-Roper challenged the constitutionality of Nebraska’s flag desecration statute. She also filed suit against the city.

The legal action came to a halt when the federal judge issued the permanent injunction against the Nebraska law.

“We settled because it was in the best interest of the city,” said Bellevue City Attorney Patrick Sullivan.

Phelps-Roper still faces a charge of disturbing the peace and negligent child abuse in Sarpy County.

Even though Phelps-Roper is dropping her lawsuit, she said she’s not dropping her personal battle. She plans to use the settlement money to fund her protest activities.

“We’re going to use it to get this message before the face of this nation,” she said. “We’ll keep whittling away at this until this matter goes away. It should never have happened in the first place.”

It’s not the first settlement victory for the Westboro Baptist Church. The group protested outside Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder’s funeral in Maryland four years ago.

Snyder’s father sued the church and won, but an appeals court judge reversed the decision and ordered Albert Snyder to pay the church $16,000 to cover court costs.

Source: ketv.com/news/24414583/detail.html

 

[iamrefreshed]

It’s really pathetic that there are lawyer’s out there who take these cases.

 

[Rascalking]

When any of these people die, let’s protest their funeral.

 

[lauraabarlow]

I am very outrage at these so-called pathetic westboro baptist church members’ leader and their anti-american point-of-view. I used to belong to a baptist church years ago that was very patriotic, very military friendly, and didn’t put down other christian groups, including catholics (I was a fallen-away catholic who joined this baptist church while married to my ex-husband, who is baptist). Being in the air force reserves and an air force veteran, this group really hit a raw nerve inside me. I am very outraged that our government had not down more to ban them from protesting at the military funerals of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedom. Part of my job in the reserves are port mortuary-I’ve seen the war dead at dover afb-many sadly had young children-broke my heart being a single mother myself. This group really sickened me to no end-I know as christians we are to love the sinner, not the sin yet this group really makes me sick. If they have the views they have, leave this country-go find an island or something and go somewhere else. Our service members and our flag does not deserve any of their hatred. Our freedom is due to these wonderful men and women who gave their lives up for our freedom-without them, the terrorists would have already have taken over our country, or in the case of WWII-we would all be speaking german-at least those of us not in the condemned race or ethnicity. I think something must be done to curtail their toxicity and venom against this great nation of ours-real christians wouldn’t go around spewing hatred and anti-american bias likes these individuals do. For all we know-they can be terrorists in disguise:tsktsk:

PS-I do agree-we must definitely pray for these individuals to see the truth and light, and try not to hate them but the sin they are committing-as an air force member-this is definitely a struggle for me:harp:

 

[kimmielittle]

If found guilty of these:

Phelps-Roper still faces a charge of disturbing the peace and negligent child abuse in Sarpy County.

Fine her $17,000 in each.

 

[EmperorNapoleon]

Fine her $17,000 in each.

The maximum fine for disturbing the peace in Nebraska is $500 dollars. Of course, the law also says OR three months in the slammer.

 

[Redratfish]

The maximum fine for disturbing the peace in Nebraska is $500 dollars. Of course, the law also says OR three months in the slammer.

I vote for the second one…

These guys just came around my town last week. 5 of them vs around 100 counter protesters. Great to see.

 

[CatholicZ09]

When any of these people die, let’s protest their funeral.

There’s an idea, but it might not generally be a good one. If we protest one of their deceased family member’s funerals, then we are just as vile as they are. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and it looks like we would have to be that right and show them what true Christianity is about and let them mourn in peace.

If they would, however decide to come and protest my church, I would probably be standing across the street from them with my own picket signs, but signs of love and the true Christian message. At least they can’t say they didn’t know God was about love on the day of their judgement.

 

[kimmielittle]

The maximum fine for disturbing the peace in Nebraska is $500 dollars. Of course, the law also says OR three months in the slammer.