Posted: December-12-2011 at 4:52am | IP Logged	Tweet

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. announced plans to picket at the funeral of Virginia Tech Police Officer Deriek W. Crouse.

Officer Crouse's funeral will begin at 2 p.m. today at Cassell Coliseum, and WBC members plan to protest for 45 minutes before the funeral service, starting at 1:15 p.m.

Six members of the WBC will be picketing, according to Fred Phelps Jr., son of WBC pastor Fred Phelps Sr. 

"The law enforcement across this nation has for years refused to do their duty and protect the people," Phelps Jr. said. "There is a price to be paid when you do that to God."

Phelps Jr. did not comment on the exact location of the planned picketing.

Some students have planned to peacefully protest against the WBC.

As of Sunday evening, more than 400 students were members of the Facebook group "Officer Crouse, Honoring a Fallen Hokie."

The group asks students to wear Hokie gear to show support for Crouse and for Virginia Tech, but is not intended to be a counter-protest. It also urges students not to talk to WBC members or acknowledge their presence.

Crouse was killed Thursday in the Cassell Lot while making a traffic stop. Police suspect part-time Radford student Ross Ashley, 22, shot and killed Crouse before taking his own life in the Cage parking lot.

Members of the WBC also came to Virginia Tech on April 9, 2010 to protest against homosexuality and the death of former Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington. One of the WBC's most notable pickets was at the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a Marine who died in the Iraq War. Snyder's father sued WBC leader Fred Phelps Sr. for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Phelps Sr. and WBC won on the grounds that sidewalk pickets are demonstrations of free speech.

Posted: December-12-2011 at 5:01am | IP Logged	Tweet

This is but another example of how hopelessly ignorant and hateful Phelps and his followers really are. If they don't think that our citizens are being protected, why don't they march their butts to DC and protest against Eric Holder and the US Department of Justice?

To dishonor a man such as Deriek Crouse, a man who volunteered in service to his country and who joined the VT police force after the tragedy there a few years ago, just shows how hopelessly misguided and ignorant Phelps and his fellow zealots are. Deriek Crouse did his best to make a positive difference in this world ....  unlike the Phelps cult.

Posted: December-12-2011 at 10:24am | IP Logged	Tweet

Absolutely..... That is "an affirmative".... There is no way that those people are representative of the Baptist faith.  I suppose, however, that anyone can take any name they choose.... or can they?

Posted: December-12-2011 at 12:19pm | IP Logged	Tweet

That also is "an affirmative" James K.