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Pro-Life Workers Arrested in Birmingham, It’s a Sad Day for Human and Civil Rights 2/13/2009
Catholic Online ^ | 2/14/09 | Randy Sly

Posted on 02/13/2009 4:05:10 PM PST by tcg

Blythe told Catholic Online that one officer approached her, saying the group was trespassing. She responded by explaining that they were on a public sidewalk and simply exercising their constitutional rights. The officer responded, “You just can’t be here.”

Not long after that she was stopped from her videotaping and placed in the back of a squad car. Another young woman was also placed next to her whose handcuffs were so tight she was crying out in pain. Police were unresponsive to pleas from Blythe to loosen the woman’s handcuffs.

One member of the group, Rev. Henry “Bud” Shaver, a 30 year-old youth minister, was not only handcuffed but had his feet shackled at the jail. Earlier, when he was arrested near the high school campus he was told by police that the sidewalk was not public property for “non-citizens of Birmingham.”

The intervention by the Birmingham Police Department began when a campus officer called them after the Survivors declined to leave the area. The group explained as they knew they had a right to stand on the sidewalk, which allegedly made no impression on the officer.

The Birmingham News reported that North Precinct Captain Lucette McMillan told them that the group was arrested because they were on school property and were asked to leave. The News also reported that the same group had been arrested on a college campus in Virginia.

Campus Life Tour, however, also visited 94 campuses last semester without any problems. Before arriving in Birmingham, they spent a week visiting a number of locations in Florida and had been in Valdosta, Georgia, all without incident.

(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antiabotion; catholic; donutwatch; moralabsolutes; persecution; prolife
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Nine college-age men and women, members of the Survivors Campus Life Tour, were arrested at Parker High School in Birmingham, Alabama, while distributing literature to students from a public sidewalk.
1 posted on 02/13/2009 4:05:10 PM PST by tcg
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To: tcg

“One member of the group, Rev. Henry “Bud” Shaver, a 30 year-old youth minister, was not only handcuffed but had his feet shackled at the jail. Earlier, when he was arrested near the high school campus he was told by police that the sidewalk was not public property for “non-citizens of Birmingham.”

More Obama “I love America”. This is not about racisim except in the sense it is communism.


2 posted on 02/13/2009 4:08:12 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: tcg

This is what lawyers are for, who’s their representation?


3 posted on 02/13/2009 4:08:15 PM PST by sinanju
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To: tcg

Birmingham. Civil rights. Human rights. Arrests. Hmmmmm. This is like deja vu all over again.


4 posted on 02/13/2009 4:08:33 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Have You Punched A Democrat Today? - Do it for the children.)
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To: tcg

There’s only one way to win this. Go to the streets. Convince the people that abortion is a horrible thing. Even if abortion is legal, we will win if no one has one.


5 posted on 02/13/2009 4:12:03 PM PST by pnh102 (Save America - Ban Ethanol Now!)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Time to bring back that civil rights saying from the 60s:

“JUST LIKE BIRMINGHAM”


6 posted on 02/13/2009 4:12:12 PM PST by CdMGuy
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To: tcg
when he was arrested near the high school campus he was told by police that the sidewalk was not public property for “non-citizens of Birmingham.”

Out-of-towners aren't welcome on the sidewalks in Birmingham? That'll do wonders for tourism.

7 posted on 02/13/2009 4:12:51 PM PST by Zack Attack
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To: tcg

Our country is damned. Evil has not only taken root but is thriving in so many places. Thank you for being so brave and willing to stand up for what is right and good.


8 posted on 02/13/2009 4:13:29 PM PST by Wpin (I do not regret my admiration for W)
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To: Wpin

I am reposting a letter I sent the Holy Father on here, please forgive me if you have seen it before, but I firmly believe that if we can get the Pope to declare abortion is murder and Catholics cannot support it or support those who condone it, we will get much further. Please write his Holiness, beg his intervention in this matter. Maybe politics are not letting him get the info he needs directly. He is the Pope of the whole world, not just the US. He has alot on his plate. Our bishops have been quiet for too many years, who knows how much is getting back to His Holiness, especially if money, power, and greed by clergy are preventing it. You would think the Pelosi and Biden thing would have, but, their bishops have done nothing, not to mention the Kennedys... Feel free to use my letter or write your own, but send to the Holy father.

Holy Father,

I am writing from the United States about a very serious issue. My heart is breaking for the unborn. We now have a president that believes a baby is punishment, yet he feels it is above his paygrade to know when life begins. Catholic teaching has not been what it should be in the last 50 years. We have a huge amount of nominal Catholics in the US, and they will only vote based on their feelings about issues, not fundamental truths.

In part, this is because of our many “catholic” politicians who are able to straddle both sides of the fence. They claim to be practicing Catholics, but they hold beliefs and condone and support practices that are completely incompatible with Catholic teaching. They then can go to Mass, receive communion, and claim the Church has not truly defined the issue on abortion, gay marriage, etc. This is patently false. They are lying and getting away with it. They claim because there has been no ex cathedra statement on abortion, there is still discussion about it.

We are unfortunately a very letter of the law people. While this is good when just laws are made and followed, it is also a loophole that politicians play with to pander for votes. Abortion is one of those rules. Coupled with a poorly catechised populace in the US, our legislators are able to straddle the abortion issue to garner votes, and yet still publically practice their faith. They have been able to do this without interference from the Holy See for far too long now.

While many bishops have begun to speak up against this issue, nothing would give them the support in the fight they need like a defined Papal pronouncement from the Chair of Peter. Seeing as this issue is definative already, it would clarify to millions of Catholics that it is binding on the Church Universal that abortion IS murder, it IS an excommunicable offense, and would publically call out our politicians like the Kennedy family, Joe Biden, our new Vice President, and Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, who has publically challenged the Church on its stand on abortion against her own bishop, who pander to nominal Catholics for votes by confusing them on this issue.

I beg you Holy Father, please crush the head of this snake. The devil has a great foothold in this area in the United States. The bishops are impotent against it because the majority stood silent for so long. Now they are doing much more, but their voices go unheeded until Our Holy Father declares the matter settled and binding on the whole Church.

Nancy Pelosi is travelling to Rome this week. It is said she is having a meeting with you. I pray that this is to inform her that this pronouncement is coming from you, so she had better prepare herself based on this. Money, power, tax exemptions for Churches should not be allowed to influence a decision on faith and morals, and we will stand with you and fight to the death under the banner of Christ. Please Holy Father, I implore you, declare this holocaust against the unborn, embryonic stem cell research, birth control, and human cloning as a matter binding on the whole Church. Christ will hold us accountable for this blood, not political wrangling. 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust is 6 million too many. The outcry for the recent events , while legitimate, just points to the fact that so many people are so woefully uneducated about a holocaust that has taken 9 times the lives of innocents over the last 30 years!

May God and the blood of the innocents be your only guide on your decision.


9 posted on 02/13/2009 4:21:31 PM PST by wombtotomb (since its "above his paygrade", why can't we err on the side of caution about when life begins?)
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To: tcg
North Precinct Captain Lucette McMillan told them that the group was arrested because they were on school property and were asked to leave.

When I read about a police chief flouting the law to enforce some Lefty political agenda, about 60 percent of the time, the chief turns out to have a name like "Lucette." What's the deal?

10 posted on 02/13/2009 4:25:33 PM PST by SamuraiScot
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To: wombtotomb
Have you read what this courageous priest had to say?

Now if when more follow his example ...

Read here
11 posted on 02/13/2009 4:26:24 PM PST by mlizzy
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To: wombtotomb

That’s a wonderful letter. So many people say they’ll write etc but never do. You have taken action with the pen. God Bless You Always.


12 posted on 02/13/2009 4:26:45 PM PST by bronxville
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To: tcg

Birmingham never changes...


13 posted on 02/13/2009 4:29:43 PM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: mlizzy

excellent and so timely. If only all our priests had half his courage, we would have almost no cafeteria catholics :) I passed it on.....


14 posted on 02/13/2009 4:39:57 PM PST by wombtotomb (since its "above his paygrade", why can't we err on the side of caution about when life begins?)
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To: tcg

Sad Day for Alabama

Send a thought:

http://www.governor.alabama.gov/


15 posted on 02/13/2009 4:47:37 PM PST by silentreignofheroes (If I had any further to go,I'd be there.)
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To: tcg

Were they white people?

I dont believe the police would have done this to blacks.

Old Jess and Big Al would be down on their butts.


16 posted on 02/13/2009 5:01:31 PM PST by Venturer
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To: tcg

Municipals should stop limiting their police hiring to singles with no military combat specialty experience, but administrators and lobbies for municipals have been irretrievably lost for a long time (moral bankruptcy, organized crime).


17 posted on 02/13/2009 5:20:37 PM PST by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
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To: Zack Attack

“Out-of-towners aren’t welcome on the sidewalks in Birmingham...”

Wach’all doin’ down heah, boy? We don’ cotton to no troublemakers.


18 posted on 02/13/2009 5:25:44 PM PST by beelzepug (the Gadsden flag is now flying in my front yard)
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To: tcg

they arrested 70 year old women by radnor Police on sidewalks of Villanova Campus The Crime handing out Pro Life literature.. also St Joes and lasalle the same treatment the Latter By Philly Cops!

Now the Cops In Philly set up Barricades and have 3-5 policemen for 12 Catholic Guys Saying the Rosary!!


19 posted on 02/13/2009 5:57:50 PM PST by philly-d-kidder (May God Bless America and ALL Freepers!)
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To: tcg

Pro-lifers will win more people to the pro-life viewpoint by funding and giving away free live sonagrams in shopping malls than by displaying nasty red pictures of blood-soaked dead children.

This is apparently a difficult concept for some to grasp, however...


20 posted on 02/13/2009 6:01:20 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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