Shelter Island prepares for soldier's funeral , taking on Phelps

[cal04]

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/shelter-island-prepares-for-soldier-s-funeral-1.2008768

Beneath a broad blue sky, fire trucks and police vehicles lined the road leading to the North Ferry in Greenport Friday.

That ferry took them across Peconic Bay to Shelter Island for the funeral of Lt. Joseph Theinert, 24, a soldier with the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division.

(snip)
Suffolk County officials enacted legislation Tuesday making it a crime to picket funerals after members of a Topeka, Kan., church picketed a memorial service in Huntington last year.

(snip)
"There'll be enough of us to block them out," St. John said. "If they get across and start any crap, we'll get rid of them - I can guarantee you that."

If the protesters arrive, "we'll ignore them, but we'll protect the family from seeing them," Murphy said. "Nothing physical."

[bongbong]

1. WTF!!!

Phelps on Shelter Island? That would be a TRAVESTY! The ferries should "breakdown" temporarily if his group tries to get there.

[arcadian]

2. So much for free speech

[HopeHoops]

3. Good. The Phelps cult isn't about free speech. It is about making money from lawsuits.

They video tape the events and look for any possible way to file a lawsuit against a counter-protester. Should be a shock that so many of them are lawyers.

That isn't a church. It is a cult.

[cal04]

4. Services honor Shelter Island soldier killed in Afghanistno, no sign of protesters

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/services-honor-shelter-island-soldier-killed-in-afghanistan-1.2008768

Joseph Theinert, 24, was one of them, a member of the Shelter Island School class of 2004.

A soldier with the Army's 10th Mountain Division, he was on his first deployment when he was killed last week in Afghanistan when a bomb detonated near him. He was the first soldier from the tight-knit community to be killed in action since 1967.

(snip)
An employee of the North Ferry Co., which connects Shelter Island to the North Fork at Greenport, said there had been no sign of protesters trying to cross there.

(snip)
"These people think they're a Christian group, but they're like the Taliban," he said. "These people are just an abomination to the word of God."