March 10, 2008
Phelps Klan (All Four of Them) Protest Murdered Co-Eds’ Funerals
 Lauren Burk (left) and Eve Carson |
With the South reeling from the apparently unrelated murders of two college co-eds (and now a third, Katharine Wood, of the University of Arkansas), the Freddie Phelps Road Show, a.k.a. Westboro Baptist Church, found reason to protest the young women’s funerals.
Why? Well, you might guess because the suspected murderer of one is an Iraq vet presumably with PTSD (his mother apologized immediately, saying that Courtney Lockhart “hasn’t been the same after serving 16 months in Iraq”) — and the Phelps Klan is happy to see anything (especially death) befall a U.S. soldier. In this case, however, it sounds like they’ve got a new protest meme going; i.e., God hates everybody.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. First, the murders:
Auburn, Alabama police are investigating the murder of an 18-year-old Auburn University student from Marietta, Ga. School officials say Lauren Burk was shot to death last night. Her body was found on Alabama Highway 147 ( North College Street) near Farmville Baptist Church.Police say they got the call to a woman injured about 9:08 p.m. and found Ms. Burk suffering from a gun shot wound to the chest. She was taken to the East Alabama medical Center where she died from her injury.
Police say at approxiamately 9:27 p.m. Auburn Campus police received a call of a vehicle on fire in the Hinton Field parking lot located on Lem Morrison Drive on the University campus. The car was a 2001 Black Honda Civic that was registered to Ms. Burk. The car was in flames and was extinguished by personnel from the Auburn Fire Department.
Burk’s death came just hours before Eve Carson, the 22-year-old student body president at the University of North Carolina, was gunned down near the school’s Chapel Hill campus about 500 miles away. No suspect has been named in Carson’s death. Her vehicle was stolen in the crime.
— ABC News
Carson had been shot several times, including at least once in the head. A medical examiner found that she had not been sexually assaulted.
. . .
The fatal shooting at UNC occurred hours after 18-year-old Lauren Burk was shot and killed just off the Auburn University campus in Alabama.
In that case, Burk was found by police Tuesday night a half-hour before her car was discovered in a campus parking lot on fire. The fire was extinguished but no one was in the car.
— ABC News
Auburn police and authorities in Chapel Hill, where Carson was killed, said there does not appear to any investigative link between the two crimes, which were separated by 500 miles and seven hours. The tie instead is the similar shocking impact the killings have had on the respective campuses.
. . .
Auburn police have beat back speculation that Burk’s slaying might be connected to the unsolved disappearance in June 2006 of 24-year-old Auburn University graduate Lori Ann Slesinski. In that case, the woman’s car was found ablaze less than a week after she was reported missing along a road.
— — ABC News
(You can get the basic facts on the Lori Ann Slesinski case here.)
Now, about Phelps: The Westboro Baptists announced that they would be protesting both Burk’s and Carson’s funerals — and then, they did:
MARIETTA, Ga. — A line of American flags was visible on Sunday as mourners arrived at the funeral of Lauren Burk, the Auburn freshman who was shot and killed Tuesday.Dozens of Patriot Guard Riders stood vigil, each holding a flag, across the street from Temple Kol Emeth, in Marietta, Ga., to block the Burk family and mourners from Westboro Baptist Church protesters whose signs read “God is Your Enemy,” “God Sent the Killer” and “You Eat Your Kids.”
The Westboro protest group was alloted 45 minutes to protest and had approximately four people present.
Timothy Phelps, a member of Westboro Baptist Church, and a relative of its founder, Fred Phelps, said that God sends people to do terrible things because Americans are involved in “rampant sin.”
“Everyone ignores us and things just get worse,” he said.
On Saturday, the group traveled from Athens, Ga., where earlier in the day they protested at services for Eve Carson, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill student who was also gunned down earlier in the week.
“You won’t obey me so I am going to do things to get your attention,” Phlelps said, referring to God. “Well, maybe if you weren’t involved in rampant sin, God would stop sending these killers.”
To block mourners from the protesters, the Patriot Guard Riders, a group who attends at the funerals of soldiers to help block the view of protesters who may upset funeral-goers, held flags and formed a long line. …
Protesters, picketers gather at Burk’s funeral
oanow.com
March 9, 2008
Oh, I see: The meme is now “God sends killers.” Got it.
You know what would be fun? When Freddie dies, to protest his funeral with signs reading: “God sends massive strokes.”
Filed under: Crime, Education/Schools, Fred Phelps, Hate Speech, United States
