Shirley Phelps-Roper arrested for allowing son to step on flag

Madspirit

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Tue Jun-05-07 07:51 PM
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Shirley Phelps-Roper arrested for allowing son to step on flag

Funeral protester Shirley Phelps-Roper arrested for allowing son to
step on flag

By ERIC OLSON
Associated Press Writer

OMAHA, Neb. -- A member of the Kansas church that protests at soldier
funerals across the nation was arrested Tuesday after her son stomped
on a United States flag during a protest in Bellevue.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, 49, of Topeka, Kan., was arrested on suspicion
of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Phelps-Roper acknowledged that she allowed her 10-year-old son,
Jonah, to stand on the flag -- an action that she says is protected
by the U.S. Constitution.

Bellevue Police Capt. Herb Evers said a 1977 Nebraska statute that
makes it unlawful for a person to trample on a flag.

"The officer present observed what happened, and instead of putting a
10-year-old in jail, we put her in jail," Evers said.

Phelps-Roper is a member of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka.
She is a daughter of the church's founder, the Rev. Fred Phelps.

Phelps-Roper said church members have protested at more than 280
military funerals in 43 states since June 15, 2005, and that Tuesday
marked her church's first arrest at a funeral.

Nebraska and 37 other states have adopted laws restricting how close
protesters can get to funerals. Those laws were at least partly
inspired by the Westboro church's protests.

The Bellevue funeral was for Nebraska Army National Guard Spc.
William "Bill" Bailey, who was killed May 25 when an explosive device
struck his vehicle in Iraq.

Evers said the Westboro Baptist church applied for a permit to
protest from 9:15 a.m. until 10 a.m. Tuesday. There were eight
protesters, he said.

Phelps-Roper was arrested at about 9:55 a.m. when an officer observed
the boy stomping on the flag, Evers said. She was booked and released
after posting $150 bail.

The Sarpy County Attorney's Office will decide what, if any, charges
Phelps-Roper will face.

Westboro Baptist Church's message during funeral protest is that the
soldier deaths are God's punishment for the nation harboring
homosexuals. Phelps-Roper said the protests are a form of religious
expression protected by the Constitution.

Phelps-Roper said her son intentionally stood on the flag.

"Every symbol of the rebellious, doomed America must necessarily be
disrespected," she said. "We did our duty today to our God and fellow
man. Our job is to cause this nation to know her abomination. The
thing they worship, the flag, is worthless. It's a piece of cloth."

She said the Nebraska statute forbidding flag mutilation should have
been repealed years ago, and she challenged the Sarpy County
Attorney's Office to prosecute her.

"Those rogue cops cooked up this scheme," she said, "and now the
question is whether the person who sits in the office of the
prosecutor has character. If they pursue this, our next stop will be
federal court in Nebraska to challenge that unconstitutional statute."

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that
outlawed burning the American flag.

"Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that
makes this emblem so revered," the court said.

Nebraska's flag law says "A person commits the offense of mutilating
a flag if such person intentionally casts contempt or ridicule upon a
flag by mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning, or trampling upon
such flag."

Violating the law is a misdemeanor punishable by three months in jail
and a $500 fine.