|
|
 |
Rev. Phelps a no-show for WCU protest
 |
Fewer than 10 members of the Kansas-based anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church showed up in Cullowhee last Friday and Saturday (April 23-24) to picket performances of The Laramie Project at Western Carolina University. Though the church's leader, the Rev. Fred Phelps, was absent from the protest, his daughter and family members were there, carrying signs and shouting at a crowd of mostly university students that gathered behind WCU police barricades near the University Center. While the Westboro group had permits to protest for 45 minutes Friday night and two half-hour slots Saturday afternoon and evening - times that preceded Laramie performances - they missed all but 15 minutes of the Friday event due to transportation trouble, said Gene McAbee, WCU's chief of police. McAbee estimated the student crowd at between 175-200 Friday, 75-80 Saturday afternoon, and 110-120 that night. "We achieved our goal of protecting everyone's right to freedom of expression without arrest or injury," McAbee said. On Sunday, the group picketed six churches in Asheville. - Herald photo by Carey King |
|
