Alabama lawmakers have voted 24-4 to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham to establish a police department. The church has over 4,000 members and is also home to a K-12 school and a theological seminary with 2,000 students and teachers:
"After the shooting at Sandy Hook and in the wake of similar assaults at churches and schools, Briarwood recognized the need to provide qualified first responders to coordinate with local law enforcement," church administrator Matt Moore said in a statement, referring to the mass murder of 20 first graders and six teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut by a deranged man with an AR-15 style rifle just before Christmas 2012. "The sole purpose of this proposed legislation is to provide a safe environment for the church, its members, students and guests." The church would pay the bill for its officers.
[...] "It's our view this would plainly be unconstitutional," Randall Marshall, the ACLU's Acting Executive Director, told NBC News. In a memo to the legislature, Marshall said they believe the bills "violate the First Amendment or the U.S. Constitution and, if enacted, would not survive a legal challenge." "Vesting state police powers in a church police force violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," his memo states. "These bills unnecessarily carve out special programs for religious organizations and inextricably intertwine state authority and power with church operations."
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @05:36PM (2 children)
No no, the fallacy of one opinion being as good as any other. This is not the case, and anyone with even the smallest capacity for critical thought will realize this.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 14 2017, @05:53PM
But, I didn't say that one opinion is as good as any other. What I referred to was, "Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one, and they all stink." Of course one opinion isn't as good as another, because mine are superior to yours. Even you recognize that, because you keep reading my opinions. Do you waste time reading your own opinions?
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @08:01PM
Never argue with runaway. He drags you down to his level, and it will never end.