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May 22, 2006 10:34 am US/Eastern
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Demonstrators Clash At De. Marine's Funeral
SEAFORD, De. (AP) ―
Police were seen making several arrests and the state police helicopter had to be called into disperse the crowd after a clash Sunday in Seaford between a handful of anti-gay Kansas church members and hundreds of demonstrators supporting the American military.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church came to Seaford's Gateway Park to demonstrate before the funeral for Marine Corporal Cory Palmer, who died earlier this month from injuries suffered in Iraq. The group believes God is punishing America for being too tolerant of homosexuals by killing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But they were far outnumbered by troop-supporting demonstrators. Some broke through police barricades, hurling insults and chicken eggs onto the anti-homosexual demonstrators.
As a Seaford volunteer fire company van came to pick the Kansas based group up, eggs and bottles were thrown at the fleeing group and then the crowd broke the police lines again, shattering the windows in the van.
Stephanie Hansen, a lawyer for the town of Seaford says the town did everything it could to protect the group.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)