Here is the letter in it's entirety.
http://www.bnd.com/2010/08/08/1356207/letters-88.html#ixzz0w14TRyxZ
It is reprinted below as well.
Let's take a good look at this letter, shall we?
"Apparently, at times, the Small Victories ultrasound van parks in no-parking areas and receives a ticket for doing so. Understand, the directors of this ministry, Angela and Daniel Michael, don't deny that these transgressions have taken place. However, other vehicles so parked are never targeted. In other words, only the pro-lifers get a ticket."
1. The directors don't deny they have parked illegally.
Okay, that makes this justice rather than injustice. No harassment here. Perhaps no one else gets a ticket because no one else is illegally parked.
2. "other vehicles are never targeted."
Really? Has Mr. Edwards actually witnessed this?
If not, he is operating from a position of hearsay.
Hearsay is inadmissible in court as testimony.
How does Mr. Edwards know this is true?
Has he checked the court records to verify it?
They are public documents open for all the public to view.
Can Mr. Edwards, Mr. or Mrs. Michael or anyone at Small Victories provide cold hard evidence of this "fact"?
If so they should do it right away. To avoid further harassment.
3."In other words, only the pro-lifers get a ticket."
Again how does he know this, has he witnessed it.
How many other pro lifers are getting tickets here?
I am issuing a challenge to all pro lifers, that have gotten a parking ticket in the last 90 days, while protesting in front of Hope Clinic or being parked near or around it and the hospital to send in copies of your parking tickets as proof of this fact.
If Mr. Edwards means only SMALL VICTORIES gets a ticket, then that is a very different thing. Only Small Victories was illegally parked, and they don't deny it, so only they deserved a ticket.
If others were illegally parked, how does he know they did not get a ticket?
Again, witness to, or repeating hearsay about the incident?
Now why would the leaders of Small Victories lie about something like this?
Well, who has the most to benefit from the lie?
Small Victories.
They benefit in sympathy, and potential donations to help them pay the unjust fees and fines.
If they are justly targeted for parking illegally, then there is no sympathy to be gained.
Is there more benefit in admitting that you and many others have justly gotten tickets?
Or is there more benefit in saying, "we and only we were targeted unjustly and this is harassment because we do so much good work? "
4 .."Without question, if the police are going to enforce the law, it must be enforced equally. To not do so is a grievous abuse of power. "
Again, can Mr. Edwards prove that the law is being enforced unequally?
Just the word of one witness (Small Victories) that has the most to gain, is not enough to prosecute this.
Either prove the case with facts or let it lie.
5. As a resident of Granite City, it infuriates me to think that my tax dollars could be going to administer injustice.
Mr. Edwards has not proven that there is any injustice at all.
As a matter of fact, if anything he has proven that the tickets were deserved and should have been rightfully written and received.
It is this authors opinion that Small Victories prefers to live a life of drama and imagined pain, they make others believe it is persecution rather than prosecution. Because it furthers their need for attention, and sympathy.
There is no prosecutorial misconduct here.
They park illegally and they get tickets, as do many others in Granite City. That is justice.
To hear Small Victories tell the tale, the Granite City Police have a ticket book with their name and license number pre-printed on every ticket, just waiting for Small Victories to arrive in town to be used.
The reality is that the Granite City Police would love to have a week where their name did not come up, or Small Victories caller ID did not appear on their screen.
Perhaps if they would arrive at the clinic earlier, and be more careful how they parked, they would not get so many tickets.
But then how would they get the sympathy of their adoring public, if there were no righteous indignation to be gained?
Target of the police?
I've been informed, and I believe, that the Granite City Police Department is being used to harass a longstanding pro-life ministry that has, for years, been the last chance for babies on their way to extermination in our local embarrassment, the Hope Clinic for Women.
Apparently, at times, the Small Victories ultrasound van parks in no-parking areas and receives a ticket for doing so. Understand, the directors of this ministry, Angela and Daniel Michael, don't deny that these transgressions have taken place. However, other vehicles so parked are never targeted. In other words, only the pro-lifers get a ticket.
As a resident of Granite City, it infuriates me to think that my tax dollars could be going to administer injustice. Without question, if the police are going to enforce the law, it must be enforced equally. To not do so is a grievous abuse of power.
At the very least these allegations need to be investigated and, if found to be true, a personnel change is in order.
Robert P. Edwards
Granite City
6 comments:
I laughed for days just thinking of Mr. Michael calling the police about illegally parked cars while at the moment of doing so he is also parked illegally. The funny part is that, as I have been told, the police only ticket him. I have to give the Granite City police credit because they know the smell of rotten eggs. I think they made a mistake calling the police when they intended to call a psychologist.
These are two seriously troubled people who need serious help.
Most folks would stop parking illegally because the cost of tickets adds up. I guess this is not a problem for this "ministry". HOW are those donations being spent?
How are those donations being spent? I suspect that the money is used for routine household expenses. If you question that idea then take a look at the form 990 they have filed each year. Can you imagine they raised over $100,000 during 2009. The bigger question is how many dollars have they gotten from the public via foster care. The public is so very misled by the leaders of the contributing organizations.
Who cares how the donations to small victories is spent? Small victories has more money at their disposal than they know what to do with. Donors do not seem to care because they continue to support them, and the government seems not to care either.
Yes anonymous, but you see that is just the point.
They DO have more money than they know what to do with, so they are now throwing it away on parking tickets and court fees, to pay or fight tickets.
They are now also filing frivolous lawsuits against OTHER christians and pro-lifers.
Each motion costs the filer $100 PLUS and they have already filed 5 motions for continuance, (That is $500.00 PLUS in additon to the original filing cost of $100.00 PLUS) which as the plaintiff is unheard of, it is usually the Defendant that files motions to continue.
Small Victories says they cannot wait to get the defendants into court. Yet they file motion after motion to continue dragging it out to a full year now.
Strange isn't it?
They spent a huge amount last year (2009), taking out ads on TV for donations to get MORE money. Why not just spend it on the clients?
Now they are lobbying for a new ultrasound machine and TV show that they want the PUBLIC to pay for.
Rather than pay for it with ministry money now spent on Television ads, they want ADDITIONAL public funds to pay for the new ultrasound machine. Hence the "YARD SALE" hosted by the Knights of Columbus Council 6996 in Collinsville.
Other groups budget for such expenditures and plan to buy them at a good point in time.
However, Small Victories says WE want, YOU must GIVE us money for it. Some of their followers do as they are told and have a yard sale, or a dinner.
However, is there any actual accounting being done by this ministry?
Has the Knights of Columbus Council even asked for an audit of how their donations are being spent?
Has SMall Victories ever offered an INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED audit, (meaning something other than an 8.5 by 14" sheet of paper with hand written notations on it.
Other organizations have NO TROUBLE doing this, even posting it to their websites for all to view, yet Small Victories has in the past been VERY secretive and defensive when asked to account for their donations.
So people just stopped giving.
This is probably the reason for the stagnancy in growth that this organization has experienced compared to other pro life organizations.
Whenever I and my friends have come to the Hope abortion clinic to protest, we have never been harassed by the police. The few times we have had any interactions with them, they have been friendly and courteous. Given that we were standing in front of the abortion clinic with prolife signs, I think they knew we were prolife!We were most certainly not "targeted".
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