ALBANY (NY)
Troy Record
By: R.W. Groneman, The Record 09/12/2005
ALBANY - The only confrontation Sunday morning involving protestors ordered to keep their distance from a church came when a neighbor cranked up the lawn sprinkler to shower the feet of picketers on the sidewalk in front of his Western Avenue home, across the street from the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Cross.
Earlier, Albany Police Lt. Daniel Colonno and Mark Lyman of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) walked the court-imposed boundaries intended to keep the placard-toting picketers from approaching within 100 feet of the church door. A few days before, the lawyers representing the city helpfully spray painted white marking lines in crosswalks and on the grass.
None of the protestors crossed the line.
Churchgoers Tom and Geraldine Martin welcomed the presence of the seven city police officers to keep the peace and enforce the setback. "(The protestors) are here every week, marching on the sidewalk right outside the church," Tom Martin said. "You couldn't concentrate on the Mass." This was the 17th consecutive week of protests.