By Chris Diggins
The increasingly shocking and confrontational acts of protesters have prompted The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to ask Salt Lake City officials to create a buffer zone that would separate conference-goers from protesters during this April''s General Conference.
During last October''s conference, protestors demonstrated against the church by waving temple garments and harassing church members, sparking several altercations during the two-day event.
In a written statement to Salt Lake City officials, church attorney Von Keetch said these actions go beyond a protestor''s right to free speech.
'It has become clear that certain individuals are intent less on expressing a message than on engaging in provocative conduct for the specific purpose of inciting an outraged and even violent response from listeners,' Keetch said in the written statement. 'If the city fails to take appropriate action to regulate this situation, unfortunate consequences seem inevitable.'
In the statement, Keech compares the requested buffer to the buffer zones granted to abortion clinics to keep protestors separated from women seeking to use the clinic. This action would keep the opposing groups at a safe distance from one another and serve to discourage any violent actions.
To avoid such confrontations, Salt Lake City has received four suggestions from the church for regulating protests during conference. These suggestions include separating the protestors from a growing contingent of counter-protestors, keeping all demonstrators about 20 yards away from conference center entrances and confined to a certain area, restricting the noise level of the protestors and requiring demonstrators to obtain permits to protest during conference.
The church has been concerned with the rising instances of violent confrontation between conference-goers and protestors at the semi-annual meeting. Church leaders advise those attending conference to do their part in avoiding confrontation with demonstrators, said Coke Newell, manager of media relations for the church.
'The church''s council to its members is to ignore the protestors,' Newell said. 'Either by avoiding them physically and taking a different route or by simply keeping their head, and moving along, and getting out of earshot of those folks.'
Chelsea Waite, 20, an art history major from Boise, Idaho, said as church members, most of the responsibility to avoid confrontation falls on the conference-goers, and not on a city ordinance.
'I think it would be good to get some kind of buffer,' Waite said. 'Until they do I think it is really important that the Latter-day Saints guard their conduct and don''t overreact.'
Salt Lake City has acted upon the church''s suggestions yet. However, the Salt Lake City attorney''s office recently released an educational document outlining the types of free speech protected and the types left unprotected by the law.