The American Family Association of Kansas and Missouri said on Monday it plans to start circulating petitions to empanel a grand jury to again investigate whether the sculpture at the Overland Park Arboretum violates state obscenity laws. Overland Park City Manager Bill Ebel said the group has the right to seek another grand jury. He said the city would cooperate with any ensuing investigation. The city spent about $35,000 defending the statue last time.
The latest petition drive, led by group leader Phillip Cosby, comes after the Kansas Legislature changed the state’s citizens’ grand jury law to ensure that aggrieved voters don’t surrender the pursuit of their claims to local prosecutors. Cosby last year petitioned a grand jury to investigate whether the statue is obscene but failed to secure an indictment. He blamed Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe for not leading a thorough investigation. The grand jury session lasted less than a day, and no witnesses were called.
News video from last year.
YouTube link.
Cosby followed up by joining with abortion opponents to get the Legislature to change the grand jury law. Under the new law, the person filing the petition - in this case Cosby - must be the first person to address the grand jury. Cosby said he’ll now have the chance to not only explain the petition to the grand jury, but also to provide a list of experts who might be called to testify about the harm the statue might present, especially to children. “We have a solid case on the harms to minors,” Cosby said.
Pathetic panic-moralistic litigious tards.
ReplyDeleteHuh.
ReplyDeleteSince when are breasts obscene?
Women and men alike on the contrary, seem to value them highly.
Children of healthy mothers in most cases were raised up face-first into them, as this was the right purpose to which they were evolved.
Some of our Romanesque statuary beside institutions of state feature strong women bare of chest as well, and these have been judged perfectly acceptable.
We've just got to get over ourselves, I think.
And, causing harm to children?! How ridiculous in the extreme. Young children, especially, will have (I am sure) a rather neutral opinion of such imagery.
What the kidlets will do, however, is take their cue from the adults around them. And these panicked, offended, obscenity-slayers have if anything just taught their children that breasts are an awful thing that must be always kept under wraps.
French moms are probably laughing about it.
Oh well, this is the heart of Kansas. It's pretty evangelical down there.
If this woman as statue were real, I'd say she should take a selfie of those very healthy breasts. You're going to want a memento. They're not going to stay that perfect forever.
It's a great sculpture. I hope it stays on view somewhere.