Last night a group of about 50 people disrupted a meeting of the County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee. The meeting, which took place in the legislature chambers, was the first in a series to select a new public defender. The meeting was initially open to the public but the committee chairman, Michael Barker, decided to make it private after people had already been admitted. Apparently the chairman thought the crowd would be too disruptive to the process. I think he knew what he was doing.

Uniformed Public Safety Officers directed the crowd to leave the chambers. Some members of the crowd refused to leave including Assemblyman David Gantt. When Gantt broke through the railing separating the committee from the spectators he was temporarily placed in handcuffs. He then backed away and the officer released him.

In the ensuing chaos Channel 13’s cameraman panned the crowd and captured left wing activist, Sister Grace, on tape. She began shouting: “This is the way Republicans act allllll the time! Republican control!”

The camera continued to pan and came upon two agitated looking men sitting there refusing to leave. One of the men said to the camera: “Representatives of the Bishop of Rochester sat here”. This statement was in apparent reference to their refusing the orders of the Public Safety Officers to leave the chambers. The cameraman stayed on them for a few more seconds waiting for a further explanation but that was all they said.

The camera then panned back to the rest of the mob and their apparent spokesperson, Sister Grace. She was now yelling: “Are you going to arrest representatives of the poor?!” and “Arrest the Republicans!”.

So here we had a Roman Catholic nun and two of the bishop’s representatives participating in an unruly mob action all because some Republican legislators could possibly appoint a fellow Republican to a public office. And this public disturbance is apparently justified all because they are “representatives of the poor”. Don’t you wonder if the poor ever get tired of being used as pawns for every left wing political cause that comes along?

Furthermore, why are representatives of the bishop spending their time participating in such a blatantly political disturbance? Is it really essential to our salvation that representatives of the bishop engage in a political battle with the Republican party? Or for that matter, is it relay essential that we have the bishop’s representatives fighting global warming? Or spending time on projects like “Solidarity with Africa”?

I wonder, when was the last time “representatives of the Bishop” showed up at an abortion mill to protest the killing of innocent children? Of course, ending abortion is anything but a “cause celebre” for left wing activists.

Perhaps the bishop’s people are running with the wrong crowd. Perhaps it’s time for them to get involved with an authentic Catholic cause. The disenfranchised dying babies really would like to have their support unlike the mythical “poor” person who is constantly abused as political cover for left wing ideology.

To view these representatives in action follow this link for raw footage of the meeting. Click on the “Raw Video” link on the left side of the page under “Top Stories”. The bishop’s representatives make their stand at the 1:37 mark of the tape.