Gainesville Asks Pastor Terry Jones For $200,000 Koran Burning Media Circus

Terry Jones, that Koran-burning pastor from the great state of Florida, will reportedly be billed $200,000 by the city of Gainesville. That’s allegedly the total tally of what Mr. Jones has cost his city, mainly for security.

And it looks like that it may him cost him his congregation as well. “That’s impossible for us to pay,” he said. “That would [financially] bankrupt us, of course.”

Us, as you probably assumed, refers to the Dove World Outreach Center, at which Mr. Jones is a pastor. Said City of Gainesville spokesperson Bob Woods:

The city manager has made it clear that he will provide a full accounting of our expenses to the Dove World Outreach Center.

And Gainesville police spokesperson Cpl. Tscharna Senn added:

We’ve had nothing that I can remember that involved this much planning and the use of this many resources in the 17 years I’ve been here. We have 286 sworn officers and almost every one was working, either at the Dove Center or at other soft targets. His church is in the middle of very large residential communities and our number one consideration was the safety of the residents.

The preacher also threatened to move his church to Tampa, citing a lack of support in the invoice-happy Gainesville, which he claimed “has a very closed atmosphere.” No word yet on how Tampa officials will react to the prospect of Mr. Jones depleting its civic resources to house the pastor and his flock.

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