Westboro Baptist Church

[7StringedBeast]

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/11/arizona.funeral.westboro/index.html?hpt=T1

This makes me sick.  The Westboro Baptist church is planning to protest a little girl's funeral.  WTF is wrong with these people?  This makes my blood boil so much.

[hefdaddy42]

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/11/arizona.funeral.westboro/index.html?hpt=T1

This makes me sick.  The Westboro Baptist church is planning to protest a little girl's funeral.  WTF is wrong with these people?  This makes my blood boil so much.

This has become so typical that I was kind of surprised that none of them showed up to protest my Dad's funeral last month.  What a bunch of fucktards.

[orcus116]

They're targeting her because her family was Roman Catholic?

[ResultsMayVary]

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/11/arizona.funeral.westboro/index.html?hpt=T1

This makes me sick.  The Westboro Baptist church is planning to protest a little girl's funeral.  WTF is wrong with these people?  This makes my blood boil so much.

Those people need to get the fuck away from that funeral. That is just fucking disgraceful.

[orcus116]

Freedom of speech lol

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Mugshot = crazier than a shithouse rat.

Edit:  So Palin & crew are feeling unjustly blamed for the actions of an extremist?  Maybe they can ask Muslims for advice on how to deal with that.

[rumborak]

Freedom of speech lol

You know, honestly, in Germany shit like this is covered under "incitement to hatred", which the police can go against, just like public nuisance in the US.

rumborak

[orcus116]

I definitely think something should be done. It's not even like these people are promoting a message, well other than we're all going to Hell, but their whole reasoning is to spawn hatred and nothing else. I'm waiting for one of their church members to die so half of them can picket that funeral because they didn't like the brand of cereal they ate.

[hefdaddy42]

So Palin & crew are feeling unjustly blamed for the actions of an extremist?  Maybe they can ask Muslims for advice on how to deal with that.

lol

[7StringedBeast]

The level of disrespect that would be shown by these people if they protested a little girl's funeral would be off the charts to me.  If this little girl was my daughter, there would definitely be other funerals to have to attend if someone came to protest it.

[rumborak]

I just can't fathom who their Jesus is.

rumborak

[El Barto]

I really despise the WBC, but I find myself once again defending them.  They have every right to do what they do, regardless of how we feel about their message.  They don't disrupt anything, and they're usually somewhat removed from the funerals.  Honestly, it seems like the people "defending" the funerals from them are probably more of a disruption. 

As some guy in a robe once said, pretty speech isn't in need of any protection.  The first amendment is their to protect the speech we might find ugly.  It's funny that people are bent out of shape about the censoring of Huck Finn, because everybody thinks it's great.  Yet now we have people wanting to censor these assholes because their message is in poor taste.  That's a dangerous slope. 

[rumborak]

Nah, it's not. Germany has been running quite well with its "Incitement" law for decades.

rumborak

[7StringedBeast]

I really despise the WBC, but I find myself once again defending them.  They have every right to do what they do, regardless of how we feel about their message.  They don't disrupt anything, and they're usually somewhat removed from the funerals.  Honestly, it seems like the people "defending" the funerals from them are probably more of a disruption. 

As some guy in a robe once said, pretty speech isn't in need of any protection.  The first amendment is their to protect the speech we might find ugly.  It's funny that people are bent out of shape about the censoring of Huck Finn, because everybody thinks it's great.  Yet now we have people wanting to censor these assholes because their message is in poor taste.  That's a dangerous slope. 

But common sense and good will can be applied in this situation.  These people have no real message to deliver.  There is absolutely NO reason they need to be there at all.  There is NOTHING to protest by this girl dying.  NOTHING.  They are using it as a gimmick to get air time, and its ridiculously disrespectful. 

This is one of those things, where they have the right, but they shouldn't.  Just like that Koran burning guy, except that guy had at least more of an argument compared to what these people have planned.

This is a real scummy act.  I mean an innocent child was gunned down in cold blood and they want to hold some kind of bullshit protest?  We have free speech in this country to a certain extent, there is speech that is not protected speech.  I wonder if this falls into that for any reason.

All I know is if this was happening at someone I loved funeral, you could expect it to get really really really ugly.  There would be consequences for such a disrespectful act.  I mean this really gets to me.

EDIT:  Also, wouldn't the funeral be a private event on private property?  The cops could arrest them for trespassing or something.  There is no way for them to be able to legally be at the funeral.  The people who own the cemetery or wherever they hold the service could definitely have them taken away I think.

[AcidLameLTE]

I'm pretty sure they have to stay a certain distance away from the funeral.

[El Barto]

Correct.  People act as if they're mixed in among the mourners chanting and waving signs.  They're removed from the event and quiet. 

[7StringedBeast]

Then what the shit is their point of even being there?  I really don't understand the purpose.  Using free speech for just the fuck's sake of using free speech is stupid.

[emindead]

Yet their right.

[7StringedBeast]

Yet their right.

Even though they're wrong. 

[El Barto]

What makes free speech free is that the rightness or wrongness of it as judged by you, me or Uncle Sammy is irrelevant. 

And their point in doing it is that they are getting attention by their actions, despite not being a disruption to anybody.  They could be a quarter mile from that girl's funeral, but because they've associated themselves with it, everybody is talking about WBC and God Hates Nine Year Old Girls, or whateverthehell their message is supposed to be.  Fairly effective, if you ask me. 

[7StringedBeast]

Effective but full of scumbaggery.  Exploitation of a tragic event.

[orcus116]

The more I read about that incitement law the more it makes sense.

[7StringedBeast]

This just in from CNN :  Arizona Legislature unanimously passes bill meant to stop church from protesting at funerals of Tucson shooting victims.

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/11/arizona.funeral.westboro/index.html?hpt=T2

[ack44]

lolizona

[Perpetual Change]

This just in from CNN :  Arizona Legislature unanimously passes bill meant to stop church from protesting at funerals of Tucson shooting victims.

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/11/arizona.funeral.westboro/index.html?hpt=T2

Good.

[El Barto]

They probably wouldn't have been within 300' anyway.  They have no right to congregate in a cemetery, so they would have been restricted to outside on public streets.  At that point, there aren't too many restrictions that are lawful.  These guys might be assholes, but they do understand the law and how to stay on the right side of it.  Apparently more so than the elected representatives of Arizona (but that's not too surprising).

Here's an article on protests and free speech by the ACLU that describes the rights and wrongs. I believe the SCOTUS is actually deciding this issue right now. 

And honestly, is lining the streets with these creepy-ass people really any more tasteful?

[Perpetual Change]

Those guys might be creepy as hell, but I've never really been convinced by the argument that taking away the freedom of fucktards like the Westboro Baptist Church would begin a slippery slope that would put all free-speech into jeopardy.

[ResultsMayVary]

This just in from CNN :  Arizona Legislature unanimously passes bill meant to stop church from protesting at funerals of Tucson shooting victims.

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/11/arizona.funeral.westboro/index.html?hpt=T2

Good.

[ack44]

One thing's for sure, WBC's ego just shot a hole in the roof.

[El Barto]

Those guys might be creepy as hell, but I've never really been convinced by the argument that taking away the freedom of fucktards like the Westboro Baptist Church would begin a slippery slope that would put all free-speech into jeopardy.

Really?  Who gets to determine who are and aren't fucktards? 

[Perpetual Change]

In this case, there's already been a unanimous decision that they are and that they need to be stopped. Maybe that's not reasonable enough for some here but, honestly, with that group I no longer care.

[hefdaddy42]

Correct.  People act as if they're mixed in among the mourners chanting and waving signs.  They're removed from the event and quiet. 

They aren't fucking quiet.  I've seen multiple films of their "demonstrations."

IMHO, passing a law that would ban what they do wouldn't be an infringement of their first amendment rights.  They would still be able to say whatever they wanted and get their message across - just not at funerals.

[El Barto]

How about weddings?  Bar mitzvahs?  Christenings?  Coronations?  Pancake Tuesday?  Salat al-Janazah?

In this case, there's already been a unanimous decision that they are and that they need to be stopped. Maybe that's not reasonable enough for some here but, honestly, with that group I no longer care.

Unanimous decision made by who?

[Perpetual Change]

This just in from CNN :  Arizona Legislature unanimously passes bill meant to stop church from protesting at funerals of Tucson shooting victims.

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/11/arizona.funeral.westboro/index.html?hpt=T2

And, by the way, I could actually see the issue if they were actually practicing free-speech. But they're abusing it, not practicing it. It's an insult to our Constitution and out system that their behavior has been allowed to go on this long.

[hefdaddy42]

How about weddings?  Bar mitzvahs?  Christenings?  Coronations?  Pancake Tuesday?  Salat al-Janazah?

Why should they be allowed at any of those things?