Karma for protesting at a soldier's funeral?

[myrobbins7]

I wonder why it's just right leaning groups that are organizing counter protests against WBC? You never hear about GLAD or the ACLU jumping all over Phred Phelps and co.

If GLAD is protesting WBC's agenda then I stand corrected, but as it is it appears that the left is content to let WBC protest at troops' funerals and ignore it's militant, homophobic agenda.

Very interesting point MG.

 

[BigPapaVol]

all these people bitchin about free speech dont understand who gives them that right. its not some liberal hippie jackass lawyer, its a soldier that sticks his neck out on the line and sometimes lays down his life. so those people at the westboro or westbrow church :finger3:

uhhh......earth to gasouthern, I played Army for several years including a stint in that same desert where our soldiers are dying. I understand the hatred for these lunatics, but I still believe in the bill of right delineated right to free speech over implied rights to decency.

Would I stand idly by and watch these idiots desecrate the memory of one of my fellow soldiers? No, but there should be no civil award in this case.

 

[justingroves]

There should no civil award. However, the morons protesting at the funeral should be forced to spend 20 minutes with the family of the deceased, in a room full of weapons, while being handcuffed to a chair.

 

[KentheOrange]

but there should be no legal consequences is the point. the whole hate speech standard is completely silly and arbitrary. speech is speech and there should be no legal consequences. If people don't have the decency to respect the lost, then they should expect to be ignored, not sued.

Extreme I know, but would you defend someone yelling FIRE in a crowded theatre?

I agree that you can say anything you like, but sometimes there are consequences. This isn't like going to a speaker's corner where people can choose to ignore you or not.

 

[BigPapaVol]

Extreme I know, but would you defend someone yelling FIRE in a crowded theatre?

I agree that you can say anything you like, but sometimes there are consequences. This isn't like going to a speaker's corner where people can choose to ignore you or not.

endangering lives is an entirely different ordeal and has criminal ramifications. Civil trials over a decency issue are just garbage. The idiots endangered nobody, threatened nobody nor did anything unlawful that I know of. Their greatest crimes were gross lunacy, utter lack of respect, and needing a gent like me to remind them that there is no guarantee of peace when blatantly offending others.

 

[volinasheville]

The court here decided that this was not a "public" event. That makes a great deal of difference to the issue. It still might be reversed on appeal but the decision is that people don't have the right to do and say anything they want at a private funeral.

 

[615 Vol]

The sad part is that brain washed little kids were forced to wear those shirts and hold signs in protest. This is a cult not a church in my opinion because they are so out there on their beliefs. They might have a right to free speech which means they can write a blog or march down the street but there are privacy laws that protect the funeral goers also. It's all about the time and the place when it comes to free speech. We all now there's a list of things you can't say at an airport for safety reasons so free speech does have limitations.

 

[Vol1312]

The family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder -- who was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq's Anbar province in 2006 -- sued the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, and its leaders for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

They were not sued for protesting. They were sued for what they were saying. I fully and totally support this suit for once. Anymore lawsuits are way too common, and most of the time over nothing. This one is fully warranted, I sure hope the inbreds lose there appeal.