Law would curb funeral protests (Westboro Baptist Church)

[IndianaGreen]

October 24, 2005

Law would curb funeral protests

A state senator angered over a recent protest at an Indiana soldier's funeral wants to make disorderly conduct a felony offense if it occurs at military funerals.

Sen. Brent Steele, R-Bedford, said he would propose legislation in response to an anti-gay group's protest at the Aug. 28 funeral for Army Staff Sgt. Jeremy Doyle, an Indianapolis native killed in Iraq.

Six members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church dragged U.S. flags on the ground and shouted insults at Doyle's surviving family members outside a mortuary in Martinsville, about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis.

"No family should have to go through this at a funeral," Steele said.

The Rev. Fred Phelps, the church's founder, contends American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051024/NEWS01/510240449

[Initech]

1. YEAH! In your fucking face, Phelps!!!!

This is great news!!! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

And this needs to be on the front page, too!

[saigon68]

33. FRED'S LOVE PHOTOS

[Initech]

36. That third photo makes absolutely no sense.

Why would a self-proclaimed "man of god" go around holding signs that say "God is your enemy"? :rofl: :rofl:

[BattyDem]

2. It should be a felony offense to protest at ANY funeral!

I know there are First Amendment issues involved, but as civilized human beings, I think we should make sure that all families are allowed to grieve in peace.

What kind of scum feels the need to protest at a funeral? :wtf:

[beyurslf]

7. Just say you can't protest within 1000 feet of the funeral

[BattyDem]

8. That'll work!

:toast:

[jmowreader]

38. Phelps.

Phelps says he believes in Jesus.

The Jesus Phelps believes in is maintaining a list of Asshole Preachers Who Are Going To Hell. Phelps is the only one whose name is written with a laundry marker.

[Judi Lynn]

3. An idea whose time has come, thank goodness.

This is going to leave the Phelps clan with a lot more time on its many, grubby hands, unfortunately!

[AngryOldDem]

31. And isn't that sad?

Having to enact laws to preserve the dignity of a funeral, and to protect the family's right to mourn and bury their loved one in peace?

[mark11727]

4. Couldn't we just let the honor guard work out on 'em FIRST...?

Then drag the leftovers away to prison.

Just sayin'.

[AnneD]

27. I'd settle for lowering the 21 gun salute.....

;) eom

[GrpCaptMandrake]

5. Remember how Phelps

was going to Sweden to track down their King to protest the imprisonment of Ake Greene for preaching against "the fags?"

What ever happened to that? Did Phelps lose his nerve when he realized that his bony, pasty white ass would wind up in a Swedish prison?

[trogdor]

24. Why do you never see his chickenshit ass in gay neighborhoods?

Imagine what would happen if the Phelps hate show were to show up in, say, Provincetown, MA. They'd probably get fed to the sharks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. Oh they went there alright

There was a story and pictures on their website after they got back.

[beyurslf]

6. If NO family should have to go through it then why not make it a felony

for ANY funeral, not just military funerals? Or is that when they protest gay funerals that is really ok because families of gay people don't matter?

[John Q. Citizen]

9. A felony? Because it's such a major problem in America?

Look, I totally empathize with the family, but the knee jerk reaction of a State Senator to write and pass another felony is stupid.

No wonder we are becoming a police state. Everybody wants every stupid thing made into a felony.

[IndianaGreen]

10. When the Phelps clan demonstrated at a Fort Benning funeral

they barely escaped with their lives. There were people in trucks chasing after them!

How would you feel if the Phelps clan were to pull their stunt at Arlington National Cemetery.

No, I don't think the First Amendment protects the Phelps, anymore than it protects hate speech.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. I stand by my statement. I think everyone is constantly bugged by

someone or something and they believe the easiest and quickest way to deal with it is to pass a law. Some people believe Americans are sue crazy. I think we are pass a law crazy.

[anotherdrew]

28. I don't think so...

in most countries, phelps and crew would get the living shit beat out of them, and the cops would be unable to find a witness and that would be the end of it and their last demo. Here in the US we can't expect the cops to look the other way when something like this comes up.

[drb]

23. That's the real answer to the issue. Someone's gonna drag ol' Fred...

...out behind the barn for some enthusiastic buggery lessons, and he'll probably like it so much it'll just change his whole outlook on life!

[ErisFiveFingers]

12. Freedom of speech and assembly laws worry me...

Phelps is a revolting nightmare, but I always worry about laws that can easily be abused to push a reich-wing agenda.

Consider this (FTA):

"Steele said he would file a bill seeking to make disorderly conduct a felony punishable by a three-year prison sentence and $10,000 fine if committed during military funerals, be it at the funeral home, during the procession or at the grave site."

So, if the procession merely *drives past* a Women in Black street-corner vigil, we could potentially all be facing 3 years in prison. This means that all protests in cities with military funerals would have to know drive routes of the funerals or plan to *not* protest in advance of any funeral days.

"The bill also would bar protests within two hours before or after a funeral, and the penalty would be a mandatory 30-day jail term."

So, if I'm walking down the street to go to the store for a quart of milk, wearing a BUCK FUSH T-shirt, and just *happen* to pass in front of a chuch that will be holding a military funeral 1 hour and 55 minutes later, I could be facing 30 days in jail.

The law is broad enough that it's effectively disabling to all kinds of civil, peaceful, and legal public protest.... typical rethug laws. Use a common cause (who would want to defend Phelps, or offensive behavior at funerals?), and then take that common cause to allow for squelching of all kinds of dissent.

Oh, and something else about these laws: They're supposedly targeted towards "disorderly conduct". If the police had really wanted to shut Phelps, or any other group, down during a funeral, they simply could have arrested them, and taken them to the station for booking for "disorderly conduct".

This isn't about Phelps. It's about silencing protest.

Imagine this nightmare: A mother is woken early in the morning, by officers in dress uniform at the door. She's lost her only child. She decides to wear a Gold Star Families for Peace symbol to her child's funeral, and Cindy is invited to speak. Both are then arrested for protesting.

[FM Arouet666]

13. I'm sorry I think this is bullshit.

Don't get me wrong, Phelps is one evil nasty son of a bitch. I would love to see the Rev and his clan cast into the fiery depths of hell.

However, this is B.S. on two accounts.

Freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. A felony to protest at military funerals? What constitutes a protest? An anti Bush shirt while walking by the funeral? Protesting the administration while grieving for a lost soldier. I see potential for abuse.

The second account has to do with the motivation. Steele is not upset about the anti-gay stance of phelps, he is upset about the anti-american stance. I doubt the good senator would give a second thought to Phelps protesting the death of Matthew Shepard. Is the death of an american soldier to be given special grieving rights over the death of a gay man?

If you want to stop Phelps, pass a law which forbids disruption of any funeral.

[bluestateguy]

14. No, no, let them protest at the funerals

But they then forfeit their right to police protection.

And if they want to protest a funeral then they should be "open season" for someone to, er, deal with them, um cough, baseball bats, cough...

[wordout]

15. how about passing a law so cops can't interrupt funerals, hmm?

[krkaufman]

16. Republicans reaping what they have sowed.

It's ironic to see a Republican looking to legislate against an anti-gay group, given the way in which the Republican Party has whipped-up fanatical opposition to equal rights as it applies to the less-than-fully-John-Wayne community.

[BiggJawn]

17. First they went after Fred Phelps...And it was a Good Thing....

But what about when they come after YOU?
Phelps is scum. anyone who'd demonstrate at a funeral, military or otherwise, is SCUM.

Still, This disturbs me, not just because it's an Indiana lawmaker from a small town in the southern (REDDEST) part of the state, but because if they can felonize a funeral demonstration, how much of a stretch would it be to felonize a protest demonstration against an elected (or appointed, in the case of the President) official?

And while I'm typing this, I'm hearing aboiut a bill being brought in IL that would REQUIRE Chicago schoolkiddies to wash their hands. NOW they want to legislate HYGIENE?
"McGruff the Crime Dawg says: 'Wash yer hands, kiddies, take a BITE out of CRIME (and disease)'..."

And Patty Miller (R-Indpls.) wanted to make it a misdemeanor to wank-off into a turkey baster and help out the nice couple next door, too.....

And the over-all prison population of Murka increased last year...

"You are wanted for QUESTIONING'..."

[Charlie Brown]

18. This law will be illegal

Anyone who supports free speech cannot break rank when someone on the opposite side is targeted and cheer censorship.

Passing laws to gag Phelps is just as unconstitutional as gagging Cindy Sheehan or Al Sharpton.

The price of free speech is having to put up w/speech you don't agree with, no matter how mean and ugly it gets. I sympathize w/the families who have to put up with the Westboro crowd, but as American citizens, it's their right to demonstrate.

[jayfish]

21. As Well It Should Be.

If they really want to stop this they should lower and penalties for kicking the shit out of people who protest funerals. Attempting to curtail freedom even more than it already is is not the answer.

Jay

[hippiechick]

19. The easiest way to curb protests at military funerals

... would be for * or anyone in the misAdministration to actually SHOW UP at some, then they could invoke the Free Speech zone, AND our war dead would actually be recognized by the leaders who sent them to their deaths.

[meganmonkey]

20. Free speech is free speech whether we agree with the sentiment or not

Let's be consistent here folks...

:shrug:

[Javaman]

22. Phelps logic still blinds me.

What a truly convoluted concept for a protest.

The man is a disgraceful boob.

[sakabatou]

25. It's good

I want this legislation to pass. However what is stoping these guys from picketing after the funeral and disgracing the grave?

[progressivebydesign]

26. I'm torn on this law.

I can see the value if it keeps that disgusting piece of shit Phelps from ever doing that again.

BUT.. I have problems with any law banning protests at a particular event, even a funeral. Because, really.. how many funerals have had this issue? Is a state law necessary? Or are there other ways to deal with this? Permitting processes on a local level?

[derby378]

29. I don't like this idea...

One of these days, you'll want to stage some sort of protest at Nero's funeral when he finally kicks the bucket.

[redsoxliberal]

30. Phelps was planning a protest at my high school saturday... but didn't

show.

He couldn't take a little bit of rain.

[rocktivity]

32. If there was a protest outside of one of Phelps' church services

I bet he'd call the cops in a minute. And by the way, rev, Americans are dying in Iraq because Bush's greedy self-serving lies PUT THEM THERE!

:headbang:
rocknation

[LiberalFighter]

34. If god were exacting vengeance god would not do it on a lowly soldier!!!

God would go right to the source.

[geniph]

35. This is not an appropriate response to that imbecile

Look, I hate Fred Phelps and his inbred pack of dipshit followers, and their repulsive tactics to get attention. However, the proper response to an exercise of free speech rights with which one disagrees is not to pass laws against the free exercise of speech or assembly. The proper response is to have the late soldier's buddies and friends beat the living shit out of the 'morans.'

Well no, okay, that's not really right, either. The proper response is to go picket their "church" and their homes, if you can find where they parked the short bus this week. Michael Moore's response to him in The Awful Truth was perfection itself - sending a big pink bus full of drag queens to follow him and heckle him everywhere he went. It made him even crazier than he already is.

Passing laws restricting the free assembly of citizens or their right to free expression is an idea that will bite us all in the ass.

[Moloch]

39. I hope it doesn't pass.

I think Fred Phelps and his group should get as much press and photographs as possible. They help homophobic Americans to see themselves for the hatemongers that they really are.