WBC fails to picket soldier's funeral...

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... after the entire town conspires to prevent them from attending.

From the article...
Why weren't there protestors? Planning ahead by the locals, as it turns out.

From an Ole Miss sports message board, a tidbit of information...

"A couple of days before, one of them (Westboro protestors) ran his mouth at a Brandon gas station and got his arse waxed. Police were called and the beaten man could not give much of a description of who beat him. When they canvassed the station and spoke to the large crowd that had gathered around, no one seemed to remember anything about what had happened."

Rankin County handled this thing perfectly. There were many things that were put into place that most will never know about and at great expense to the county.

Most of the morons never made it out of their hotel parking lot. It seems that certain Rankin county pickup trucks were parked directly behind any car that had Kansas plates in the hotel parking lot and the drivers mysteriously disappeared until after the funeral was over. Police were called but their wrecker service was running behind and it was going to be a few hours before they could tow the trucks so the Kansas plated cars could get out.

A few made it to the funeral but were ushered away to be questioned about a crime they might have possibly been involved in. Turns out, after a few hours of questioning, that they were not involved and they were allowed to go on about their business.
Fred Phelps, the disbarred lawyer and Democrat activist who leads the Westboro congregation, will undoubtedly pursue some form of legal action for the way his people were thwarted in Brandon. Let him try. There isn't a jury in Mississippi which will see things his way.
I'm sure someone is going to get sued over this, but I gotta admit... this was beautifully executed. I'm not sure if I'd call Phelps a "Democrat Activist", even with his history of running as one, but whatever.
 
C

Chibibar

Sounds like a very Southern malicious act. It is like the time in Palestine TX, some one just happened to burn down the Catholic Church, just as the fire department decided to cut all the fire hoses to practice replacing the ends.
 
As far as I can tell the Ole Miss message board is the primary source. Fark just linked to the article from The Hayride.
 
Vigilante "justice" and police misconduct do not magically become OK when it is against reprehensible assholes.
 
Won't somebody please think of the assholes?!
You know what the Westboro Baptist Church has never done to anyone? Beaten them for saying mean things. When your conduct crosses a line that the person you oppose has not, you're doing it wrong.
 
I'm really glad you're here to defend them. Especially after I specifically said that it was a good thing one of their members was assaulted. Since I very clearly said that, it's good that you can set me straight.
 
I'm really glad you're here to defend them. Especially after I specifically said that it was a good thing one of their members was assaulted. Since I very clearly said that, it's good that you can set me straight.
I don't defend their conduct. I'm saying that much of the treatment they received in this town, including the beating and the police harassment, were not OK. You're the one who is mocking people holding that position. Assholes are still citizens, with all the rights and protections thereof.
 
Question: How did you intend "Won't somebody please think of the assholes?!", a modified version of a phrase used to mock over zealous moral guardians, to be taken? Because I took it as "oh quit whining, its no big deal to mistreat westboro". Which is, as a position, wrong. There is no excuse for resorting to illegal and unconstitutional means of fighting even the most objectionable of speakers among us. Especially Westboro, who take great pains to ensure they are within the bounds of law.
 
That's the difference between you and me: I refuse to invest in this. I'm not trying to craft a "sterling rebuttal." I'm more than content to let you rail against me without any response, so you can pat yourself on the back on the back and think you've defeated me in some sort of contest or debate. Have at it. Go right ahead.
 
Fair enough. If you think that violence is a valid response to objectionable speech and that being an asshole means that the police are right to harass you, we don't really have anything to discuss.
 
I recognize you never said whether or not what happened was OK in your book. I also recognize you mocked the people who were pointing out how not-OK they felt this incident was. You subsequently rolled your eyes at a request for clarification. I don't feel that presuming you're in the "this is ok" is a particularly illogical conclusion.
 

Cajungal

Staff member
Well maybe if you weren't such a damn tease... hopping around in your daisy dukes and tied-up shirt with a Tootsie Pop in your mouth. No one eats that many tootsie pops.
 
Sorry, white knights, but the dumbass who mouthed off must have failed the WBC's mandatory legal training. There's the "fighting words" defense, and just about everything the WBC says or does would "tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace".

In other words, if you say something you know is gonna get your ass kicked, and then you do get your ass kicked, the law will sometimes say "you had it coming. Next case."
 
I think the term white knight is overused, and doesn't even fit here. The wbc is a terrible organization, and I'm filled with glee every time one of their pickets is stopped. I just don't want to see people sink lower than them to do it.
 
Sorry, white knights, but the dumbass who mouthed off must have failed the WBC's mandatory legal training. There's the "fighting words" defense, and just about everything the WBC says or does would "tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace".

In other words, if you say something you know is gonna get your ass kicked, and then you do get your ass kicked, the law will sometimes say "you had it coming. Next case."
From your own gorram link, as of 1969 the court had concluded that

Emphasizing that the mere offensiveness of words does not strip them of constitutional protection, the Court again noted that fighting words must present an actual threat of immediate violence, not merely offensive content.
and in 1972,
redefining fighting words as only those "personally abusive epithets which, when addressed to the ordinary citizen, are, as a matter of common knowledge, inherently likely to provoke violent reactions." The Court reasoned that because Cohen's statement was not an insult directed toward a particular individual, it could not be regulated as fighting words.
Now, we don't know what was said in that gas station. However, Westboro's standard commentary has yet to be curtailed under the fighting words doctrine. Additionally, "fighting words" is the kind of thing that should be considered by a prosecutor examining the case or a defense attorney laying out his defense. Deciding whether certain comments preceding an assault counted as "fighting words" is decidedly outside the job description of gas station employees and customers. Likewise, it is (as I understand it) a defense or something that can be prosecuted, not a blank check for ass whoopings.

Offering my facebook shoulder to cry on to a friend I haven't really spoken to in years because she posted some "people suck" statuses? That was me white knighting. Standing up and saying "vigilante justice and police misconduct are wrong regardless of who is the victim, especially that victim doesn't perpetrate violence or illegal activity themselves"? Not white knighting. It shouldn't even be that fucking radical. The Westboro Baptist Church, reprehensible fucks that many of them are, follow the laws regarding protests and protected speech to the letter. They comply with lawful police requests. They commit no known acts of violence against anyone. They say really mean things. And this town responded with a vigilante beat down and police harassment. They sunk lower than WBC. That. Isn't. Cool.

At least we can all agree that the WBC sucks.
A-fucking-men sister. Libby Phelps and Josh Phelps-Roper are my heroes. Calling out their family on their bullshit.
 
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