Huntington, Indiana is the hometown of former Vice-President Dan Quayle.
Phelps is a demon.
Sounds like they didn't follow the standard FReep rules and bit at the Phelps crowd's provocations.
What officers weren’t expecting was trouble from about 100 others who showed up to protest the Westboro demonstration.
Yeah, it's the fault of the good guys.
7 Westboro jerks and 100 anti-Westboro protestors. Way to go!
Flaming Fred Felps and his band of bent-over bootie boys are coming closer and closer to a good ol' fashion butt kicking. Few deserve it more than the inbred felps family.
If I am on the jury, I will vote to acquit whoever kicks their butts.
Time to bring out the big guns...sue these wackjobs for mental anguish, and destroy them with court costs. Let the litigation lawyers destroy them with legal fees.
Nobody's First Amendmendment rights are violated this way, but the protests are too costly to comtemplate.
With Freedom comes responsibility for one's actions.
Since I'm a Fort Wayne resident it's great to see my homies taking on this sick demagogue. Go try your anti-American B.S. in Madison or San Francisco. Do it in Indiana, and you get a bottle thrown at you. Phelps can sue if he wants, but NO jury around here is going to give him and his wacked-out seven-member "movement" a dime. You'll notice that despite having committed a "felony" none of the good guys were even jailed.
Incorporated in 1967 as a not-for-profit organization, the Westboro Baptist Church considers itself an "Old School (or, Primitive)" Baptist Church. The Church is led by the septuagenarian Reverend Fred Waldron Phelps Sr., and many WBC congregants are related to Phelps by blood. His wife, several of his children and dozens of his grandchildren frequent the church.
While WBC has picketed the gay community at hundreds of events nationwide, most of the individuals protested by the Church are not homosexual. In fact, WBC most often targets people it mistakenly claims are gay or those it believes to be encouraging homosexuality. Many WBC fliers emphasize the race or religion of these individuals, suggesting that the Church's hate spreads beyond its abhorrence of homosexuality. WBC congregants believe that "God's hatred is one of His holy attributes." What appears to be anti-gay rhetoric is often a vehicle for WBC's anti-Semitism, hatred of other Christians, and even racism, though in the 1980s Fred Phelps received awards from the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Blacks in Government and the Bonner Springs branch of the NAACP for his work on behalf of Black clients.
Trained as a lawyer, Fred Phelps was disbarred in 1979 by the Kansas Supreme Court, which asserted that he had "little regard for the ethics of his profession." The formal complaint against Phelps charged that he misrepresented the truth in a motion for a new trial in a case he had brought, and that he held the defendant in the case up to "unnecessary public ridicule for which there is no basis in fact." Following his disbarment from Kansas State courts, Phelps continued to practice law in Federal courts. In 1985, nine Federal court judges filed a disciplinary complaint charging him and six of his family members, all attorneys, with making false accusations against them. The Phelpses fought the complaint but lost. In 1989, Fred Phelps agreed to surrender his license to practice law in Federal court in exchange for the Federal judges allowing the other members of his family to continue practicing in Federal court.
In 1991, WBC staged its first public demonstration, targeting a park in Topeka allegedly frequented by gays. Thousands of protests have followed, and WBC shows no sign of slowing down. In addition to speeches on the picket lines, the Church spreads its hateful message via faxed fliers and "News Releases." These faxed documents also appear at WBC's notorious Web site, Godhatesfags.com, along with photos of Church pickets and a schedule of upcoming demonstrations. A second WBC Web site, Godhatesamerica.com, contends that the United States is "doomed" because it supports gays. According to Fred Phelps, "God invented the Internet for us to preach on."
“We don’t strive to change your hearts or minds,” Phelps wrote in a letter to the Capital-Journal. “Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t make you believe the truth.
“Every person who is predestined for hell will remain in darkness.”
Despite the term ‘Baptist’ in the church’s name, the hate group - made up largely of Phelp’s children, grandchildren and in-laws - is not affiliated with any denomination. Most Christians reject Phelp’s theology and methods:
He moved to Topeka, Kansas, in 1954 where he formed the unaffiliated Westboro Baptist Church in 1956. Phelps earned a law degree in 1961 at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and worked for several years as a civil rights lawyer. He was disbarred by the state of Kansas in 1979 for improper conduct and lack of legal ethics. Phelps also had political ambitions and twice has run for governor and was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kansas in 1992.
Phelps intimidates his opponents by threatening and instituting lawsuits. Politicians in the state of Kansas have been reluctant to confront him. His insistence that the only true Jews are Christians and his attacks on gays horrify mainstream religious leaders. Phelps spends around $250,000 annually traveling around the country fighting gay rights. Phelps also operates a Web site that advances his anti-gay program.
The Phelps family consists of:
* Pastor Fred Phelps: head of Westboro Baptist Church
* Marge Phelps, wife of Fred and mother of their 13 children. The children are listed as follows, from oldest to youngest.
* Fred Phelps Jr., staff lawyer at the Kansas Department of Corrections
* Mark Phelps, businessman in Southern California, estranged from the family
* Katherine Phelps-Griffin, law license was indefinitely suspended effective in August 1993 for 30 counts of giving worthless checks
* Margie Phelps, director of re-entry for the Kansas Department of Corrections and a lawyer
* Shirley Phelps-Roper, lawyer at Phelps-Chartered
* Nate Phelps, businessman in Southern California, estranged from family
* Jonathan Phelps, lawyer at Phelps-Chartered
* Rebekah Phelps-Davis, lawyer at Phelps-Chartered
* Elizabeth Phelps, lawyer, no longer in practice
* Tim Phelps, lawyer and employee of the Shawnee County Jail
* Dortha Bird (nee Phelps), lawyer practicing independently in Topeka, estranged from family
* Rachel Phelps, lawyer at Phelps-Chartered
* Abigail Phelps, works for the Topeka Juvenile Correctional Facility, part of the Juvenile Justice Authority
* 54 grandchildren
* Five great-grandchildren
- Source: The Phelps Family, Witchita Eagle, Apr. 2, 2005.
Phelps-Chartered, Attorneys At Law. We are a full service, client-oriented law firm serving the state of Kansas.
http://www.phelpschartered.com/FirmHistory.htm
Fred W. Phelps, Sr. retired from practicing law in 1987. Eleven of his thirteen children hold law degrees
Lest we forget, God Bless Staff Sgt. Paul S. Pabla
I wonder what they (local officials) think about Adams and Revere?
The people who were counterprotesting these scum were the equivalent of patriots of days gone by, who would never let the First Amendment be used by scum like this to disgrace and discomfort an American Hero and his family and friends.