Posted on 06/04/2006 4:22:58 AM PDT by Elkiejg
The father of a Westminster Marine killed in Iraq is planning to file a civil lawsuit against a religious extremist group that picketed at his son's funeral.
The suit, to be filed in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on Monday morning, will claim the protesters intentionally disrupted the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in March and inflicted emotional harm on the family, according to Sean Summers, a York, Pa.-based lawyer involved in the case.
Albert Snyder will be suing the Rev. Fred Phelps and unnamed members of his Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, Summers said Friday.
Members of the church picketed outside of St. John Catholic Church during Snyder's funeral service, displaying signs that read "Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Semper Fi Fags." The group claims the death of Snyder and other U.S. troops is God's retribution for what it calls America's tolerance of homosexual activity.
Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder died in a noncombat vehicle accident in the Al Anbar province of Iraq on March 3.
Being a pain in the ass has been a lifelong career for him, hasn't it?
The sad thing is he gets way too much press to feed that deranged ego of his to further his misguided beliefs.......
There was an article about Phelps and his family/followers in the Tulsa World this morning.
This nutjob Fred Phelps is the whacko's whacko. His picture in the paper is scary. He looks like what he is, a demented, frenzied old goat screaming at his equally demented followers.
It's easy to picture him with red glowng eyes, directing his swarm out from Topeka like a hive of killer bees, ready to take down anything he points them at. Hard to imagine that that cult leader in Utah that's been charged with multiple crimes could be more dangerous than Phelps.
That has been my opinion for quite some time. They want somebody to beat the daylights out of them and then they will file suit and will be all over the tube, which is, in my opinion, what they want anyway.
One of their females was on Hannity and Colmes and even Alan got bent out of shape talking to her. If she can piss off alan colmes, she is a real piece of work.
This could get interesting
I'm curious if there is actually a law against "inflicting emotional harm" and, if so, what is the penalty / remedy if found guilty.
So far Phelps has drawn the line at raping children.
Excellent news.
Hopefully in the discovery process, the funding of these vile POS's will be looked at very closely. There might be some interesting surprises there.
The Phelps in the 80's and 90's were big time rat backers and apparently good friends of the Gorons.
Hurt feelings, go to court. I really dislike this trend.
I keep saying that we should bring back dueling.
There was an article in today's Desert Sun about Phelps...he's a law school grad, and even volunteered his services to the Gore people during the Florida election fiasco.
I didn't think I could ever hold him in lower esteem than I had before, but now I do...the "lawyer" bonus points apply.
I can't believe these morons are part of a "church". What kind of "church" protests funerals? The people burying their loved ones are hurting and grieving enough as it is without some hate-filled "church" showing up to mock them and rub salt in their wounds. What happened to respect? I hope this guy cleans 'em out!
Used to be when someone hurt your feelings or you felt dishonored you could slap a glove in his face and at least attempt to make him pay for the insult in blood.
Now we just hit them in the pocket book.
There has never been a time when we allowed an insult to just pass.
Whether you like the trend or not it is a legitimate outgrowth of the "fighting words" concept.
It is not a weakness but an adaptation.
By their fruits you shall know them. Matthew 7: 15-16.
If someone hurts your feelings and your instinct is to race to find a lawyer and take him to court, that's a weakness.
I would say rather to permit the insult to pass with no reaction knowing that it would be repeated is a sign of weakness.
Currently we have only one legal method of retribution and that is through suing.
Al Gore is Saddend.....
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