Outrageous!
This is how Phelps funds his activities.
How can this happen without a standing verdict?
Two things. First, it’s risky for an amateur to sue a professional trouble maker with deep pockets, even if he is rightly outraged.
Second, it seems unusual for a law-bending judge to find in favor of a kooky “Christian” pastor. Liberals bend the law, and liberals don’t normally favor pastors. But evidently the anti-war angle trumps the Christian angle.
I feel very sorry for this Marine’s father, having to go through all this after losing his son.
To lose his son over there and then have this happen...may the Phelps clan all burn in hell.
Welcome home, eh?
I would like to see someone set up a fund for this man so that those of us who feel this is an outrage could contribute to offsetting his expenses. I’d like to see him raise more than enough to handle this, plus enough to set up a scholarship or something in his son’s name.
They are coming to Virginia Tech on Apr 10 to make hay with the anniversary of the Apr 16 shootings. They seem to have a West Virginia contingent.
It’s going to get REALLY ugly. I’ll miss it.
“It only takes a spark....to get a fire going....and all of those around....can warm up to it’s glowing....”
Perhaps we missed a real opportunity a few months back, when Ted Kennedy was planted. We should have had tens of thousands of our people out there to protest that prick’s life, and trash his relatives in the process.
Perhaps then Phelp’s antics would be more understood.
Nah, it’s better to realize that Phelps is a brain dead guttersnipe, and that the media in this nation is disgraceful beyond belief. We’ve got individual conscience, something they couldn’t come with up with one of if they pooled their collective resources.
I wonder if anyone posting in this thread has heard the Phelps’ political-social-religious argument.
Another outrage regarding the Phelps Phreaks.
AP calls the Phelps cult “anti-gay protesters”.
Why not call them anti-Iraq war Democrats?
That’s also an accurate description and a more fitting description of why they protested the son’s funeral.
Treason is not protected speech.
Mildred Gillars (Axis Sally) was convicted of treason for a radio drama she broadcast on behalf of Nazi Germany. It wasn't simply that she sided with the Nazis. It wasn't simply that she was in their employ. She worked to sour morale at home and among the troops and boost the spirits of the enemy.
I just think states should ban ANY demonstrations and/or soliciting from all cemetaries and any sidewalk or street adjacent thereto. It could be justifed as a content neutral public saftey measure.
This is a standard scam, and it’s unfortunate that the dead marine’s father fell for it. Fred Phelps stages provocative protests for the sole purpose of goading local governments into infringing on his free speech rights. Then he sues and collects damages and attorney fees (which go into his pocket since he’s his own attorney).
I’m familiar with this because the same sort of thing happened in Simi Valley, CA back in 1992 following the Rodney King beating trial. Richard Barrett, the leader of his own little white supremacist Nationalist Movement, announced plans to hold a protest march. My wife was a member of the City Council at the time, and had to try to calm down the outrage of local citizens who wanted to prevent Barrett from coming. Of course he would have sued and pocketed tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
Instead he and his little band of six marchers were allowed to demonstrate in a fenced-off area around the county courthouse, with the fence protecting him from the hundreds of counter-demonstrators. He tried it again a few months later, this time with only one fellow demonstrator. After that he gave up, because he clearly was not going to be able to collect a lawsuit jackpot.
The same strategy should be employed against Phelps. Let him demonstrate and just ignore him. Yeah, it’s hurtful. But free speech and liberty isn’t always pleasant. People have to grow thick skins sometimes. If Phelps was consistently ignored, his lawsuit-derived income would evaporate, and he’d soon disappear when his outrages stopped being profitable.
Disgusting that any court would rule in favor of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Cult
The Devil has a special place in hell for this Satanist
I have to tell you, if Phelps protested my son’s funeral, it would be his last protest. I know that I would not be mentally stable enough to endure such an heinous act being consumed with grief.
Someone posted below that it is unwise to sue a professional troublemaker. What is one to do about this monster? Anyone that would protest a funeral of a Soldier is beyond mental. Why isn’t this guy locked up?