Westboro group found rude welcome in Long Beach

[U4ikLefty]

Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against a grieving father whose soldier son's funeral was picketed by members of the Baptist church. The court ruled the First Amendment protected the church protests.

Last year, Westboro came to Long Beach and staged protests near the Alpert Jewish Community Center and Wilson High School among its stops.

At both sites, seven members of church founder Fred Phelps family, carrying signs with messages such as "God Hates Fags," were overwhelmed by counterprotestors who hooted and mocked the group.

At Wilson, so large and loud was the turnout of students that within 15 minutes of the final bell at school, the church group retreated to a nearby parking lot, where they were surrounded by a boisterous but peaceful crowd. At 3:13 p.m., the Kansas contingent climbed into a passenger van and drove away to booming chants of "go home, go home."


Read more: http://www.presstelegram.com/rss/ci_17524358?source=rss

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Go Long Beach!!!

[somone]

1. Great example on how to deal with them

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. All RIGHT !

That's the way to treat those creatures.

The simple force of letting them know how unwelcome they are.

Well done.

[U4ikLefty]

3. I'm so proud of those young people.

I hope that this (and Wisconsin, etc.) are signs that the American people are waking up.

[RKP5637]

4. Great, none should put up with their BS, I heard way back they were in SFO and a crowd of

about 600 formed around them, and more coming, and they got out of there. I think they were near Castro. They need to be strongly intimidated.

[drmeow]

6. As long as it is done legally

so they can't sue ... that's why they are there, to have their rights violated and get a cash settlement.

[Mz Pip]

10. Yeah, I remember that.

I don't think they ever returned to SF after that. Good riddance.

[SoapBox]

5. This is how real Americans need to react to these Terrorists.

...go America go.

[greyl]

7. Isn't that article about protests that happened in February, 2010?

The quotes from Garcia and Thompson can be found in this article dated February 23, 2010:
http://www.trevorspace.org/newsstory.cfm?id=14063&returnurl=news.cfm

[Sonoman]

8. What we need is a troup of really old veterans....

with baseball bats.

The rest of us could fund their appeals, forever.

Sonoman

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. My dear Sonoman!

You should be ashamed of yourself, having such a wicked thought...




I LIKE it!

:evilgrin:

[plumbob]

11. Yes! We absolutely need more of this.

Bastards need to feel real emotions from real people.

[PatrynXX]

12. They are allowed to speek but folks in Wisconsin can't. o_O

anyway deal with them the same way we do with Christian KKK groups and Christian Neo Nazi groups.

[Warpy]

13. All it took when they picketed the university in this town

was two guys going into a long soul kiss right in front of Old Man Phelps. That bunch of freaks couldn't get out of here fast enough and canceled the other stuff they were doing that day.

They guys were interviewed later, said they barely knew each other but it seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Sometimes I love this town.

[Trajan]

14. Was an LBer from the mid 60's through the mid 80's ....

My HS Diploma was issued by Wilson High ....

The place has it's problems, but still welcome and expected to see them outlast the Phelps ....

Anybody else used to go to the KNAC Bashes at the old Long Beach Auditorium ? ..... Yeah: THAT was amazing fun ....

[left on green only]

18. Remembering Long Beach Wilson High

Hi Trajan, I drove to Long Beach Wilson High School from my home in Anaheim to attend a Bob Dylan concert that was presented by The Golden Bear coffee house in the school's 400 seat auditorium. The time was early 1965. It was right after Dylan had written Mr. Tambourine Man; although he was at that time still performing on stage playing an acoustic guitar. The concert was not a sell out (Dylan at that time was still an esoteric entity; at least on the West Coast) but I left your auditorium that night having been elevated to a new level of consciousness. No, it was not my first instance at having been exposed to Dylan (I already knew the lyrics to every one of his songs, by heart), but it was the energy I felt on that night that told me that there was a world out there that I needed to find and begin to live in. I was 16 years old at the time, and I felt that surely I could not wait for the day when I would finally graduate from high school and begin to make my way into that world. My first stop along the way was my next school in Berkeley, and from there on it was all down hill until I had become a screaming liberal. LOL. I don't remember the KNAC Bashes, but I do remember an old music store/coffee house in Long Beach called McCabes, where the folk music die hards used to congregate.

By the old wood stove our hats were hung
Our words were told, our songs were sung
We'd be together through many a years' storm
Laughing and a joking, 'till the early hours of the morn.

from "Bob Dylan's Dream"

Thank you for inviting me to reminisce with you.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

15. I like to see the Phelps crowd

get marginalized by bikers - yes, that's my favorite.

:evilgrin:

K&R

[No Elephants]

16. Who is funding this small, inbred cult?

[RKP5637]

20. The do lawsuits to make money off anyone violating their rights. A number of

them are lawyers. They are looking for illegal confrontations to make cash.

[Warpy]

22. The lawsuits they've done over the years have funded their "church"

and website and lifestyles, but I have to think there is a right wing sugar daddy or two now donating because they provoke so many attacks against the First Amendment, one of the parts of the Bill of Rights least liked by the plutocracy.

I wish we could light a stick of dynamite under the collective arse of the IRS and get them a visit from the tax man. The "church" is an obvious tax dodge as it is limited to family members. If there were ever a clear cut reason to tax a church, that one provides it.

[Matariki]

17. That's the way to do it. Free speech goes both ways.

[no_hypocrisy]

19. + 1 Thou Shalt Love Thy First Amendment

[Vidar]

21. Since the Phelps clan is so quick to call down hellfire on others,

I'd like to see their final exit involve napalm and white phosphorus.