Fallen Marine's father says anti-gay pickets will draw gunfire

[Turborama]

Source: CNN

By the CNN Wire Staff
March 3, 2011 8:45 p.m. EST

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Westboro Baptist Church's right to protest against homosexuality at military funerals, the fallen Marine's father, who unsuccessfully sued the controversial Kansas congregation, warned that the church's protests will eventually spark violence.

"Something is going to happen," Albert Snyder told CNN Thursday. "Somebody is going to get hurt."

"You have too many soldiers and Marines coming back with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they (the Westboro protesters) are going to go to the wrong funeral and the guns are going to go off."

"And when it does," Snyder said. "I just hope it doesn't hit the mother that's burying her child or the little girl that's burying her father or mother. It's inevitable."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/03/us.westboro.father/index.html?hpt=C1

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Strangely, this was CNN's earlier leading story...







And now it's this, and the earlier featured article is currently a "Don't miss"...

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CLANG]

2. I've believed this for quite some time and it's a tragedy waiting to happen

"You have too many soldiers and Marines coming back with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they (the Westboro protesters) are going to go to the wrong funeral and the guns are going to go off."

[SoapBox]

3. Ditto.

[DissedByBush]

4. Tragedy?

Shooting anybody not in self defense isn't right.

But honestly, who would shed a tear if the Westboro sickos were gunned down?

Not right, but not a tragedy unless someone else gets hit.

[davidinalameda]

5. so who gets to pick and choose

who gets to use their first amendment rights?

the constitution wasn't written to protect popular speech

[Turborama]

6. The constitution wasn't written to protect any kind of speech

It's a living document (unlike the Ten Commandments, The New testament or The Qur'an) which had to be amended.

[DissedByBush]

8. Nobody chooses

Some people simply won't be as missed as much as others.

Some people won't have tears shed for them when things happen to them.

[WatsonT]

20. I don't think anyone is suggesting they lose those rights

however you can defend someones right to say something and still think they're an asshole and wish something bad happens to them (as long as you don't make it happen).

I think the WBC has every right to protest.

But if an 18 wheeler hauling sulfuric acid were to tip over and douse the entire bunch I wouldn't feel too bad about it.

[JoeyT]

7. I don't think someone shooting at them is going to be a problem.

Someone with PTSD marching over and putting a foot in their ass is another matter entirely. And as much as I'd enjoy seeing it happen, and as badly as they deserve it, that wouldn't be right either.

[pinboy3niner]

11. Don't be so sure. We've already come close to that:

Posted on Wed, Dec. 01, 2010

Veteran with guns arrested on suspicion of stalking Westboro Baptist Church members

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle

Vet faces 5 charges in Westboro incident Bond set for vet who may have followed Westboro members Authorities arrested a wounded, decorated Army veteran after he followed members of a controversial Topeka church and he was found in a vehicle stocked with weapons outside Wichita City Hall on Tuesday, sources said.

In the man's vehicle, which was backed into a spot in the City Hall parking lot, investigators found items including a rifle, a handgun and more than 90 rounds of ammunition, said a source close to the investigation who asked not to be named.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/12/01/1612740/decorated-vet-arrested-at-city.html#ixzz1FbX6BIHg

[JoeyT]

13. Wow.

Alright, I stand corrected.

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

9. Phelps' tires were slashed in Oklahoma

during one of their protests.

Westboro Baptist Church bus tires flattened during protest! The church group that insists on boycotting soldier's funerals in a mockery of their service were stopped in their tracks Saturday, when Oklahoma counter-protestors put an end to the Westboro Baptist Church planned protest by slashing two of the tires of their minivan, reports KMBC.com.

According to the report, about a half-dozen church members were unable to find anyone to fix their flat tires in McAlester, Oklahoma, where a memorial service for Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey, who was killed while serving in Afghanistan.Westboro Baptist Church members were forced to have their minivan transported on a flatbed truck to a location several miles away.

No one has come forward to claim responsibility for the act, but an investigation is ongoing

You can see the video at this link.
http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=237&num=333169

[Ken_Fish]

10. I'm sure those detectives are working in shifts...

seriously this has big potential to get lethal. But that just feeds these people. Mocking them, to their face, is far far more effective.

That said if they all dropped dead from natural causes no one would miss the lot of them.

[pinboy3niner]

12. See also Post #14. nt

[alarimer]

14. The answer to hate speech is more speech, not gunfire. n/t

[Jokerman]

15. Sounds like a thinly veiled threat to me.

I despise the Westboro baptist clowns but calling for a violent response to anyone for exercising their rights is pretty sick as well.

[crim son]

16. Sick?

I would think it's a fairly natural response given the situation. Now, if somebody acted on the threat that might be considered sick by some but IMHO what the Church does is so despicable that it isn't hard for me to imagine being roused to murderous anger. I agree that violence in this case is indisputably wrong but it wouldn't be "sick."

[nalnn]

17. I disagree

This father has been in this fight for a while now. He has had time to process it all (I don't know that, just a hunch from experience). He is warning Everybody though that this has the potential, for the reasons state by previous posters, to come to bloodshed. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Phelps' people will be the ones being shot. I can't foresee a circumstance, given their track record, in which they would come armed. I could be wrong...

[superduperfarleft]

18. CNN only made that a headline because it's inflammatory and will drive page hits.

No thought was given to whether we should make a federal fucking case out of a grieving father who's been through the ringer with these clowns having one minor outburst after what I'm sure was a heartbreaking decision for him.

[Turborama]

23. What about this...?

Are they trying to out-red meat Faux, or something?

[superduperfarleft]

24. Exactly. CNN is about on par with the Huffington Post for fluffy bullshit on their homepage.

Been that way for years. This is what you call a race to the bottom.

[WatsonT]

19. Anyone who does open fire should go to jail

and serve their full sentence.

That said, I won't lose any sleep over the prospect of a tragedy befalling the WBC.

[Doctor_J]

21. This kind of shit will never stop

until these psychos are engaged. Continuing to treat them like humans degrades the concept of what humanity is.

[Bardley]

22. Fred Phelps was a civil rights lawyer, disbarred in 1977 for abusive sexual inuendo in a deposition

of a court reporter who didnt have a transcript ready when he wanted it

any of the following from wikipedia sound familiar?

"DisbarmentA formal complaint was filed against Phelps on November 8, 1977, by the Kansas State Board of Law Examiners for his conduct during a lawsuit against a court reporter named Carolene Brady. Brady had failed to have a court transcript ready for Phelps on the day he asked for it; though it did not affect the outcome of the case for which Phelps had requested the transcript, Phelps still requested $22,000 in damages from her. In the ensuing trial, Phelps called Brady to the stand, declared her a hostile witness, and then cross-examined her for nearly a week, during which he accused her of being a "slut", tried to introduce testimony from former boyfriends whom Phelps wanted to subpoena, and accused her of a variety of perverse sexual acts, ultimately reducing her to tears on the stand.<17> Phelps lost the case; according to the Kansas Supreme Court:

The trial became an exhibition of a personal vendetta by Phelps against Carolene Brady. His examination was replete with repetition, badgering, innuendo, belligerence, irrelevant and immaterial matter, evidencing only a desire to hurt and destroy the defendant. The jury verdict didn't stop the onslaught of Phelps. He was not satisfied with the hurt, pain, and damage he had visited on Carolene Brady.<17>"



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps

I have never understood why he wasnt committed under existing mental health statutes - his abusive sexual inuendo at funerals is a continuation of the pattern of behavior that cost him his law license in 1977 (above) It's the exact same thing - abusive sexually related false accusations that are totally irrelevant to the situation - then, and now

he clearly fits the standard of both irrational and a harm to himself or others

people are committed every day in every city under this standard

this isnt about gays, or soldiers - it's about a very mentally ill man

[buckrogers1965]

25. Sad but true.

Eventually the Phelps clan is going to meet up with someone crazier than they are and then it is going to be horrible.

[davsand]

26. I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire, however the court ruled correctly.

I feel the right to free speech is an absolute one, and the more offensive I find that speech the more it probably needs to be protected. What I find so very pathetic in all of this is that the funerals where they turn out to protest are for the ones who have died while fighting in defense of a Constitution that specifically allows for those protests. Much as I hate what they say and how they do it, I respect and revere the ideals that allow for them to go out and protest.

Reverend Ferd and all those asswipes from Westboro Baptist will probably burn in hell for all the pain and hurt they spread, but it is not up to me to piss all over the people who have believed in our Constitution enough to die in defense of it.




Laura