DUers! What do you think of protesters at funerals? Vote!

[CTyankee]

Here is where you can http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060206151609990008&ncid=NWS00010000000001

This is about the Phelps campaign and his protests at mostly soldiers funerals. You can only imagine what misery he causes those grieving families must experience. In my opinion, burials are private and families should not have to put up with the offensive garbage of people who have no business being at the gravesite. I really don't see the First Amendment right to invade a private family funeral. Set me straight if you do.

[Kerrytravelers]

1. Some people are a few steps behind in evolution...

... still sliming their way out of the primordial sludge...

[Canuckistanian]

3. You sure you have the direction of the crawling right?

I think it's Darwin in reverse.

[Kerrytravelers]

7. .

:spray:


Very true... a very, very, very funny!

[Todd B]

2. I certainly don't think they should be restricted.

Granted, it's incredibly tasteless and horribly insensative, but as soon as the government makes a rule saying you can't protest at funerals, where would they draw the line.

Besides, you still have to remain outside the gates - usually the police will keep them at a distance. Let them protest, the only thing that they'll gain from it is being perceived as an a** among the general public.

[Joey Liberal]

4. I agree

They are the scum of the earth, but if we curtail their rights, what is next? Besides, they are the best thing we Democrats have going!

[rucky]

16. In this case, I disagree...

It's similar to the march in Skokie, and the same legal arguements can be made about the limits of the 1st Amendment. Sometimes (rarely) free speech can hurt someone, and a funeral protest is designed to target, intimidate and traumatise individuals when they are most vulnerable.

Phelps can go to the public square like everyone else - he doesn't need to be harassing widows.

[hlthe2b]

5. I'd like to know where they get their $$$$

Maybe we should just go for civil suits (pain and suffering) and bankrupt the bastards...?

[wakeme2008]

6. Tomorrow will be interesting with them at the King funeral

and Bush too....

IMHO too many crazies for a funeral.

[stillcool]

8. Phelps doesn't have many friends ....

Should protests at funerals be restricted?
Yes, people should be allowed to mourn in peace 92%
No, it's an American's constitutional right to peacefully demonstrate anywhere 8%
Total Votes: 21,015

[applegrove]

9. That's not a religion. That is a blood-sport Phelps practices.

[MuseRider]

10. Why now?

Yes it is terrible but where has everyone been? They have been doing this to anyone they thought or knew was gay or had gay friends or worked for GLBT rights for years and years and no one was making rules about that. It kind of pisses me off that now they get all upset about this.

[CTyankee]

25. Yes! I knew about the protests at Matt Shepard's funeral

and it was appalling. Phelps is an old story to many of us here at DU. You are right, it is only when Phelps targets the people in the socalled "mainstream" that it gets attention in the public. A story in my local paper brought out that fact and the paper is running a "sound off" where readers can call in with a brief statement. As you can imagine, these "soundoffs" regularly get freeped, but I try to do what I can by calling in with my statement. Sometimes my remark gets published, sometimes not.

[MuseRider]

26. He was not getting enough

attention anymore so he found a way to escalate the emotions. Now he is in his own little "hog heaven".

I don't know what will be next but as soon as people start ignoring him with this he will find something and it will start all over again. I wish people would ignore them.

[cantstandbush]

11. I don't give a damn where anyone protests. It should be their right.

I very much despise the people protesting at C King's funeral but I firmly believe that they should have the right to do so. And in doing so it makes a stark contrast to the life of the deceased and the lives of those protesting at her funeral...and world sees the difference.

[Silverhair]

12. It gives the RWs some choice ammo to use against us. NT

[snowbear]

13. Why is that? Phelps is a loonie RIGHT-winger.

If anything -- he's only making the reddest, red little church deep in the heart of Republican country look more like the nasty, creepy R-thugs they are.

[bunkerbuster1]

23. A VERY little church

Last I looked, his "church" had about 65 members.

Really more of a terror cell than a church.

[LincolnMcGrath]

15. Meh!

At what point do Dems stop sitting around wringing their hands worried about the right wing spin?

[jarab]

14. No new law needed; just "look the other way" while

the next-of-kin - preferably a lumberjack type - "defuses" the situation.

...O...

[Neil Lisst]

17. For God's sake, leave grieving families ALONE!!

I don't care if their loved died from being executed for a heinous crime, leave families alone when they bury their death.

Good God almighty!

[Steve A Play]

18. There are limits to everything

for instance, you can't go into a theater and protest a movie you don't like by disrupting it. You can picket outside the theater as long as you don't block people from coming and going from the theater or from walking down the street past it. I think it's disgusting and tacky to protest a funeral, of all things, but once you start banning protests anywhere, where do you draw the line?

I certainly wouldn't protest even at a Phelps funeral. I'd respectfully wait until it was over and then stand in the line like everyone else and wait my turn to piss on his grave. :)

Steven P. :kick:

[KitchenWitch]

19. I think it is beyond tacky

But it is within their right.

Let 'em keep doing it, and they will attract fewer folks to their "cause".

[auburngrad82]

20. I think Fred Phelps will burn in Hell

There is nothing "Christian" about him or his cult.



Liberal bumper stickers

[Vidar]

21. Funerals are private and personal. Mo protests should be allowed.

[cleveramerican]

22. its tasteless, crass, and just plain mean.

when Dr. King said "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plain of dignity and discipline.", This is exactly the sort of stuff he was referring to.

[LWolf]

24. I think that public demostrations or protests

ought to be public. They should not be directed at private individuals or family functions. Is the public place still "public" when it is providing private service?

When a small group of people is determined to wade this far over the boundaries of good taste and civility, is there another way to address them? Where do they get their support? Do the demonstrations indicate political activity that can take away their tax-exempt status?

[Javaman]

27. I have one word to solve this: Cremation. n/t