Wednesday morning's Supreme Court ruling is getting attention across the nation, including here in our area.
The court ruled in favor of a Baptist church in Kansas that held an anti-gay protest outside a military funeral.
At V.F.W. post 7251 in Throop, veterans are not happy about the supreme court's ruling.
Bruce Brislin is an Army veteran from Scranton. "Completely wrong," he said. "Freedom of speech is one thing. These guys coming home to get buried. That's another."
The group from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas has protested military funerals around the country, including that of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder of Maryland who was killed in Iraq in 2006.
Snyder's father, Albert Snyder, of Pennsylvania, sued and was awarded a $5 million settlement.
That settlement was thrown out after an appeals court ruling, that is now upheld by the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the church members were 1,000 feet from the church and were not violent.
They were holding signs that read, "Thank god for dead soldiers" and "You're going to hell."
Veteran Joe Davis of Throop said, "They deserve respect, and that's not respect they're being given by these groups that protest at funerals."
While members of the military community say they completely disagree with the Supreme Court ruling, there's another group in our area that's looking at things from a different point of view: that the decision was made based on constitutional rights.
Newswatch 16 spoke with Keith Williams, the Vice President of the Scranton chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Although their tactics and their message are despicable, that part of the constitution would also be giving people rights to express those kinds of views. For example, a gay pride parade," said Williams.
He says while the A.C.L.U. does not support the message of the baptist church, the ruling is about the right to spread that message.
"You might disagree with someone else's view, but they have a right to express it," said Williams.
After the Supreme Court ruling, leaders of Westboro Baptist Church said they plan to quadruple the number of protests held at military funerals.
(Jefferson City, MO) -- The Missouri House Tuesday gave first-round approval to legislation aimed at keeping protesters away from military funerals.
Legislation sponsored by Ward Franz, R-West Plains, seeks to keep protesters, like those from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., a certain distance away from cemeteries, mausoleums, churches and funeral homes a certain amount of time before and after a funeral service.
An earlier Missouri law passed by the legislature in 2006 was struck down last August by a Missouri judge. Franz's bill originally stated the protesters could get no closer than 300 feet less than one hour before and two hours after a military funeral. <snip>
Fred Phelps is a Con Man Why the Westboro Baptist Church is a Scam
Disclaimer: The following was written by the user El_Camino_SS in this thread on Fark.com, 02/21/2006.
I do not claim to have written this. This was found while browsing and is being reprinted without the consent of the original author, albeit I don't think this person would mind me having it here, I don't want any mistake made that I claim ownership of these words.
I merely agree with them...
The Scam of the Decade Fred Phelps does not believe what he is doing. This is a scam.
It's a business. They travel the country, set up websites telling you exactly when they'll be there, and using the most inflammatory statements all over the place, just to get someone to violate their rights for profit. Then they sue the military, the police force that was to protect them, and everyone that is around them for money. This is a sham, and it is a trap to get people sued. Every member of his family is an attorney. Phelps does not break the law. What he does is try to make you break the law by trying to punch your sensibilities about everything you hold dear, and then sue you and everyone municipality around him to the max.
This is a scam.
Whether he believes his posters or not is irrelevant. He's using this as a moneymaking scheme. Lay one finger on him, do one thing that violates him, and he will sue you, and more importantly, the city, the police department, the US Military, and any private property owner he happens to be standing on to make money off of it.
Let's look at the ways he's trying to get you up in a tizzy to violate his civil rights for profit:
He says God Hates Fags, God hates the US Govt., that God hates the US Military, God Hates you, and God justifies the killing of others. Phelps knows that saying 'God' and 'Hate' in the same sentence gets people worked up. He knows that. He knows that people have a knee jerk reaction to that.
He says that the US Govt. and the United States are evil. This is another hot button with people who love their country. It is intentional. It is designed to make you take a swing at him. He wants $50,000 from you. He wants a Powerball winner to swing at him so he gets 100 million dollars. It's that simple.
He goes after homosexuals, he goes after people who are making sacrifices. Phelps intentionally targets people that are being victimized, or good people doing their jobs to create more outrage. He kicks people when they're down. He does that so someone will come up and defend them. Then he will sue you.
His boards are laminated on hardwood, because he pulls them out of trucks at least five times a week. He also puts them in bright colors for attention, and makes absolutely sure that you can read them at all time. He's phishing you. Everyone must know that.
The most telling tale about all of Phelp's behavior is the schedule he keeps, and the company he keeps as well. The parties sometimes split up and go to two separate state funerals to maximize the profitability of them. There are, at maximum, twelve members to the party. They never stay more than thirty minutes (I assume they realize that someone will do something to them the MOMENT they come out of the vans, and really, after that, they get their camera shots to cause the outrage for the next stop, and then they move on) to maximize their profits, because time is money, and really, they're not interested in the message, because they're just interested in the lawsuit.
See? They don't believe this stuff. If they did, they wouldn't have come to Coretta Scott King's funeral. Because in their doctrine, they don't believe that G-d hates black people who tried to promote Christianity. So why were they there? They were there to make a buck when someone slipped up. They were there to petition the police department for a right to protest, and if they didn't get it, take them to court over it.
Basically, Phelps is playing the Ken Lay, Karl Rove, "Smartest Man in the Room" game where he is willing to do anything (if it be lying or stealing, or telling you God hates you) to make himself rich and powerful. This is his scheme, and admittedly, it's clever, but just downright evil to promote so much hatred in the world.
Tell all your friends about this. This man is a con artist, and he's not a man of religion whatsoever.
After all, he makes everyone around him a lawyer. That should tell you right now he is not anything. ------------------------------------------------------------ How do I know that Fred Phelps is suing people? I can tell you I just have too much experience around him. I am a journalist in Nashville, TN, and work at a television station that works the Ft. Campbell area. As a television photographer and journalist, I have been trained in all of the rules of private property, verbal conversation, what is legal and what is not legal, etc. (what you can and cannot say, what you can get away with). Honestly, in the last few months, I have seen waaay too much of Mr. Phelps and his crew. Since the war began, I believe they think this is the moneymaking source of a lifetime.
So how am I sure? After the third run in, and not one slip, not one piece of paperwork out of line, I knew something was fishy. My newsman skepticism left me with the idea later that something was more phishy than fishy. I will tell you where I got this truth about Phelps. I looked him in the eye. I saw that he was way too calm and collected for what he looked like in the media. I noticed that he never made personal statements against a person, which is verbal assault, and an out against a lawsuit. Also, for a religious fanatic, a group of people who pride themselves on personal attacks, he was running a protest so terribly by the books that I was impressed by it. He will not bait a person, ever. He will not make personal attacks. He will make blanket statements. He will look at a person in the crowd that he thinks is gay, walk over to his stack of signs, pull out the appropriate, well designed, easily read, laminated bright board, and hold it up and loudly proclaim that "gays are going to hell" or some such nonsense, and make eye contact, but he will never cross the line of telling that person that they're going to hell. That would be the part that would screw up the lawsuit. He just wants to get them after him, but wants to appear utterly blameless for damages.
They run too tight of a ship to slip up, and at that point, I realized that the objective of the group was not anything religious at all. Someone told me along the way that they were all turned into lawyers after he got disbarred. After that, the stench was just too intense for me. He makes money off of this. He does this so much he has everyone around him do the legal legwork so he doesn't have to pay anyone else.
The last time confirmed everything I suspected about them. A few weeks later, I saw them again (they LOVE to come to big name funerals) and after I saw the laminated signs change for the audience, I knew EXACTLY what they were doing.
His 'crew' isn't a 'church' as you and I would know. The 'church' are more of a motley crew of family members. Some of them are six year old children that are doing what they're told. I have spoken to them, and they have a lawyers sensibility on them on how they speak to the public. They never make personal attacks. They never verbally assault anyone. For a group of people that are accusing damn near every group of people around them for going to hell, wouldn't that seem odd to you? Do you know any religious fanatics that don't make personal attacks? I don't.
They also don't stick around after the cameras roll. They have an itinerary like a semi truck driver. For them to get cleared for all of these press event protests they're doing, then they have to have someone at home doing all of the setup. For you to get the press clearances by the prescribed times? That's a lot of professional legwork. I should know, I've coordinated a newsrooms credentials when the President comes to town, and that's a lot of phone calls and faxes.
They probably file a load of civil rights violation lawsuits. If a police department looks them up and says, "we're denying your protest right," BOOYah. They just got to sue a police department for the very thing that Americans can't stand, rights violation. I am assuming that this is where they get almost all of their money.
See my previous post. Their beliefs are so riddled with inconsistency. The 'real inconsistency' is that every position that contradicts every other of their beliefs is designed to maximize the number of people that they offend. You cannot be saved to them. You are evil in their beliefs, no matter who you are, and God will punish you like the evil gays/soldiers/innocent people/people who love America/people who are black/everyone else we can think of.
Here's the proof. Who in the world makes a poster that says, "Thank God for IEDs" (Improvised Explosive Devices, aka Roadside Bombs). They are saying God is with the terrorists. Then they say God hates you. And homosexuals. Then when they see you looking patriotic with your American flag shirt, they point the sign at you and say, "Americans are going to hell for supporting this country!" and look you in the eye. NOTICE THOUGH, they never say, "You're going to hell." (That would give a judge an out to deny them their claim.)
« Last Edit: 2011-03-03 11:19:07 by David Lucifer »
Fred Phelps is a Con Man Why the Westboro Baptist Church is a Scam
Disclaimer: The following was written by the user El_Camino_SS in this thread on Fark.com, 02/21/2006.
I do not claim to have written this. This was found while browsing and is being reprinted without the consent of the original author, albeit I don't think this person would mind me having it here, I don't want any mistake made that I claim ownership of these words.
I merely agree with them...
The Scam of the Decade Fred Phelps does not believe what he is doing. This is a scam. <snip>
Geeze, Louise; don't that just rot your socks .... well the crew at Deadwood say it best about them there folk .... including the legal systems that seems to be enabling them .... Fritz
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