And the Westboro Baptist Church is at it again.
In an offensive press release on Sunday, leader Fred Phelps announced that he and his followers plan to travel to Tuscon, Arizona in order to protest the funeral of the six people (including a 9-year-old girl) killed in Saturday’s shooting. They will be picketing with signs labeled “God sent the shooter.” The people of Tuscon have already planned to blockade the picketing.
To put it lightly, I am absolutely APPALLED at the Westboro Baptist Church’s activities. Protesting at a funeral? Some respect should be shown for the dead, especially the innocent. They’ve taken freedom of speech to a whole new level.
Should the Westboro Baptist Church be censored? Would that be unconstitutional? In my opinion, something must be done. Maybe these people aren’t physically harming people, but they are certainly causing emotional damage with their verbal attacks. Can they be stopped?
6 comments:
These people are terrible. the only way to beat them is to ignore them really, but it ends up being difficult when all they do is spread so much hate. At least they are blockaded a certain distance away from the funeral. hopefully the families will avoid the protesters.
On the subject of this being constitutional...I'm pretty sure, as long as they don't physically hurt someone, it is constitutional. It has to be constitutional because otherwise we would be hindering their first amendment rights. It's unfortunate really, but I guess everyone has the right to speak their mind...
Wait?!?! So are they defending the killer as "God's messenger?!?!?!?" This is crazy...I totally agree that this is a situation which is completely disrespectful for anyone's death especially the people shot who were INNOCENT! This is completely unjustifiable on the Church's opinions.
It is true that freedom of speech is a constitutional right, but in reality that freedom is not unlimited (think alien and sedition acts, etc.). I honestly think that this protest could turn out violently since there are so many strong emotions at a funeral. This is another case of freedom vs. safety and I think that it is better to err on the safety side, especially in this disgusting protest. These ignorant extremists are protesting the wrong people and seem to be pushing away potential supporters with their extremism. If the Westboro Baptist Church proceeds with this protest, there will undoubtedly be some backlash.
Whether the freedom of the Westboro cult to protest can be restricted or not certainly depends on whether their speech poses a danger to the public. There definitely is potential for violent backlash here, but I don't think it's very likely, considering that they've done this sort of thing before, and nothing major has occurred.
I don't get why people still pay attention to these guys. I doubt whether they have any supporters in the whole nation. They're obviously just seeking attention and not serious about being part of the national dialogue. Best if we ignore them completely.
Honestly, I can't believe there are people out there who would actually do something like this. The death of a friend/family member is a terrible tragedy; to protest at a funeral is just plain mean. While they do have the constitutional right to protest, as Nicole mentioned, that right is limited. The House and Senate just sent a bill to the AZ Gov. prohibiting protests within 300 ft of a funeral or burial service :).
Post a Comment