Grieving Father Sues The Hideous Fred Phelps And His Westboro Baptist Church

• October 26, 2007

I realize that this is America. Fee speech is a fundamental part of what it means to be an American. You are free to expresss yourself, free to say what you think (unless it’s politically incorrect, but that’s another issue), and free to protest if you want.
But if you hold up a sign at the fumeral of a young Marine killed in Iraq that says, “Thank God for dead soldiers,” then I think that someone should be free to kick the living dog crap out of you. That’s what the odious Fred Phelps and the followers in his “church” did at the funeral of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder. From Fox News:

Albert Snyder said Wednesday he had hoped for a private funeral for his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder.
“They turned this funeral into a media circus and they wanted to hurt my family,” Snyder testified. “They wanted their message heard and they didn’t care who they stepped over. My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside.”
Snyder is suing the Westboro Baptist church, whose members have picketed the funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming the deaths are punishment for the country’s tolerance of homosexuality. The York resident is seeking unspecified monetary damages in the case for invasion of privacy and intent to inflect emotional distress as a result of the Topeka, Kan., church’s protest at his son’s funeral in Westminster in March 2006.

Good for him and I hope he wins, and wins big.
Our laws protect maggots like Phelps from getting what he truly needs to convince him that protesting at the funerals of our dead soldiers is a really bad idea: a serious butt kicking would convince him pretty quickly to keep his distance. Pain is a wonderful, convincing form of communication. Alas, in a civilized nation that just isn’t done anymore.
And, no, before anyone out there starts hollering that I’m advocating getting someone beat up, I’m not. I’m merely pointing out that respect for modern law supercedes what surely would have been an emotional response as opposed to a logical one in another time and place. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
So, Mr. Snyder is hitting Phelps in the next best place besides his face: his wallet. And I hope he wins. I hope he takes everything he can from this pitiful example of a human being.
Not my first choice, though. If he showed up at the funeral of one of my relatives killed honorably in the service of his country I just might have to go to jail. But, hey, that’s just me. It’s a character flaw.
But it’s one I can live with.

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http://Array Lance Morrison

My music web site would point out that the Fred Phelps is making statements similar to those of the Democratic Leadership.

He says we can’t win. he has a hard case against our military. He says things that inflame our veterans as being unsupportive of the mission. He makes fun of gays, as they did of two conservative congressmen within this year. (and Pete Stark did this week)…not to mention Edwards’ comments of ‘discomfort with homosexuals.’ We political conservatives could care less about the left’s anti military, Anti-American, Anti-gay agendas. We just want to eradicate any looming terrorist threats to our families. So, I give Hillary, Edwards and the Ward Churchill crowd their due–to music! @ www.

conservativemusiconline.com

I made a CONSERVATIVE music CD–not to the liking of the Fred Phelps/ Pete Stark/Edwards homophobe set
spartacus

Anna, I’m only guessing the outcome, until the jury decides nothing’s carved in stone, however, I used to live out there, years ago, and have a feeling about how they think and feel. The suit is filed in a mostly liberal region, I don’t mean Liberal as in political philosophy, I mean open minded, but it is for some reason heavily democratic, smart people do make stupid decisions, nobody’s perfect. I don’t think this, being a lower level case / jury it’s on the ACLU radar screen yet. However, you are correct, I think, that it would be upon appeal.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Obviously we’d all like to see Phelps get his butt kicked but I’d worry that this would set a precedent for suing because you were offended.

A sexual harassment lawyer doing a seminar once said that hard cases make bad law. The law gets bent for someone’s exceptional and outrageous behavior and then that bent law is used against everyday people doing everyday activities.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Well Fred Phelps was a Democrat activist and a big supporter of Algore.

He’s gone quite a bit around the bend since then.

(How many of you thought I was referring to Gore?)
spartacus

Obviously we’d all like to see Phelps get his butt kicked but I’d worry that this would set a precedent for suing because you were offended.

A sexual harassment lawyer doing a seminar once said that hard cases make bad law. The law gets bent for someone’s exceptional and outrageous behavior and then that bent law is used against everyday people doing everyday activities.

I agree with what you’re saying Whistler however as the judge in this case said:

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Bennett instructed jurors at the start of testimony Tuesday that the First Amendment protection of free speech has limits, including vulgar, offensive and shocking statements. Bennett said the jurors must decide “whether the defendant’s actions would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, whether they were extreme and outrageous, and whether these actions were so offensive and shocking as to not be entitled to First Amendment protection.”

I consider myself to be a reasonable person, I feel if the westboro group want to spread their message they’re entitled to, even though I disagree with their message however, their chosen method is unreasonable and unacceptable.
In my opinion their method is not far removed from yelling fire in a crowded movie theater (not the best, but first analogy I thought of). Is society now willing to consider this free speech?
As for the suit, I think this one will go in favor of the plaintiff, I’m formerly from that neck of the woods, very liberal people out there and they’re aware of the westboro group. They aren’t likely to be sympathetic to a bunch of “redneck religious zealots” disrupting a family’s last personal time with their son. If the last half of the article is any indication, the case is in the bag for the plaintiff, until the appeal process. Even then, so long as the case is tried in that district, I think they will win.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

There’s nothing more despicable than this guy. He’s got a right to protest against US policy but in no way should he relate the deaths of soldiers to that policy.

And the fact his he’s doing nothing but harm for his agenda.
kbiel

The scary part of this is for churches. Like it or not, the Bible very explicitly says that homosexuality is a sin. It’s called an “abomination” in the Bible, but so are other things like dishonesty.

And so is hatred. That’s the problem with Phelps and his bunch. It’s not that they think homosexuality is a sin, I actually agree with them on that, it’s that they hate homosexuals. The sad part is that people like Phelps can not see the tragic irony of their position and can not understand that one can stand opposed to immoral behavior and policies that encourage immorality while still loving their fellow man (or at least not hating them).
2Hotel9

kbiel, gang, the problem is that Fred Phelps is a predatory, child molesting homosexual. Thats right Fred! I will continue to alert the world to the fact you are a predatory, child molesting homosexual. And you can not stop me. You waived that right when you stepped into the political arena. Your sexual preference became the property of the public domain when you first ran for office. And when that cell door locks you will be sodomized by anyone who wishes to do so. THAT will be the first stage of God’s punishment for you, Freddie.
Pilgrim

Point well taken, Whistler, but Phelps’ behaviour is slimy to the point of being sociopathic.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

Ahh… I hear the stomping feet of the ACLU approaching.
Rob, I understand completely and I think we agree that freedom of speech is critical to a free society, but not an absolute right at any cost.
Speech should never be regulated for content, but most of us agree that the time/location of that speech can and should be regulated.
Because of organizations like the ACLU, our government and society has been forced to tolerate some unethical maniacal ideas, but personally, I refuse to tolerate the malicious and blasphemous actions of the Phelps cult that cause harm or impede the personal rights of others.
The only legal method of stopping this detestable group from being so offensive is not to revolt against their speech, but go after their unlawful and damaging behaviors and sue until they no longer have any assets to use for these purposes. The Phelps free speech issue is a personal injury and harassment issue. They cause pain and suffering, mental anguish/emotional distress, and I say throw in loss of consortium. Dang, have you read some of the @#*$ things those Phelps freaks say? Those vile types of insinuations could be very distressful, even behind closed doors.
Obviously there needs to be funds made available for the Snyder defense because y’all know the Phelps feces will be fully supported by the ACLU and all their idiot contributors.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

Spartacus, I can only hope you’re right about the possible outcome. But, I will never under estimate the AssCLU .. they ruin lives for profit and do it without a shred of remorse.
http://www.bismarckmandanblog.com/ Clint

Two observations here. The first is that I read somewhere that the Phelps are all lawyers, although the entry I read said that Fred was disbarred. The article surmised that they were hoping to be physically assaulted during their protests, and would then turn around and sue. I don’t know how that’ll play into their defense.

The scary part of this is for churches. Like it or not, the Bible very explicitly says that homosexuality is a sin. It’s called an “abomination” in the Bible, but so are other things like dishonesty. Sin is sin, regardless of whether it’s a little white lie or homosexuality. But when we start setting legal precedent for telling churches they cannot preach against homosexuality, alarms start going off in my head.

I ride with the Patriot Guard riders when I can, particularly to help block the Phelps losers. But they do have their free speech rights, regardless of how badly I wanted to walk over there and beat the crap out of them. If there’s any legal ruling made against them here, I hope it specifically applies to protests, and not simply to religious speech.
Pilgrim

Clint said:

I ride with the Patriot Guard riders when I can, particularly to help block the Phelps losers.

Bravo to you and your compatriots! My heartfelt salute to you.
Spartacus

BTW, Pilgrim linked a fox article about the incident, here’s a more local take of the situation from a paper out of Pa., meanwhile, I’m looking around to see it the B-more sun or Aegis has any more on the subject.
http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_7277523?source=most_viewed

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Grieving Father Sues The Hideous Fred Phelps And His Westboro Baptist Church

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