Okay, start getting the bail money together now please

[Mickey Fliers]

How can you profess love of your fellow man and clearly hate humanity?

This group should be profoundly ashamed and should get on their knees and BEG for divine forgiveness

 

[BrinxFam]

I haven't got time to read through all of the previous posts but just wanted to say "YOU GO GIRL!" This same group has protested at several funerals just north of where I live. I completely understand the freedom of speech issue but where and when do you draw the line? The actions of this group are nothing more than a slap in the face and adding insult to injury when a soldier's family has lost a prized person in their life. The are abusing their right to freedom of speech. Should they really be able to degrade the very soldier that gave his/her life to insure that they can have that freedom? I believe it is in Missouri that a bill is now being brought before the legislature to prohibit this type of protest before and during memorial/funeral services. I can only pray that the rest of the nation adopts it as well.

God Bless our Soldiers and their families! Thanks for all of the sacrifices you make!

 

[drakethib]

Tell me where to send the check.

 

[rigs32]

who gets to decide what is accepted and what is not?

I will bet you these laws will be thrown out. On public land, where safety is already addressed with police, etc. You cannot ban something because you do not like the speech.

But remember that your rights stop at me. Meaning, you have the right to free speech, but you do not have the right to force me to listen. If I want to have peace at a funeral - assuming it is a private event - I should have the right to not listen to your speech.

 

[CindyKansas]

Go to http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/2252792.html

One of our local news stations did an interview with him. If that link doesn't work, go to www.kake.com and look for Fred Phelps Confronted. I think he's a nut case and just another reason for me to look for somewhere else to live. I just keep telling myself DD is a junior in high school only 1 more year to go and then there's nothing keeping me here.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

I can’t possibly even begin to fathom how they feel that a funeral/memorial service is the right time/place to protest ANYTHING!

I agree. Ridiculous!

 

[koopa]

Kentucky Senate passes bill to keep protesters from funerals
JOE BIESK
Associated Press

"FRANKFORT, Ky. - Protesters would have to stay at least 300 feet from a funeral or a memorial service under a bill overwhelmingly approved Friday by Kentucky's Senate.
The measure is aimed at members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., who have toured the country protesting military funerals, carrying signs that read, "Thank God for IEDs," the improvised explosive devices used by insurgents. Members of the church see the deaths as a sign of God punishing America for tolerating gays. They also went to West Virginia to protest at the funerals of dead coal miners last month...."

The bill was reported on the radio today. Heard Phelps on Howard Stern of all places.

 

[Planogirl]

I think that distance rule is a great idea. Hopefully, it will hold up.

Free speech is protected but unfortunately there is no right to NOT listen on the books. Remember that the Klan and Nazi Party and other hate groups have also had the right to march and protest. Really all we can do is shout them down.

 

[luvmydogs]

Kentucky Senate passes bill to keep protesters from funerals
JOE BIESK
Associated Press

"FRANKFORT, Ky. - Protesters would have to stay at least 300 feet from a funeral or a memorial service under a bill overwhelmingly approved Friday by Kentucky's Senate.
The measure is aimed at members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., who have toured the country protesting military funerals, carrying signs that read, "Thank God for IEDs," the improvised explosive devices used by insurgents. Members of the church see the deaths as a sign of God punishing America for tolerating gays. They also went to West Virginia to protest at the funerals of dead coal miners last month...."

The bill was reported on the radio today. Heard Phelps on Howard Stern of all places.

Love it. And like Planogirl said, I hope it holds up.

 

[Micca]

Phelps is a well known hater in our state. It's one of the things I don't like about our state.

 

[POB14]

who gets to decide what is accepted and what is not?

I will bet you these laws will be thrown out. On public land, where safety is already addressed with police, etc. You cannot ban something because you do not like the speech.

Right, but that's not what these laws are doing. You cannot place content-based restrictions on speech -- in other words, a law saying "anyone who says Mickey Mouse is a big doo-doo head goes to jail" would be unconstitutional, because the restriction is content based.

But a law that said "picketers cannot block the public sidewalks between 8AM and 6PM on a weekday" would be OK, because it limits the time, place, and manner of speech, not the content.

The Senate floor is a public place, on public land. Try going there tomorrow and giving a speech. No matter what the speech is, unless you're a Senator, you'll find out fast about time, place, and manner restrictions.

 

[dennis99ss]

There is a difference between the house chamber, and a public locale. The chamber is not "public". The sidewalk is.

restrictions can be placed on speech, however, there must be an overriding reason for them, and they must not be designed to limit the speech. Yelling fire in a crowded theater is not protected, because of the overriding concern for the panic that it causes. Conversly, banning protests at a funeral does not have such an overriding concern. Does that mean I am not allowed to protest at a funeral for a death row inmate, because I am against the death penalty? Or, at the funeral of a terriorist because I want to show that I was not beaten down by his actions?

"fighting words" are not protected, but those same words may be if used in a different manner.

Whether you like the speech or not, banning something, or having a knee jerk reaction to outlawing some form of speech has more implications than any of you have even considered. If I can ban protests at a funeral, why not at a council meeting? Why not at a political rally, why not at a president's ranch?

I am not saying that the area, time, etc. cannot be regulated, but, that regulation must not rise to the level of hindering the speech.

 

[bigmerle1966]

Did you know that if you have AAA that they will cover bail if you are arrested for something you do with you car. So just get AAA, if you don't already have it and run them over. You could always pretend you were having a heart attack, or really bad cramps.

And this man seems like a case of "he doth protest to much". Could be he was molested by a man as a child or may have even had some sort of an encounter with a man as an adult and feels that he has to stamp it out because of his "sin".

 

[Keli]

You know, I have never been able to make the correlation this group makes in protesting against our soliders because too many gay rights have been passed or whatever they are saying. What do our soldiers have to do with gay rights?

 

[POB14]

There is a difference between the house chamber, and a public locale. The chamber is not "public". The sidewalk is.

So we're on the same page here, this is the text of the proposed Illinois law:

(c) A person commits the offense of disorderly conduct at a funeral or memorial service when he:
(1) engages, with knowledge of the existence of a funeral site, in any loud singing, playing of music, chanting, whistling, yelling, or noisemaking with, or without, noise amplification including, but not limited to, bullhorns, auto horns, and microphones within 200 feet of any ingress or egress of that funeral site, where the volume of such singing, music, chanting, whistling,
yelling, or noisemaking is likely to be audible at and disturbing to the funeral site;
(2) displays, with knowledge of the existence of a funeral site and within 200 feet of any ingress or egress of that funeral site, any visual images that convey fighting words or actual or veiled threats against any
other person;
(3) with knowledge of the existence of a funeral site, knowingly obstructs, hinders, impedes, or blocks another person's entry to or exit from that funeral site or a facility containing that funeral site, except that the
owner or occupant of property may take lawful actions to exclude others from that property; or
(4) with knowledge of the existence of a funeral site, knowingly engages in a march or picket at the funeral site at any public location located within 200 feet of any ingress or egress of that funeral site.

A cemetery is not (I would think) a "traditional public forum", even if publicly owned, and so there is a lower level of scrutiny than on the public streets:

[T]he First Amendment does not guarantee access to property simply because it is owned or controlled by the government.

United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic ***'ns, 453 U.S. 114, 129 (1981).

(The board software has deleted a common abbreviation for "associations" above, if you're wondering.)

The crucial question is whether the manner of expression is basically compatible with the normal activity of a particular place at a particular time.''

Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 116 (1972).

It's certainly not a simple issue. But it seems to me that, at least in the IL version, it's a very reasonable limitation on time, place, and manner, and compatable with the normal activity of a cemetery.

 

[zippeedee]

I heard a quick piece on the local news tonight that some of these lunatics protested at Coretta Scott King's funeral today. They have NO real moral values!