Teen's proposal to ban funeral protests gets attention from controversial church, legislators

[Maine-ah]

Source: BDN

BELFAST, Maine — It started out as a class history project for 17-year-old Searsport Regional High School student Zach Parker, but the more he learned, the more infuriated he became.

How could a church picket funerals of dead soldiers?

Parker has an uncle in the National Guard who might be deployed next year.

“I can’t even think about if I had to lay him to rest for the last time and I’d have to deal with these people,” he said.



Read more: http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Midcoast/Teens-bill-to-ban-protesters-from-funerals-gets-attention-from-controversial-church,162479

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I guess this counts as four paragraphs.

[Q3JR4]

1. The crazy thing about the phelps clan,

well one of the other crazy things about the phelps clan, is that they're calvinists who believe that when god set the universe in motion he chose the ones who are going to be saved and nothing you or I do today is going to change that.

Let me put it to you another way; they protest not because they want to save your soul (only THEY are chosen), they protest because they're straight up pricks.

Q3JR4.

[jwirr]

5. Yes, it is called double predestination. Horrible doctrine.

[Q3JR4]

12. It does rank in the handful of

religious practices that I consider to be the most odious.

Q3JR4.

[jwirr]

14. Do the stalker laws apply to this group? That is the very least they

should be charged with.

[blondeatlast]

10. I hadn't considered that, but it is sickeningly true. nt

[Omaha Steve]

2. It's about time

That church has been protesting just down the street from our house twice in the last couple years.

K&R!

[MrModerate]

3. One hazard that the Westboro pustules pose . . .

Is that their protests, because they are so odious, trigger just this sort of legislative overreach. Cops already routinely set up "free speech zones" — effectively cages in which protestors are temporarily imprisoned when they want to criticize the president or other high officials (often eliciting the comment "I thought the whole country was a free speech zone"). How far down that road do we want to go?

The Westboro goons are deranged notoriety-hags, but they do have first amendment rights — rights that are threatened for all of us because of the (understandable) disgust directed at Westboro. I prefer the opprobrium approach (bikers, students, et al getting between Westboro protestors and their objective) along with judicious closing off of streets around venues. While such measures are inconvenient, they seem more fair (if applied uniformly) and less at the top of a slippery slope than a ban on protests at military funerals.

[Feron]

4. Someone needs to sit this kid down and explain...

the first amendment.

The Phelps are attention whores. The proper way to deal with attention whores is to deny them the attention they crave.

You don't pass laws that erode the first amendment further. While their speech is odious, they have the right to lawfully and peacefully assemble on public property. There is no such thing as freedom from offense.

And once the door is opened to banning a particular type of protest...where does it stop?

Sadly this is the type of pseudo-patriotic bullshit that will unanimously pass if introduced.

[Politicalboi]

7. No the Phelps are Terrorist

And should be treated as such. They should be on the No-Fly list.

[Luminous Animal]

13. Explain how they are terrorist. Be specific.

[guitar man]

9. Sadly I must agree

I detest these cretins and what they do with every fiber of my being. I'm a member of the Patriot Guard Riders myself.

But, what many people don't realize is that laws almost always come with unintended consequences. If they pass a law banning these vermin from staging their protests I guarantee that sometime, somewhere , the law will be cited in support of banning someone elses protest.

The simplest way to make these slugs go away is to turn off the damn cameras, stop writing about them, stop acknowledging the fact that they even exist. When what they truly seek is denied them at every turn, they will eventually go home.

[DissedByBush]

6. Funny how the right wingers didn't care about this group

When it was only protesting homosexual funerals.

In fact many supported the protests back then.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[buckrogers1965]

11. Public safety is at jepordy in funeral protests.

I am really surprised that no grieving family members haven't gunned down a dozen of these pricks yet. It is only a matter of time until someone does. I doubt that any jury would convict them of any crime.

They should be forced to protest a few miles away from funerals for their own safety. For the safety of innocent bystanders that might also be killed.

Public safety is the the same reason you can't yell fire in a crowded theater.

[Edweird]

15. An assault on the 1st amendment isn't the answer to the Phelps.