Hoping to beat the Supreme Court in screwing with the Westboro Baptist Church’s travel plans, lawmakers in Arizona are rushing through a bill that would prevent protests within 300 feet of a funeral or burial service, from an hour before to an hour after the event, effectively barring the Phelps clan from demonstrating at 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green’s service on Monday. Green was among those killed during Saturday’s Safeway shooting, and Westboro quickly announced plans to escort her body into the ground. That said, the bill will only make it a misdemeanor to show up within the safety zone, and I think Shirley Phelps would be willing to become a semi-martyr for a community service conviction.
cone if silence
AZ Lawmakers Totally Harshing On Westboro Baptist’s Protest Of 9-Year-Old’s Funeral
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Cam
The church will sue and take the case all the way up to the state supreme court, thats what they live for.
Funny though how these legislaters didn’t seem concerned with they were protesting at gays funerals or the funerals of dead soldiers. Guess it has to happen to one of their own before they realize how disgusting this church is.
Dali
I believe a GOOD WAY to PAY RESPECT to the victims of this tragedy and their family is to NOT COMMENT ON THAT “CHURCH”.
Let’s not give IT more attention than it deserves!
Scott
@Cam:
Possibly because it’s a 9 year old girl who was the victim of a terrible tragedy? 9 YEAR OLD GIRL! That’s why they’re more concerned, idiot.
Newsitian
Pray for more midwestern snow so perhaps the Phelps clan can’t get a flight.
ewe
Is there any reason the police just don’t let them stand and chant with a constructed 8 foot wall encircling them in the pigpen they deserve?
hf2hvit
As horrible as it is, nobody seemed to care when they were protesting only at the funerals of AIDS patients. It wasn’t until they started at the funerals of soldiers that anybody gave a crap.
B
So much for the state of Arizona’s libertarian ideology!
(This is not meant to support the Phelps freaks but to point out that the libertarian ideology has, shall we say, “issues” that have not been thought through.)
chpinnlr
@Scott: so it’s okay for them to protest at a funeral of someone that has died of AIDS, or at the funeral of some one that was killed by a road side bomb in Iraq. Those deaths don’t qualify as tragic?
Scott
@chpinnlr:
Of course they are tragic! Call me crazy, but the fact that an innocent little girl that died in the midst of a shooting is just a tad bit more tragic, don’t you think?
jacknastion
@Scott: how foolish to try and qualify something such as tragedy. Morally, legally, constitutionally the protests should be banned for all or allowed for all. It serves no purpose to say it is more tragic that a little girl got shot than an aids patient dying, it has nothing to do with the issues involved here.
Mike in London UK
We’re lucky here, our Border Agency banned the Phelps clan from entering the country.
damon459
Montana already has such a law. In Montana it illegal to picket within 1500 feet of any property boundary entrance to or exit from a funeral site during the period from 1 hour before the scheduled commencement of the funeral services until 1 hour after the actual completion of the funeral services. It carries a punishment of 250.00 to 1000.00 fine and or up to 12 months in jail. It has been on the books in Montana since 2007 and Phelps and his gang have not tried to sue as a mater of fact the last time the tried to picket in MT they were literally chased out of town. BTW to be clear this is law covers any and all Funerals in Montana.
GetBalance
Yeh, when little children are shot and killed, my heart sinks a bit deeper than if it’s an adult. More trajic? Yeh, for me it is. Losing the innocent. It hurts me more.
GetBalance
I see the Phelps as the poster children for the abomination called Christianity, which has nothing to do with Jesus since he wasn’t a christian. Christianity has claimed more lives and ways of life through discrimination and rel wars, abomination is actually a trite term. The fact we still let it bleed our life force is truly tragic. And Christians wonder why they are the most persecuted people on the planet. And we all wonder why the world is so screwed up. Well take a look in Phelps’ eyes, that’s the reason. That is the evil energy much of our foundation is built on in this country. Total ignorance at is grandest.
Donate to the Indians as a charity, they deserve it.
Daez
@GetBalance: Freddie is an evil man that has nothing to do with Christianity. The only reason you can’t see that is because you feel the need to look for excuses to be bigoted towards Christians. This is like comparing all gays to Elton John.
Also, all funerals are tragic. No one should ever have to face a Freddie pack at the funerals of their loved ones. The only way this will ever change is for communities to unite and force Freddie and friends out of their community. I think it is long past the point where law enforcement is going to give a damn about protecting these people. Any self-respecting police department would turn a blind eye as residents en mass forced Freddie and friends to crawl away.
Cam
@Scott: said…
”
Of course they are tragic! Call me crazy, but the fact that an innocent little girl that died in the midst of a shooting is just a tad bit more tragic, don’t you think?”
________________
So everybody else’s funeral where they’ve protested hasn’t been innocent?
DW
On the one hand I say that if people would just ignore Westboro then they’d go away to the fringes . . . But it’s really difficult to ignore them when they’re picketing at a funeral.
Funeral picketing is pushing beyond what the limits of free speech should have been.
AndrewW
It’s just bad street theater. We should ignore it because paying it attention accomplishes their warped goals.
Protest is so 1960s.
the crustybastard
@Daez:
Ah, so it is YOU are the arbiter of who may pronounce themselves “Christian?”
Really, I had no idea the office existed. Sounds like an awesome job. How’s it pay?