What does the First Amendment taste like with hot pepper? Members of the Westboro Baptist Church — and local reporters, and counter-protesters, and a cop(!) — almost found out when George Vogel, 62, tried pepper spraying the Westborings et. al during a protest Saturday outside a U.S. Marine’s funeral in Omaha.
Vogel was driving by in his F-150 (that’s the truth in the left corner of the video below) when he rolled down the window at the funeral for Staff Sgt. Michael Bock (who died in Afghanistan at age 26) and unleashed what police say was supposed to be an attack just on Westboro, but claimed other victims. He faces 16 counts of misdemeanor assault and the bigger doozy: one count of felony assault on a police officer.
Alas, Westboro’s members claim they weren’t even hit with the pepper spray. They shielded themselves by using their “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” signs.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I am 100% amazed that a far more lethal attack has not to date been targeted towards that inbred savage vile band of scumbags.
For decades they have been tormenting family members of passed AIDS sufferers and fallen soldiers when they are at their absolute most grief stricken moments. They have waged a years long battle with Matt Sheppard’s family to errect a “Matt Sheppard in hell” statue in their home town. Being that as these mutants come of age they all attend law school, they have the ability to file motion after motion without concern for the costs of hiring attornies. I have been waiting for years to hear of some family member in a pickup truck to actually plow into that savage stain on humanity. And would only need a single juror to avenge how they have been so heartless and vile to hundreds of grieving famlies……..
L.
I looked for the truth in every corner of the video but couldn’t find it.
GraySkies
every time i hear about them, i become more and more willing to spend my life in jail just to shoot them all in the face. -_-
adman
I watched the vid and saw nothing…except the cute ass of the cop standing in the road behind the two cruisers..nice bod!
McMike
Phelps seriously needs to have his ass kicked.
Clint
Good for him for trying, be he missed??? Come on…..
Clint
Good for him for trying, but he missed??? Come on…..
menlo
Nice try, buddy.
Queer Supremacist
Hopefully someone else will try and succeed. And kill those goy breeder motherfuckers.
B
While the technology will probably not be available until Fred Phelps kicks the bucket of natural causes, imagine what would happen if we had an implant that would allow you to remotely control a skunk from your laptop or smart-phone.
In the meantime, for a mere $15,000 you will shortly be able to buy a remote-controlled robot (controlled via an internet connection) that can wander over to Fred – it looks like a pogo stick mounted on a segway with a “head” on top containing some cameras and a display. http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_15893264?nclick_check=1 describes it – a fire alarm went off by accident and this robot (controlled by an executive on vacation in Hawaii) greeted the fire department at the door, followed them around as they checked the alarms, and thanked them as they left the building.
Too bad Fred isn’t worth the $15,000 needed to pay for a robot to deliver “essence of skunk” to him (not to mention the jail time if the police track you down) as you pepper Fred’s ears with some language not suitable for publication in a family-oriented newspaper.
Scot
He should have just mowed them down with his truth, I mean truck.THat’s a video I’d watch!
CaliberGuy
I am truly surprised that non of that clan how wound up dead or wounded yet. To bad he did not use his truck to take them out, at least their signs would not have shield them from that.
Margaret Pritchett
As the wife of a US Army soldier, I am sickened by what is happening to my husband’s brothers and sisters in the military by this family of fruitcakes!
If anything were to happen to my husband and these animals showed up to protest his funeral, I guarantee I would be going to jail for much worse than assault charges!
I believe in our freedom of speech, but you cannot allow intentional pain for your beliefs!
Your freedoms end where it causes the pain of others to begin.
Yes, you have the rights to your opinions and beliefs, but just as you cannot shout “Fire” in a crowded room, you cannot cause the intenal emotional pain to others.
I hope that someone, anyone, is able to sue and win mega millions against this family.
I am not Christian, Muslim, or Jew, but I do know my bible and religious teachings well enough, that all require the tolerance and love towards fellow human beings.
There also has to be some way to enact a law that makes it illegal at a Federal level to protest the funeral of a fallen soldier, or to protest a funeral based on radical hatred.
B
No. 13 · Margaret Pritchett wrote, “I hope that someone, anyone, is able to sue and win mega millions against this family.”
Someone did sue and win but it was thrown out on appeal on First Amendment Grounds. See http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2010/03/thank-god-for-dead-soldiers-supreme-court-to-rule-on-free-speech-in-case-of-soldiers-funeral.html .
It’s headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. http://www.ydr.com/westboro has some additional imformation – the deceased soldier’s family has been ordered to pay $16,000 to cover the Phelps’ share of court costs. This created an understandable level of outrage and people have donated to help the family.
If there is any way to make the Phelps’ behavior illegal (they are already required to stay some minimal distance from a funeral), it will have to be consistent with a Supreme Court ruling (the case has not yet been heard).
It may turn out that the best option is for the press to simply ignore the group – they are presumably behaving outrageously to get publicity for their weird religious beliefs and if the press ignores them, the protests wouldn’t get them anything and may stop as a result. It may be the only thing that we can do legally – there is no constitutional requirement for the press to cover these bozos.
[email protected]
Too bad it wasn’t a pipe bomb. I am hoping all the attention they are getting lately bring some wackjob gun nut out of the woodwork to take out a few of these subhumans.