WBC to picket boston marathon funerals

[DandyDog]

They keep it "in the family."

[robertlouis]

Is this for real? I hope that should these people show up the police will arrest them all. Insane.

They won't. They can't. It's called freedom of speech, apparently.

Christ Almighty. I despair.

[wearboots4me]

Saddly...

You must be unfamiliar with the ways Laws are Enforced in the United states...

The WBC spews hate at funerals - Protected by Law
Tea Party Shows up with the NRA carrying guns - Protected by Law
Klan marches in support of racial supremacy and segregation - Protected by Law

Occupy Wallstreet Protesters protest unfair banking and corporations - People are Arrested and Beaten
Impeach For Peace Rally during the last Iraq War - People are Arrested and Beaten
Take a video with your phone of a COP beating a suspected half to death - Youll Be Arrested and likely beaten yourself

I dont know about you but I think there is a certain slant to the perspective of how laws are enforced here...

Thank you Tempest. That is so true, unfortunately. Your politics determine how you are treated by police, prosecutors and judges in this country.

[wearboots4me]

"left wing" protesters often have professional agitators among them that are there to rile up the police dept. because they often want the confrontation. It's how you make the news.

.

The "professional agitators" is the important part of your quote. Often troublemakers at any protest are "agent provocateurs" from the other side.

[fivekatz]

They won't. They can't. It's called freedom of speech, apparently.

Christ Almighty. I despair.

And as disgusting as their choice to exercise their right this way, this right is far more important to a healthy republic than the second amendment.

It is how a group denounced by right wingers as communist, (ALCU) could assign a Jewish lawyer to defend the American Nazi's right to march in Skokie, IL, a predominately Jewish neighborhood and chant their anti Semetic filth.

It is a beautiful thing that we defend the right of people to express views whose very views repulse us.

[BrassVillanueva]

And as disgusting as their choice to exercise their right this way, this right is far more important to a healthy republic than the second amendment.

Wrong. The Second Amendment is there to ensure that the FIRST Amendment stays in place. Freedom of speech goes away the moment the guns do. Ask anyone who survived Hitler's Germany.

[Corran]

When I read this and saw they were planning to protest a funeral (yes, I had to do a triple take at that) it just informed me this group are nothing more than a bunch of attention whores. They aren't even worth the waste of bandwith discussing them in this thread and it's unfortunate we can't bludgeon them to death for being idiots and using this great tragedy to promote their narrow minded views.

[fred41]

And as disgusting as their choice to exercise their right this way, this right is far more important to a healthy republic than the second amendment.

For the most part, I agree. Freedoms of speech and of the press are often a powerful weapon to be able to wield. Something still denied in far too many countries.
...but I don't really have a problem with the 2nd amendment either.

[fivekatz]

For the most part, I agree. Freedoms of speech and of the press are often a powerful weapon to be able to wield. Something still denied in far too many countries.
...but I don't really have a problem with the 2nd amendment either.

In theory I don't have a problem with it, rather it is how it is being used to prevent any sensible controls.

And honestly the original thoughts that brought Patrick Henry to include it in the Bill of Rights no longer exists in any form of reality. The US has built a military complex so big that an armed rebellion by a militia is an impossibility.

Any war against this government would have to be of a insurgent nature given the shear strength of the military. It wouldn't be so much fire arms as terrorist attacks using IED's like yesterday's tragedy in Boston.

It is time for us to adjust not dismiss the Second Amendment IMHO. Our clinging to this quaint notion of constitutional purity in the face of carnage like Newtown is not sort of American "exceptionalism" that we realy want to stand for is it?

Perhaps best put the right to be a hurtful idiot with your speech has remained timeless, while being a hurtful idiot with your assault rifle is a 21st Century factor that Patrick Henry never considered?

[robertlouis]

The fact that their placards mostly start with "God Hates...." indicates a fundamental flaw in their theology.