When Fred dies, will you organize the mass protest of his funeral, Dan?

I'd do it, but I'm young, stupid, and totally unreliable.

Can't we find people to protest outside of Westboro's building in Topeka every Sunday?

Does anyone know of any effective ways to protect greiving families from these psychotic people?

@3: None that won't get me put in prison.

I have a question, where do these asshats get money to do all their traveling? Who employs these fucktards? Seriously. I want to send some stern letters.

@2 Be careful about demonstrating near places of worship. Many cities have strict laws that govern this.

@3: There's been a gang of bikers who've shown up that the funerals and form a wall between the families and the protesters.

"Disturbed by the protests, a small group of motorcycle riders, some of them Vietnam War veterans, banded together in October to form the Patriot Guard Riders. They now have 22,000 members. Their aim is to form a human shield in front of the protesters so that mourners cannot see them, and when necessary, rev their engines to drown out the shouts of the Westboro group."

It's really too bad that it took protesting soldiers funeral for people to get up in arms about this and not Mathew Shepard but better late than never I guess.

There's a biker group that's trying to do something about Westboro: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/06/btsc.lavandrera.funerals/

Yeah. You can't protest near a church, but you sure as hell can protest near a funeral.

America. Home of the free.

@5: Apparently almost all 75 member of the church are Phelps relatives. Mmmmmm...incestalicious.

The Westboro group protests near churches all the time. They protested outside Christ the King Catholic Church in 2002 because it had a liberal, gay priest. I was there and the church members handled it very well. The ladies of the refreshment committee invited them in for coffee and cake after mass. What are the legal prohibitions against protesting near churches? No one seems to use that tactic against Westboro. So far the only judgement against them was because a judge ruled one of the funerals they disrupted was a private, not public, function, so they did not have a 1st Amendment right to protest.

@7 If I remember correctly a group of people dressed as angels with huge wings helped to block out the Westboro protesters during the Mathew Shepard funeral.

I saw the Patriot Guard at a funeral in small town Minnesota. While there weren't any protesters, the 100+ bikers standing silently outside the church holding flags during the service were extremely respectful and very intimidating. I loved it.

However, the bikers (unlike the Phelps clan) are too polite to barge in-the family of the soldier needs to invite them to the funeral. They rock. I know they'd love to do their thing for this family.
http://www.patriotguard.org/ Contact info is on the left side.

I totally just gained respect for bikers.....

Hell on earth, people like them really strain my faith in humanity. How such people can sleep easy while swimming in the river of ignorance and denial really throws me for a spin. You know something is majorly fucked up when you have people like this living lives without worrying that maybe what they do is, I don't know, wrong.

*calls the Mexican Mafia*

5 and others: I've mentioned this before. Fred and Westboro are total trolls and they know it. They do this shit to piss off somebody enough that said somebody will physically assault them or otherwise try to harm them. Then they take those people to court and win huge settlements that then funds their future activities.

Sadly, our fucked up kid-gloves litigation-friendly no-violence laws totally facilitates these tactics. Hate Westboro's shit? Change the laws.

They get permits to protest. Counter protesters don't, but are allowed because they are such creeps.

@16: that's right. Don't do anything illegal to them, they'll sue.

@15 - you still have faith in humanity? Huh.

@16

But they just recently got the shit sued out of them as #11 mentions...how do they still have the funds to do this? That lawsuit was supposed to bankrupt them.

i just watched a horribly great BBC documentary on them last night. louis theroux spent some time on their 'campus' - you can watch the whole programme here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4413388146858417528.

actually, here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4413388146858417528

A paint gun and a toyota tercel would release some of that pent up anger #16.

I doubt any local PD would do anything to you for fucking with these pricks.

@19,

They're appealing, so they haven't had to pay up yet. Truthfully, I doubt they'll pay anything. That verdict was beyond unconstitutional.

If like was fair, and the Phelps clan got what they deserved, it would probably come packaged like this: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=14274673

I went to school in Kansas, and I regularly saw Freddy and his ilk. They protested my husband's and my graduation from college. They protest football games. They protest class reunions. They protested at the funeral of a friend of ours. He wasn't gay, but he *did* have AIDS.

Here's the thing: It's not about hating homosexuals.

Fred Phelps controls his family with an iron fist. He has narcissistic personality disorder, and he basically does everything to feed his ego.

The protests allow him to get attention, AND to give his family an outlet for their anger at their patriarch by giving them a scape-goat. It also reinforces the idea in his family/cult's mind of "It's us against the world" because every time you throw paint at them, every time you scream at them, you convince them that they are righteous and the evil world is persecuting them, just like Freddy says!

It's actually quite brilliant in a disgusting way.

Proof that Freddy doesn't actually care about his cause: A few years ago, KU had a pledge drive. For every five minutes that Freddy protested a given event, people pledged a certain amount of money to research a cure for AIDS. Freddy stopped going a couple times, but couldn't handle being out of the spotlight. Even though it was demonstrated empirically to Freddy that his protests weren't convincing anyone and were inspiring people in the opposite direction of his message, he couldn't stop.

The best way to stop him is to take away his base of support. And if you want to do that you have to ignore him, and be polite to his family. Then, maybe, some of the children who have been adopted into that horrible cult can break away from it.

And I do mean adopted literally. His obese brain-washed children often can't find spouses who are "righteous" so they adopt children.

I'm appalled that they can get children, and my cousin and his partner have trouble. Those are the laws we need to change. I think Freddy is best handled with the existing laws.

The Patriot Guard Riders have the right idea. They shield and protect the family, without giving Freddy any of the attention he desperately craves.

I like a lot of @25's comments and perspective on this. They seem to be what makes sense (if such a thing could be said) at all about Westboro. But I would also caution people to assume they will actually show up -- Westboro frequently threatens to show up somewhere and doesn't. I remember a few years ago when there was a rumor that they were coming to protest outside of the Eagle. And nothing happened, just like in the article referenced in this original post. (I'm thinking with the recent judgement against them, they'll have even less funds to travel, but I guess we'll see.) I'm not saying people should ignore these bigots, but realize that you should only give them so much of your energy.

@ 18, yeah well.. it isn't easy, lemme tell ya. You study human behavior for 4 years and it becomes harder and harder to keep pulling for the good to win out.

Now that sounds like a job for a bunch of drag queens. Could you imagine anything more beautiful than a long line of 6'6'' queens in full regalia standing silently, arms linked, holding back and blocking the protesters?

26, thanks!

28;
Now while I think a million 6'6" drag queens would be a beautiful sight, here's the thing: Phelps wants that.

This man started his career as an advocate for African American equality, way back when that was a controversial thing to support. He became addicted to the attention, and rather than feel happy when civil rights protesters weren't treated like garbage, he was disappointed. He sees himself as a martyr. If no one hates him, then how can he be a martyr?

So he is doing something that guarantees him attention and guarantees him the hatred of others.

There is no "showing him" because he thrives on most of what you propose. It is the only reason he exists. I'd recommend ignoring him, but that's too harmful to the victims of this man's ego. Simply arrange things so that the funeral guests don't have to see or hear him, and don't feed him.

I'm tempted to go up to the line and try to find a way to tell these children "Your life doesn't have to be like this. The world is filled with people who are good, and loving. You can find joys in things that hurt no one, and actually help people. You can be happy and you can feel safe."

But I know it wouldn't help, and everyone would roll their eyes at me. *smiles* It's cheesy, but it matches my experience.

FYI, the patriot riders will be at this protest along with MANY locals to protect the family from these idiots. I live here in this town which consists of many military families that dont take kindly to people protesting at a funeral of a fallen soldier.

you people at westboro baptists are a bunch of puke inducing verbal diarrhea spewing hatemonger bigots who have no respect for the men and women of the military who are protecting your asses from the terrorists and islamic extremists that want to kill americans so i think you need to apologize to the families and friends of the soldiers for your blatent disrespect for our country and the men and women who have sacrificed everything to save america and its true values which are land of the free and home of the brave

Westboro was sent packing within 20 minutes of trying to protest. Patriot Guard was there along with many other groups. News reports say 200 people, I was there and alot more than that showed up. Mostly students from South Kitsap High. Very proud of my little community for showing up in such force. It was very moving.
I feel bad for Westboro and the ignorance they have for God's true word.

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