Congress Passes Restrictions On Military Funeral Protests, Delivers Blow To Westboro Baptist Church

When old men fight, young men die.

while the soldiers may not agree with the opinion of the Westboro baptist church they died defending their right to express it. I see this act from congress while being good intentioned is also unintentionally throwing out the window what they died for. In a democracy you have to respect all voices, even those of ignorant idiots.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Their right of free speech is no less valuable or critical to our overall freedom than mine.

There are certain types of speech that are already against the law.
I really do not mind losing the right to protest funerals.
I cannot see any just need to ever do so for anyone in civilized society.

FAKE CHRISTIANS!

I don't want to judge but this distinction should be made considering they're attacking civil rights through their shenanigans! God bless you americans. You will rise above this nonsense

Come on guys, this act is not a spit in the face of our rights as many other things. all it's asking is you give the families, and comrades of our fallen troops 2 hours to grieve, is that to much to ask? Westboro baptist church is a jizz stain on the underpants of america, we SHOULDN'T have to do this, but psychopaths likes them make these things necessary

Originally posted by CoolStoryMan
Come on guys, this act is not a spit in the face of our rights as many other things. all it's asking is you give the families, and comrades of our fallen troops 2 hours to grieve, is that to much to ask? Westboro baptist church is a jizz stain on the underpants of america, we SHOULDN'T have to do this, but psychopaths likes them make these things necessary

I have to disagree. Freedom is what these young men and women died for.

It saddens me to see so many people willing to sacrifice freedoms for convenience.

Originally posted by beezzer

Originally posted by CoolStoryMan
Come on guys, this act is not a spit in the face of our rights as many other things. all it's asking is you give the families, and comrades of our fallen troops 2 hours to grieve, is that to much to ask? Westboro baptist church is a jizz stain on the underpants of america, we SHOULDN'T have to do this, but psychopaths likes them make these things necessary

I have to disagree. Freedom is what these young men and women died for.

It saddens me to see so many people willing to sacrifice freedoms for convenience.

It saddens me how people refuse to have any practicality. the deceased should be RESPECTED period, and so should their families, especially our troops

Oh pleeeze. Without common sense our laws are just asinine.

If you have a birthday party in a public park for your five year old, does a group have the right to come in and shout obscenities at them? Mock them and make fun of them? They have the right so they should be permitted to do so? Absolute nonsense.

I shall fondly think of this new law as the "STFU" law. Finally, somebody is acting responsibly.

reply to post by SloAnPainful


Although I detest Westboro and all that they stand for, I am concerned about these new restrictions. It looks great on the surface. It looks like we finally stuck it to those idiots from Westboro, but what this really does is place a restriction on the exercise of free speech and the right to assemble. All this will do is set a legal precedent for other groups and will allow for some activist judge to use said precedent and apply it to any speech or gathering. This is a blow to the first amendment, and Congress has used a group that most people despise in order to set the legal precedent for pro-gun groups, Tea Party Groups, or any other group out there. The best way to handle Westboro is by having the community come together like they did in Texas a few weeks ago when the students from Texas A&M formed a blockade between Westboro and a funeral.

Originally posted by ThePublicEnemyNo1


Yeah Whatever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Want to know how I feel...truly? My father was one of the first US Green Berets ever and a Vietnam Vet (1960 - 1963 first term) instead of giving him his props they called him an "advisor". That's how I feel about Washington's Bull Crap!!!!!!!!! Not to mention my Dad returned to camp missing half of his teeth...they put him in the category of POW/Unknown!!!!!!! What, unknown....my Dad went missing for at least 30 days and when he returned he was missing half of his teeth!!!!!! I won't play the race card because it's unnecessary.

ETA:
BTW, Go Obama

Oh and BTW again, if they wanted to help my Dad, they wouldn't have waited for him to be deemed a victim of Agent Orange, Pink, White and blue until after he died of Prostate Cancer. Flame me all day if you want to...I could careless, my Dad was a real American Hero, and in the end he got nothing

...not even a flag under the Bush or Obama era. And yeeesss, I've asked to no avail.

Anger couldn't make my words more clear that I'm angry

Yeah, I'm MAD!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, I forgot to add that his DD214 got burnt up in a mysterious fire around 1973...perfect

edit on 8/4/12 by ThePublicEnemyNo1 because: (no reason given)

It sounds as though your father is one of the reasons that many of us often say that we support our troops fully and completely, but we don't always support the people who tell our troops what to do.
I hope he is given the recognition he deserves and offer my thanks for his service as well as my condolence to you for the immense loss.

and your avatar is AWESOME!!

ETA: SloAnPainful is a good guy and I'm sure he is respectful of the work your father did as well. Just wanted to toss that in because I've interacted with him a lot and I'm sure he wouldn't be disrespectful of you at all. Wasn't sure if the two of you were feeling tension toward one another or not and wanted to make sure you knew he was "on your side" given your story on the matter.

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
reply to post by SloAnPainful

 

Although I detest Westboro and all that they stand for, I am concerned about these new restrictions. It looks great on the surface. It looks like we finally stuck it to those idiots from Westboro, but what this really does is place a restriction on the exercise of free speech and the right to assemble. All this will do is set a legal precedent for other groups and will allow for some activist judge to use said precedent and apply it to any speech or gathering. This is a blow to the first amendment, and Congress has used a group that most people despise in order to set the legal precedent for pro-gun groups, Tea Party Groups, or any other group out there. The best way to handle Westboro is by having the community come together like they did in Texas a few weeks ago when the students from Texas A&M formed a blockade between Westboro and a funeral.

Well said!

I'm actually shocked that so many here on ATS would espouse a restriction of a freedom!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I'm afraid that I strongly disagree with you Wrabbit. Our government has every right to protect the our military families in their time of grief for our fallen. These idiots have no right to be at PRIVATE military funeral services. Or ANY families funeral services for that matter. Their First Amendment rights are still intact. If they must do something so disgusting and disrespectful, they still can.

It is funny how people are worried about the rights of this despicable group, but seems to put aside the rights of the families and friends to mourn privately over their fallen family.

Originally posted by beezzer


I'm actually shocked that so many here on ATS would espouse a restriction of a freedom!

I am not surprised. People are very willing to curtail rights when it suppresses a message they don't agree with. They yell about government limiting freedoms all the time, but are silent when it censors those they don't like.

I despise the tactics used by Westboro, but removing freedoms available to all Americans is not the answer.

reply to post by CoolStoryMan

Come on guys, this act is not a spit in the face of our rights as many other things. all it's asking is you give the families, and comrades of our fallen troops 2 hours to grieve, is that to much to ask? Westboro baptist church is a jizz stain on the underpants of america, we SHOULDN'T have to do this, but psychopaths likes them make these things necessary

I am puzzled and wonder why it seems no one else seems to be? The police often will stop legal activities and put people in jail for disturbing the peace/disorderly conduct...while other things they allow... I learned in my government class that the government uses the law this way..they essentially can control or inhibit any action by existing laws.... and they also will turn a blind eye to options they have to stop something for "other" purposes.

So I wonder why they permitted and sensationalized this hateful behavior...as well as gave it international attention in the first place. I question the motives behind this action....because think about it, "disorderly conduct", "disturbing the peace"...is often used for anything they choose to curtail... this incident they permitted to occur... of course TPTB knew it would evoke strong emotional outrage....was it permitted to create another lock down on freedom of speech? If I get time, I think I should read the complete legislation to see if there is more in it than we realize.

Originally posted by Kaploink

Originally posted by beezzer


I'm actually shocked that so many here on ATS would espouse a restriction of a freedom!

I am not surprised. People are very willing to curtail rights when it suppresses a message they don't agree with. They yell about government limiting freedoms all the time, but are silent when it censors those they don't like.

I despise the tactics used by Westboro, but removing freedoms available to all Americans is not the answer.

Truth!

I wonder how many here that would restrict Westboro, would also agree with the new law imposed on Occupy or wanted the Chick-fill-A CEO silenced as well.

Benevolent Heretic used to have in her signature block a saying.

"True freedom of speech is defending something that you DON'T agree with."

The People MUST NOT be naive. There is such a thing call Precedent. Once a precedent is made, it can be used as an excuse to continue doing so.

Today, it is 200 ft that protestors stay away from the funeral service.

Tomorrow,it will 400 ft that protestors must stay away from govt buildings.

Next day, it will be 400 miles that protestors must stay away from DC area.

Laws can be amended, and it is such manner that rights had been stolen - incrementally.

The founding fathers were smart - they wrote 'NO LAWS shall be....."

Rather than to use new laws to protect society, we should reflect instead on existing laws to ensure better coverage. For example, to protect grieving families, military or not, those grounds can be deemed as private sacred sancturies instead. Those who trespass with ill intentions, will be lawfully thrown out by the police or security staff.

They can protest all they want outside the boundaries, but not inside. If they still persist inside, then criminal charge of trespass will be levied upon them.

Current Trespass laws is good enough to deal with the situation, with just one addition to cover funeral grounds, without changing and tampering with the sacred Constitutional right.

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101


Precedence was already set with the "free speech zone" crap. So sick of the governments.

I think there's a stark difference between what our Founding Fathers envisioned for the right to assemble (and protest) and what the WBC is doing. What exactly is the goal of the WBC's protests? Besides just complaining that they feel it is wrong and that God hates soldiers. Is there a defined goal for these protests? To stop wars? Or just hate mongering?

The right to assemble and protest is a fundamental right. Yet, one must consider that there should be an ultimate goal in mind when protesting. What sense is there in protesting something but have no predefined list of greviences that the protesters want fixed. From what I understand they are protesting America itself, and the freedoms which we give to everyone (homosexuals in particular) - which is also a fundamental right.

So you see, they are using one fundamental right (protesting) to remove another fundamental right (freedom and equality for everyone - or in other words protesting in favor of discrimination). Is this what our Founding Fathers envisioned the right to protest being used for? I think not...

I'd also like to add that if the WBC had legitimate concerns they should be protesting Congress or their legislature and not harassing grieving widows and family members just to have their voice heard.

I think they are abusing their right to protest. If they had honest problems and wanted honest change there are a multitude of ways to protest this.

You didn't see Martin Luther King Jr. sitting out side the houses of prominent white people who owned slaves or plantations during the civil war did you?

There is a wrong way to do things, and a right way. WBC, if they wanted real change and to be taken seriously would do things the right way - not harass innocent people.

I think this is kind of a double edged sword. I'm all for anything that will punish the WBC, they came to my High School when I was still there and saying things like the girls are sluts and stuff like that. I think they are ignorant scum. We did a peaceful retaliation by surrounding them in a circle while holding up sheets so that those passing on the road could not see them. On the other hand, this fuels the fire for taking away freedom of speech in America, if that's even a real thing anymore.