Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group?

are you kidding me stfu.. these people are scum.

they arent even a religious group. they do stuff so fucked up that they get people upset and get attacked then they sue the attacker for money. thats how they make their living.
 
relevant

“I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to be an asshole.” –Voltaire
 
I don't think it's stopping their right for free speech, just having them listed as a hate group. Am I wrong? I would assume the KKK is probably listed as a hate group, but they're still allowed to exercise their right of free speech. Again I could be wrong, just my take on the situation.
 
Agreed. i don't think the full intent of freedom of speech is to be able to picket at funerals. How can you defend the freedom of speech of people who would picket the elementary shooting? These should be private closed events that should not be aloud under law to be disturbed by anyone. How low can they possibly go?
 
Inflammatory words that are either injurious by themselves or might cause the hearer to immediately retaliate or breach the peace are not necessarily protected "free speech" under the First Amendment. If the hearer is prosecuted for assault, claiming fighting words may establish mitigating circumstances.

This sounds exactly like what the WBC does. Fuck 'em and their right to free speech.
 
WBC%20wigns01.jpg


 
I usually agree with a lot of the stuff you post, Amadeus, but this...

Just think about, they are the lowest of the low. They are protesting the funerals of fucking kids who were murdered. They have no souls.
 
AR6rider has a good point for sure. Same concept as how yelling fire in a theater isn't protected speech because it can cause harm. It is unfortunate however because you do have to draw the line somewhere and you can't make exceptions. It becomes a bit of a slippery slope. As much as I hate the fucking westboro douchebags who literally do nothing productive for this earth
 
Exactly. I defend their right because it is my right as well. It is all of ours.

Also, in response to someone above hate group means they are monitored by the government and such so it isn't technically restricting speech but there is definitely regulation.

Supreme court already sided with me and gave them the right to protest funerals anyway with Snyder V. Phelps, but I just wanted to hear all of your opinions. No need to be so malicious.
 
Exactly. They wouldn't be out there doing this stuff if we weren't giving them constant attention.

Fuck giving attention whores more attention. Just stop filming them, reporting on them and pretend they don't exist.
 
Supreme Court uling of Snyder V. Phelps.

"Speech on a public sidewalk, about a public issue, cannot be liable for a tort of emotional distress, even if the speech is found to be 'outrageous.'"
 
• why do you not want them to be recognised as a hate group?

• why are groups like this allowed to exist, all they do is hate

• fuck religion for making everything so difficult and morally correct things be known as sins
 
See, this is what gets me.

The Phelps clan doesn't care about God, they're scammers trolling the entire world at once. They are lawyers hiding behind the guise of a religious group because it's the only protection they can have for something so abhorrent.

But the kids... The kids grew up being taught this garbage as fact. To them, this hate is very real. To me, that is the worst part. Adults being shitbags by their own accord = almost expected today. Them fucking up the minds of little kids because it helps sell the genuineness of their lies is the real abomination here. God they are just so incredibly sick and twisted it m akes me sick to think about just how deep this goes.
 
I think this guy is an idiot, but he's completely right. Stop saying stupid shit OP, these people abuse "loopholes", so to speak, in our laws and use them for personal profit while hurting other people, and I can not wait to see them all murdered.
 
Part of the problem in this particular instance is that they have been trying to protest in the graveyards during funeral services.

I agree with what you have said about the 1st A. Even though what AR6Rider said is true, and relevant, I'm not sure their presence in something like a graveyard (how public is that? who owns it? is it a private cemetery?) is justified under the 1st A. and its subsequent precedents.

I will add this to the discussion as well. I am currently in CT and there are public groups consisting of firefighters, public servants, and the public at large that have organized and mobilized themselves to peacefully prevent the WBC from getting close enough to involve themselves too directly in the private affairs of the families.

While their actions may be constitutionally justifiable, I find their methods to be incredibly aggravating, obscene, hateful, ignorant and on the whole reprehensible, I think that these sorts of public actions to let them protest but to protect the families by being "human shields/barriers" to their warped actions is the best course of action here. People protecting the people that deserve protecting.
 
I think it's best to let them exercise their right to free speech and let them know that no one takes them seriously, like the Foo Fighters did:

 
I generally would say that anything acting against WBC is not in the public's best interest because then many interest groups would be silenced as a result.

The person who said the best solution is to ignore them is 100% correct.

Yes I do understand and agree their behavior is similar to yelling fire in a movie theatre and they are no different from the KKK.

 
I highly doubt that anon would bother with WBC, they are small fish to fry. Taking down their website doesn't stop them from protesting either.

WBC actually tried to provoke anon before, and a response from anonymous popped up, but anon later denied it, as it turned out that WBC fabricated the anon response for the sake of publicity. Probably whats going on here too. I think anon is smarter than giving WBC the attention they want.
 
By having free speech, you can say whatever you want as long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else's rights (you can't yell "fire" in a theater, ect). and as americans, we have the right to the pursuit of happiness, which is definitely being threatened by the westboro baptist church (not for everyone, but for the families of soldiers and homosexuals, its definitely not giving them any happiness). So from my point of view, yes the westboro baptist church is a hate group.
 
Dude, bravo. I was going to talk about exactly this. I'm proud to say you are an informed and intelligent American. Carry on.
 
While I agree that this is certainly not black and white, I am currently leaning towards their obvious intent to create imminent unlawfulness. If one day they provoke someone to the point that fist (or worse) fly, it's definitely going to be a point of conversation in legal proceedings.
 
i agree with you 100%

I dont like what they do but they have every right to do it. This is why the US is awesome
 
OP is correct. This is America and that means a few things,

one of them being that any hateful ignorant piece of shit can say whatever they want without consequence.

In the words of the great Jon Oliver " all you can do is tell them as loudly and as often as possible to SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
 
I was there at that concert and it was great hearing them sing that. I also went to the RHCP concert in KC and they were there too. Glad I left Kansas so I dont have to see these guys again. I voted.
 
They basically just made up their own religion. Christianity preachs Gods unfailing love for everyone. They are the complete opposite. Groups like them that call themselves Christians drive me nuts
 
Thought I might bump this up and let people know that might not otherwise...

But in response to the WBC there were many mass gatherings of human chains made up of some rather diverse groups from around CT. Firefighters, policeman, the general public, as well as motorcycle gangs including the Hells Angels joined together to shield the families of Newtown from the WBC.

As far as I know these groups have deterred the WBC and I believe they have left their nearby hotels.

I really see this as the best solution. WBC has the right to their free speech, whether we like it or not. While that may be a frustration wrought by constitutional freedoms I think it is far more encouraging to know that people banded together to peacefully protest them, and that those efforts upheld both constitutional rights and protected and demonstrated to the families that the larger public will step up to protect them.
 
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