Jindal:Westboro Baptist Church members'will be locked up'if they protest funeral

[rio3232]

That's not the point - the idea of Free Speech is to protect people from having their voices silenced simply on the grounds that it offends or bothers another person/group. The WBC is the essence of hate and bigotry, but their right to be hateful bigots is the greatest thing about America and Free Speech.

Their rhetoric is not protected by the constitution!

Nah, my family's smart enough to avoid being this idiotic.

How is your family going to avoid having a funeral?Are you all going to be cremated?

[abasin]

And there goes any support I ever had for Jindal, the guy is clearly a clown who doesn't support the Constitution. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I hope he is never again elected to public office unless he changes parties to better reflect his un-American attitudes...

Oh, hush. This is not a constitutional issue on any level. This is an act to enrage, hurt and probably profit from the untimely deaths of people whom are strangers to them.
They have no real business there. Other than to rabble rouse and cause anguish.
I have no respect or sympathy for them and if a group of Americans lined up in front of them and shot everyone of them down. I would not blink an eye.

[KriszDev]

Still.. it would be fun to throw rotten eggs at them.

lol, yeah, I would have to resit buying tomatoes to toss at them as it would be too tempting and I would probably be arrested for assault of something and they are not worth me getting a criminal record

[fitimi]

lol, yeah, I would have to resit buying tomatoes to toss at them as it would be too tempting and I would probably be arrested for assault of something and they are not worth me getting a criminal record

Maybe they can call a judge in Lafayette and find out in advance much the fine would be for pelting the WBC folks with eggs and tomatoes.... then bombs away!

I would donate to pay the fines.

[Namviet]

That's not the point - the idea of Free Speech is to protect people from having their voices silenced simply on the grounds that it offends or bothers another person/group. The WBC is the essence of hate and bigotry, but their right to be hateful bigots is the greatest thing about America and Free Speech.

You grossly misstate the point in your OP, and now here again. No one is denying WBC their "freedom of speech". They are denying their ability to conduct it on private property, and/or on state property where it is seen as disruptive to the stated public use of that property. You have a right to visit a cemetery, for whatever reason, so long as you conduct yourself there in a manner that is OK with the owners of the cemetery. You can visit such as the US Capital, and the WH, so long as you do not interfere with the conduct of business there. You can't go into a Congressional hearing and start protesting and be expected to be allowed to stay. None of that is a violation of "free speech".

[Ilirix]

My take - ah, the face of the right wing censorship comes full forward.

Disrupting a funeral isn't freedom of speech.

If I took a boom box into a movie theater and held it over my head playing Taylor Swift at max volume during the film would that be free speech?

Jindal did the right thing by letting these ass-clowns know to take their freak-show elsewhere.

And if we're going to talk acts of censorship you know very well that the left wing has a bout a million mile lead on that whole endeavor.

[engwell]

Their rhetoric is not protected by the constitution!

How is your family going to avoid having a funeral?Are you all going to be cremated?

Good Grief! A funeral is a meeting of friends and family to celebrate the life of their dead loved one. It has ZERO to do with the disposal of the remains.

Good Grief!

Even cremated folks have funerals. Or not. It's totally irrelevant.

Maybe they can call a judge in Lafayette and find out in advance much the fine would be for pelting the WBC folks with eggs and tomatoes.... then bombs away!
I would donate to pay the fines.

That would be assault. Be prepared to go to jail.

All the WBC protests I've seen lately have been nothing but people standing around with vulgar signs. They seem to have learned to keep their mouths shut. Nothing but signs.

[tomor]

LOL....it looks like Jindal has got himself a 1st Amendment sanctuary state.

[KriszDev]

I think what we need to do is have funerals on private land, private land owners can exclude these people from protesting on their land and arrest them for trespassing

[rio3232]

Good Grief! A funeral is a meeting of friends and family to celebrate the life of their dead loved one. It has ZERO to do with the disposal of the remains.
Good Grief!
Even cremated folks have funerals. Or not. It's totally irrelevant.

No...cremated people have memorials at the funeral home or a church, they don't have "funerals" at a graveyard which is where the WBC protest, I've have personally paid for 2 of them, my father and brother-in-law!

You should read what I was responding to in context before starting your "Good Grief" session.

[ezly]

"If they come here to Louisiana, if they try to disrupt this funeral, we're going to lock them up," Jindal said. "We're going to arrest them. They shouldn't try that in Louisiana. We won't abide by that here. Let these families grieve. Let them celebrate their daughters, their children, their spouses, their loved ones' lives in peace. They better not try that nonsense here."

Read More Here

My take - ah, the face of the right wing censorship comes full forward. Apparently, when tasteless, disgusting behavior is done by the likes of Pam Gellar towards Muslims it's perfectly protected free speech. But when a hateful group like Westboro does their thing, it's immoral. And let the right wing hypocrisy begin.

And for the record, I have no problem with either Geller or Westboro disgusting tactics because free speech is free speech is free speech !

I would love to say 'Rock on, Jindal! Go for it!' but he can't do that. Well, he could, but more $$$ for WBC b/c they'd take this to court and win.........

[fitimi]

I would love to say 'Rock on, Jindal! Go for it!' but he can't do that. Well, he could, but more $$$ for WBC b/c they'd take this to court and win.........

In some small town in Alabama or somewhere in the South... the WBC arrived to picket the funeral of a soldier so the towns people blocked them leaving the motel with their cars and there wasn't a cop in sight.. LOL

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

[RodeoX]

Politicians always go on about their rights. And I do mean their rights, not yours not the WBC, just theirs.

[ezly]

I would imagine he would if they showed up at a black persons funeral chanting "God hates ni**ers"...what do you think?
I would be ok with their church burning to the ground with every one of them in it! If they want to protest then fine...do it on a street corner, not at a funeral of someone they do not even know full of grieving family members, disgusting pieces of trash!

I agree, but unfortunately they have a right to protest funerals. That's why those motorcycle dudes called the Patriot Guards are there, running a buffer b/t the funeral ceremony and those cockroaches. The court ruled that the WBC has to stay a certain distance from the funeral site........

One of these days the vigilantes will raise their angry little heads and the WBC will probably be no more....... that stuff happens.

[ezly]

In some small town in Alabama or somewhere in the South... the WBC arrived to picket the funeral of a soldier so the towns people blocked them leaving the motel with their cars and there wasn't a cop in sight.. LOL

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Good for the townspeople and the cops. Do what you can legally to stop their sadistic, depraved crap......

[rio3232]

In some small town in Alabama or somewhere in the South... the WBC arrived to picket the funeral of a soldier so the towns people blocked them leaving the motel with their cars and there wasn't a cop in sight.. LOL

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

In a town in Oklahoma their tires were slashed and no one in town would repair them, they wound up towing it to a wal-mart on a wrecker.

[tomor]

Denying the oppressor a platform from which to speak is a revolutionary act.

I believe in free speech, therefore I must do everything within my power to deny an audience and a platform to those who would see it taken away. This is so often seen as hypocritical. Tell me, is a doctor a hypocrite for killing cancer to save a life?

I don't advocate for the use of physical force or violence to stop these people from believing what they do or voicing it in their own personal property or whatever venue they might create. What I do advocate for is taking every single noncoercive measure possible to stop them. All it takes to kill fascism a little bit more is for you to assert your right to not provide a platform or an audience to fascists. If you don't listen to them and you don't let them speak to you, you deny them a vector from which to infect other minds.

How many times have dictators have used that exact same argument to take the rights of minorities? "If you don't listen to them and you don't let them speak to you, you deny them a vector from which to infect other minds." Just replace "them" with the minority group of your choice (muslims, jews, homosexuals, etc.) and you see how dangerous this is.

[KriszDev]

How many times have dictators have used that exact same argument to take the rights of minorities? "If you don't listen to them and you don't let them speak to you, you deny them a vector from which to infect other minds." Just replace "them" with the minority group of your choice (muslims, jews, homosexuals, etc.) and you see how dangerous this is.

agree, these Christians have as much right to speak as any other minority group

we may not like it, but they still have the right

[peterson33]

How many times have dictators have used that exact same argument to take the rights of minorities? "If you don't listen to them and you don't let them speak to you, you deny them a vector from which to infect other minds." Just replace "them" with the minority group of your choice (muslims, jews, homosexuals, etc.) and you see how dangerous this is.

People choose to be hateful fascists. The situations aren't nearly similar. You can't just say "Yeah, but if the situation was completely different it would be bad", because the exact point is that it's this situation.

There's a difference between going "You're bigoted and cruel, and I refuse to support you." and saying "You have this arbitrary trait, so I hate you."