God hates Reno Nevada!

[The Viking]

I know I'm not like to get a rational answer, but why would they want to picket a rape victim's funeral?

Because they are evil, vile, subhuman scumbags that should be ass raped with a broomstick covered in Tabasco and mushed jalape?o, and then buried up to their heads near an anthill, with said head covered in honey?

Now, that is a technically correct answer.  So let me rephrase, what is their professed reason for wanting to picket a rape victim's funeral?

Attentionwhoring? The fact that they are sue happy, and hope to get beat up a bit, preferably on camera, so they'll have a better case?

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

It's a racket. Find a 'victim' who is considered, by the majority of the nation, to be 'good.' Soldiers are an example. Protesting returning soldiers from Vietnam was considered uncalled for and vicious. Protesting at their funerals is even more so. Then they hear about this case - a pretty girl who did good deeds for kids gets murdered. Lots of outpouring of sympathy, thus rich opportunities for people to be furious with protestors. You abide by the laws (for the most part). Make sure you're extremely offensive. This may provoke an attack - as evinced by all the fantasies of baseball bats and pink napalm mentioned earlier. You get beat up, maybe on tape. You get to say to the jury that you were just stating your religious beliefs, and this is vile bigotry.

You get a nice, juicy settlement. Pays for medical bills and a Jaguar.

[The Viking]

It's a racket. Find a 'victim' who is considered, by the majority of the nation, to be 'good.' Soldiers are an example. Protesting returning soldiers from Vietnam was considered uncalled for and vicious. Protesting at their funerals is even more so. Then they hear about this case - a pretty girl who did good deeds for kids gets murdered. Lots of outpouring of sympathy, thus rich opportunities for people to be furious with protestors. You abide by the laws (for the most part). Make sure you're extremely offensive. This may provoke an attack - as evinced by all the fantasies of baseball bats and pink napalm mentioned earlier. You get beat up, maybe on tape. You get to say to the jury that you were just stating your religious beliefs, and this is vile bigotry.

You get a nice, juicy settlement. Pays for medical bills and a Jaguar.

Well, that sounds like an excellent reason to add ski masks and nondescript, disposable clothing and shoes to the already mentioned baseball bats and napalm .

[Perd Hapley]

What is their professed reason for wanting to picket a rape victim's funeral? 

Do you really want to know?  Actually, their professed reasons are not hard to find, it's just that your browser will probably insist on a bleach bath and detail cleaning, right afterwards.  I won't give the name of their web site here, but it is easy to find.  Then I looked under "Love Crusades"  and found a link to press releases.  The following is a cut and paste from one of their eloquent press releases. 

God's curse upon Reno, Nevada, is irreversible, because they have persecuted WBC.

Brianna Denison is dead. Her killer runs free. Thanks to the incompetent, corrupt Reno Police.

The Reno police have been in lawless collusion with the ungodly Patriot Guard Riders. If you love your children, KEEP AWAY FROM RENO.  In that evil place, it has come to pass as warned by Isaiah the prophet; to wit: 

Truth & justice is fallen in the street in decadent Reno, Nevada.  "(They have sinned) in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving
and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter (Reno, Nevada). '  Isa.59:13,14.

The rule of law is dead in Reno.

Wow, I'm convinced.  Aren't you?   

[gunsmith]

    Well, they can't really bring a lawsuit against anon angry crowds.
What they really want is to be denied a permit by the local govt...then they bring a lawsuit.
It has worked great for them and afaik they have gotten some good payouts.

[Bogie]

Would lining them all up against a wall be considered genocide of a religious order, or pest control?
 
Hmmm... a paintball gun loaded with alternating froze, pink, CS, and puke gas... with nice big hoppers and a huge tank... Didn't someone make a paintball minigun?

Seriously, someone needs to spot the folks with a laser, so that God can send in a Tomahawk...
 
Of course, it would flat-out be illegal (but probably not all that immoral) for someone a few hundred yards away with a suppressed rifle to neuter one every time they show up...

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

Great.  Now if one of them ever gets shot, Bogie will be the prime suspect. 

[Paddy]

God may hate Reno, but I love it. I stay at Harrah's, eat at the downstairs steakhouse there (or at Roxy's in the Silver Legacy), play blackjack at Cal-Neva, and drive up to Tahoe for day hikes.

Always a good time. 

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

Of course, it would flat-out be illegal (but probably not all that immoral) for someone a few hundred yards away with a suppressed rifle to neuter one every time they show up...

Someone's been watching the Death Wish marathons.

[The Viking]

Of course, it would flat-out be illegal (but probably not all that immoral) for someone a few hundred yards away with a suppressed rifle to neuter one every time they show up...

Someone's been watching the Death Wish marathons.

You seem to suggest that this is a bad thing?

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

You seem to suggest that this is a bad thing?

On the contrary, it's a teriffic and entertaining (albeit highly illegal) idea. Also think Bronson could've made a great DW6 if he'd had Westboro Baptist as subject matter.

[280plus]

Maybe "Anonymous" should take a good look at them? 

That diatribe sure does sound like COS rhetoric.

[Sawdust]

With a lobbing motion, so as to not break it while throwing. If you want something a bit sturdier, paint them with nail polish.

It's faster to use a spray can of shellac or polyurinestain...DAMHIKT.

Sawdust

[The Viking]

Maybe "Anonymous" should take a good look at them? 

That diatribe sure does sound like COS rhetoric.

That would be epic lulz.

[Bigjake]

Maybe "Anonymous" should take a good look at them? 

That diatribe sure does sound like COS rhetoric.

That would be epic lulz.

hehehehehehe, most definitley,  those would be lulz of legend.

The Reno police have been in lawless collusion with the ungodly Patriot Guard Riders.

I'm starting to tear up, we finally get some recognition for a job well done!

[Bogie]

Just remember. We are all anonymous.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

We do not forgive, we do not forget.  We are anonymous.  Expect us.

[Tecumseh]

If Phelps/WBC had any common courtest and, better yet, decency, they'd not be protesting at funerals at all. Their message that "God hates fags" or "God hates rape/murder victims" is bad enough, but to throw it in the faces of those who are dealing with the loss of a loved one is beyond the pale. As I said before, they are not Christians. How would they like it if some group protested at their funerals? As Jesus said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". I don't think they know what that means either.

My personal opinion... if I were a moderator here (and I am a moderator on another board, but not here), I would kick Tecumseh out the airlock. I've done it before when I had to deal with a similar situation.

  They are Christians. 

And while their message sucks, it is their right. 

I am sure the moderators enjoy you telling them how to run things.  

[Tecumseh]

"Free speech" is about dissent against government, not about verbally attacking and harassing private citizens.  Any PD worth a hoot would arrest them for disturbing the peace.

  This could also be freedom to practice their religion.  Their religion may imply that they need to get their message out.  Just as I have had Mormons, Jehovanh's Witnesses, and others come to my door to tell me about their god this is the same thing.  I have seen the Hari Krishna guys at the airport handing out flowers and flyers.  Some cult came to my school and was asking people if they wanted rice.

Just to play devils advocate, but if they cannot protest funerals then surely protesting in front of abortion clinics is also disturbing the peace? 

[AmbulanceDriver]

If Phelps/WBC had any common courtest and, better yet, decency, they'd not be protesting at funerals at all. Their message that "God hates fags" or "God hates rape/murder victims" is bad enough, but to throw it in the faces of those who are dealing with the loss of a loved one is beyond the pale. As I said before, they are not Christians. How would they like it if some group protested at their funerals? As Jesus said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". I don't think they know what that means either.

My personal opinion... if I were a moderator here (and I am a moderator on another board, but not here), I would kick Tecumseh out the airlock. I've done it before when I had to deal with a similar situation.

  They are Christians. 

And while their message sucks, it is their right. 

I am sure the moderators enjoy you telling them how to run things.  

I, as a Christian, have a hard time agreeing that they (WBC/Phelps) are Christians.

This passage from Luke is a good example of why:

    43 "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

[The Viking]

Maybe "Anonymous" should take a good look at them? 

That diatribe sure does sound like COS rhetoric.

That would be epic lulz.

hehehehehehe, most definitley,  those would be lulz of legend.

The Reno police have been in lawless collusion with the ungodly Patriot Guard Riders.

I'm starting to tear up, we finally get some recognition for a job well done!

I figure that if you are on WBC's hate list, you are doing something right.

[Bigjake]

If I could only get a fatwa from the random Islamosplode, my day would be made...

[Paddy]

Just to play devils advocate, but if they cannot protest funerals then surely protesting in front of abortion clinics is also disturbing the peace?

Your 'right' to 'protest' ends where you target private citizens for harrassment. IOW, if you want to stand outside an abortion clinic with signs protesting abortion, that's fine.  When you begin to harrass, block, intimidate, threaten people entering and exiting the clinic you should be arrested.

If Phelps et al were to stand on public property near the funeral and protest the practice of homosexuality, that's fine (stupid, but not illegal).  When they target individuals with personal attacks, slander and libel, threats and intimidation, they should be arrested.

See the diff?

[mustanger98]

They are Christians. 

And while their message sucks, it is their right. 

I am sure the moderators enjoy you telling them how to run things.  

If they were Christians, they wouldn't act as they do.

As another poster already said, the right to protest homosexuality and personal attacks against the dead and mourning are two different things. They are not truly within their rights. You asked earlier how what they do is "fighting words"... that's how.

And if you re-read what I said, I never told the moderators how to run it. I only said what would happen if you pulled this crap on one of the boards where I moderate. In a similar situation, the other members and moderators actually thanked me for taking the action I did when I did.

[Perd Hapley]

They are Christians.

Why do you think they are Christians?  Do you presume that someone can be a Christian merely by claiming to be one?  That would be incorrect. 

Just to play devils advocate, but if they cannot protest funerals then surely protesting in front of abortion clinics is also disturbing the peace?

No, there is nothing about abortion clinic demonstrations that automatically make them a disturbance of the peace.  But it doesn't matter how "peacefully" you protest at a funeral.  It simply should not be permitted, without the consent of the bereaved.