Westboro "church" to pay 11 million in damages

[Phantom Winger]

BALTIMORE, United States (AFP) - A court on Wednesday ordered an evangelical church to pay 11 million dollars in damages to the father of a US Marine killed in Iraq for causing distress by picketing his son's funeral claiming the war is a punishment for tolerating gays.

The jury ruled that members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church caused mental suffering to Albert Snyder, who says he became depressed after they paraded outside the funeral of his 20-year-old son Matthew in 2006.


They waved signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Fag troops."
A video of the protests was played in court during the week-long trial of church members Fred Phelps, who founded the church in 1955, and two of his daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Davis.

Their lawyer Jonathan Katz said the funeral was a public event and their actions were protected by the constitutional rights to free speech and religious expression.


But the jury decided Wednesday the church members should pay 2.9 million dollars in compensation and a further eight million in punitive damages for "mental pain and suffering" caused to Snyder, and for invading his privacy.
The church says the United States is losing troops because it tolerates gays, including in the military -- hence the many protests it has held at military funerals such as Snyder's. His sexuality was not an issue at the trial.


It claims to have carried out similar pickets more than 30,000 times, but the Baltimore case was the first one involving a funeral protest to go to trial.

[Achped]

They will just appeal it/counter sue do something. This won't change a thing. Nothing but a .45 to the noggin will stop those freaks.

[3077India]

Hopefully they will lose the appeal too.

[booksbenji]

:devious:

Group Vows to Disrupt More Funerals

Agence France-Presse | November 02, 2007

Armed with signs shouting "thank God for dead soldiers," a radical anti-gay US church plans to resume its controversial funeral protests Friday despite being ordered to pay $11 million to the family of a fallen Soldier offended by their hateful songs and slogans.

Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church hailed the jury verdict as yet another opportunity to spread its message that God is punishing the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality.


"We will continue to warn you of your impending doom as long as our God gives us breath," church leaders said in a press release lined with biblical references and pictures of the signs its members flaunt at funerals.
"Not only did you fail to stop our preaching, but our message has gone to the entire world."

The fringe group of fire and brimstone Baptists from Topeka, Kansas has been courting controversy for more than 17 years.

The church first gained national notoriety when they picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998 for being gay.

They have since picketed the funerals of Frank Sinatra and Bill Clinton's mother, celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as an act of God's wrath, and have even targeted Santa Claus and the Ku Klux Klan.

Funded in part by lawsuits against those who try to block the protests and violate a constitutional right to free speech, the church members travel the country on a near-daily basis and have held an estimated 30,000 pickets.

Their funeral protests are laced with anti-gay slurs.

At one protest attended by AFP five women sang and danced as they held up signs saying "God hates fags," "fag vets" and "America is doomed." The group also has a wide repertoire of songs like "This Land is Fag Land" and "God Hates America."

The group's presence at the funerals of dozens of troops across the country has sparked a grassroots movement of bikers determined to drown out the jeers and taunts.

While Westboro's congregation remains stable at around 70 to 100 people -- most of whom are the extended family of founder Fred Phelps -- the ranks of the Patriot Guard Riders has swelled to more than 117,000 in the past two years.

If the Westboro protestors show up as planned at the funerals of Sergeant Scott Turner in Norton, Kansas and Staff Sergeant Larry Rougle in West Jordan, Utah on Friday, their signs will be masked by an honor guard of flag-waving bikers.

But the father of a Soldier awarded $10.9 million dollars after his son Matthew's funeral was picketed last year hopes the verdict he has won will block the protest completely.

"I basically want to shut them down," said Albert Snyder. "I don't expect to collect 10 million dollars, but I do intend to collect everything they have."

Westboro insists it will win the case on appeal, but Snyder's lawyer said they have a good chance of proving that the constitutional right to free speech has limits.

"The reality is that the First Amendment has survived 200 years without anyone protesting funerals, and I think it's safe to say that if this group is shut down and cannot protest funerals, the First Amendment will survive another 200 years," said Sean Summers, Snyder's attorney.


Source: http://www.*************/NewsContent/0,13319,155398,00.html


Chesty Puller would not be very happy w/these SOBS :evilgrin:

[killerinstinct]

i'm not a vioent man BUT, like on halloween seeing this nasty fat girl wearing a blues garrisson cap, which i only told her how insulting it was to wear it in the manner she did. Even though i was thinking of taking it off her head removing the ega or somethign to make it look a little less insulting to me.


But back on the note i would probably lose it if i ever happened upon these church members while they do this to one of our nations heroes.. ANd i'd gladly accept the felonies for applying a good hit on the head with any hard heavy object i find. As for their kids i'd probalby get arrested too for i'd take them rip their pants off and spank the **** out of them.

[SgtHopperUSMC]

:( :thumbdown

[Robert Browell]

These, so called,christians need to spend more time readin their Bibles!I saw a couple of them on TV,and they seem to validate the fact that you cannot produce healthy young-uns if you practice incest!!I think the fact that they are all still alive,shows that our vets are useing a lot of restraint in dealing with these Morons!:mad:

[thedrifter]

JUSTICE FOR A NUT JOB
NYPost


November 4, 2007 -- Nobody likes hyperactive lawyers, least of all us. But three cheers anyway for the federal jury in Baltimore that just rendered an $11 million judgment against the odious Rev. Fred Phelps.

The Kansas-based Phelps has made a career of disrupting the funerals of American soldiers and Marines killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Phelps is the lunatic bigot who preaches that the war in Iraq is America's punishment for tolerating homosexuality - and that, in defending the country, soldiers, sailors and Marines oppose the will of God.

Phelps and his screwball acolytes search out the funerals of service personnel and - with appallingly ugly rhetoric - attempt to turn them into political spectacles.

“Thank God for dead soldiers," reads a typical sign at a Phelps protest.

The father of a fallen Marine - Albert Snyder of York, Pa. - wouldn't put up with it.

He sued Phelps and his church for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress during a service for his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder.

A jury last Wednesday awarded Snyder $11 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

The judge in the case noted that Phelps and his co-defendants didn't have the assets to pay the judgment.

Well, if that means the judgment restricts Phelps' operation, then that is certainly fitting justice for the many families tortured by his disgusting conduct.

A note of caution, though.

Neither this suit nor a Phelps-inspired federal law blocking the picketing of funerals held at federal cemeteries should be allowed to set a precedent opposing protest against military service, or homosexual conduct.

The First Amendment can be a vexation at times, but America wouldn't be America without it.

Happily, the First Amendment does permit limits on the location of demonstrations - if not the content of speech itself - and that's what was at issue in this case.

The jury ruled wisely, and the decision may even put Phelps and his gang of loopy losers out of business.

If so, too damn bad.

Ellie

[Big Jim]

I Agree These Idiots Have Taken The First Amendment Privelegde Way Too Far. I Say We Petition The Government To Remove Their U.s. Citizenship And Stick Them In A Country Where This Kind Of Lunacy Will Be Handled Accordingly. Then They'll Realize Really How Good They Have Here In Shang-ri-la!!! These F***ing Idiots, Along With All Their Family And Friends Just Need To Be Wiped From All Existence! Why Can't We Bring Back Public Hanging Or Beheading?

[Sgt Leprechaun]

They are scum. They should be shipped to the nearest anti-American locale and used as human mine detectors.

This display was done in my local community. The police are always present at these things nowadays, not to protect the community, but to keep the community from tearing these pieces of human debris limb from limb. I assure you, if law enforcement were removed from protecting this lot, the protests would cease. In olden times, scum such as this would have been tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail. If they weren't lynched.