Here's the story from Townhall columnist Mike Gallagher.
Protecting decency
By Mike Gallagher
Sunday, April 22, 2007Once again, we are experiencing the pain and anguish of another mass shooting in America, this time at Virginia Tech. And once more, the Westboro Baptist Church people from Topeka, Kansas are planning to protest outside the funerals of all 32 of the shooting victims. If you've never heard of this angry group of people, they believe that random acts of violence, killings, and even the deaths of American soldiers in the war are a result of God's wrath over homosexuality. They've repeatedly stated that innocent murder victims deserved their fate. They routinely hold picket signs outside the churches of funerals that say things like, "Your son is rotting in Hell" and "Thank God for IEDs" and "Your daughter deserved to die." One of them told me today that they were already making signs for the Virginia Tech funerals that would have said, "Hokies in Hell" (hokie is the Va Tech mascot). Many of these "church leaders" are lawyers and are experts at local ordinances that they use in their favor to hold their protests.
You may recall that when they were planning to protest outside the funerals of the slain Amish children in Pennsylvania, I offered an hour of airtime on my radio show to Westboro Baptist Church in exchange for their written promise to stay out of Pennsylvania and leave those grieving families alone. They accepted my offer and were guests on my show for an hour. When I found out that they were planning to hold protests outside the Virginia Tech victims funerals, I've made the decision to offer them more airtime. On Tuesday, April 24, Shirley Phelps-Roper and other members of Westboro Baptist Church will be my in-studio guests for the entire program. They have formally announced that they are cancelling all of their scheduled protests for the Virginia Tech shooting victims funerals as a result of receiving this invitation to be on my show.
I know that many people disagree with my decision. *** I truly feel called, on a spiritual level, to allow my radio show to be a tool that prevents these angry, hateful people the opportunity to hurt grieving families. I fully comprehend the arguments against doing this ("giving in to 'terrorists', "allowing them a national platform", etc.) but my heart is telling me to do something positive here. ***
If you disagree with my offer, I respect your position. Please know that I didn't come to this decision easily or casually. I've prayed and consulted with my family, friends and colleagues. ***
***And whether you agree or disagree with me, I just wanted you to know -- from me -- why we're doing this.
As always, thanks for your support. God bless America!
Mike Gallagher
April 20, 2007
I have to say I support his decision. I wish something could be done about the Westboro protests, but maybe this is the next best thing. Now if we could keep them from all those military funerals.
Police arrest protesters with little or no provocation all the time here in DC, then release them without charge after the protest weekend is over. Why can't they arrest these cowardly bastards?
But, will Gallagher's action encourage them to do more? Well, nothing has discouraged them so far. They seem bent on going and going, like a twisted Energizer bunny.
I don't think you can arrest them. First, it isn't right to arrest the anti-war protesters. Second, apparently the Westboro crew has lawyers backing them up, and they supposedly are careful to abide by the rules (no blocking). Small towns can't afford big lawsuits.
The Westboro crew are worse than cowards in my book.
The difference may be that here there's a finite group to be protected here. As long as crazy man is in the White House the soldiers' deaths are going to continue, and we don't want Phelps on the radio all the time. This is a limited deal.
I think it's a decent trade.
And I think we both respect each other's right to disagree.
There was a long thread the other day on RK about the legal difficulties involved in arresting the Westboro crowd. It's pretty much like the KKK and neo-Nazi marches. All one can do is glare and hiss.
Besides, Gallagher will announce the show -- but no one has to listen to it. Even he doesn't have to. The people grieving at these funerals can't turn off the set.
Does anyone have a winning strategy to deal with Phelps? Clearly he craves attention. And his craving is insane.
Is the best thing just to ignore him totally? That's what child rearing books say is the best way to deal with bad behavior. (And he is a child.) I've heard of all the linking of arms, etc., but isn't that just giving him attention that he insanely craves? Is it better to just walk by and pretend he's not there? Maybe that's the best thing. And save the demonstrations of love and support for private meetings with the bereaved?
Anyone have any thoughts? My wife said that in the civil rights movement protesters were specially trained to offer no resistance, and make their point through the lack of resistance. Should that be the consensus tactic to use against Phelps? Just walk on by?
Protesters do occasionally win damages. Remember the Seattle WTO protests?
In a landmark settlement reached by Public Justice on behalf of scores of people arrested in 1999 while peacefully protesting the World Trade Organization, the City of Seattle has agreed to seal and expunge the records of what a jury earlier determined to be their
unconstitutional arrests by Seattle police.In addition, the settlement mandates that the City improve police training in order to prevent unconstitutional mass arrests in the future. Finally, the City will pay $1 million to compensate the protesters for the violation of their constitutional rights and the costs of bringing the lawsuit.
I know there have been other cases like this. Litigation is a messy, time-consuming, expensive business though.