![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Lo, How the Mighty...
Apr. 8th, 2014 08:17 pmThere was a tornado in an Oklahoma town. Children died.
Westboro Baptist showed up to protest the kid's funerals.
Their permit allowed half an hour's protest. In reality, they got 8 minutes before 100 people ran them off. Literally ran them off; the Westboro people had to flee the mob.
Thing is... Westboro always looked forward to stuff like this, because the "church" was funded almost entirely via winning assault lawsuits after they goaded people into lashing back at them.
Except now Fred is dead. And Shirley Phelps-Roper, who had argued the "church's" case in front of the Supreme Court, has been deposed by a cabal of men (including her own son, apparently.) It's rumored that Fred himself was excommunicated and kicked out of the house for defending Shirley during the coup.
If Westboro doesn't file a suit, they've more or less admitted that it's open season on them. The precedent will be set.
And I notice that I'm not hearing anyone from Westboro talking lawsuit. I'm fairly sure that in taking out Shirley, they've taken out anyone who could have filed it, much less successfully argued it.
I do believe that a few months, at most a year, will prove that Westboro didn't shoot itself in the foot. It shot itself in the head.
ETA: Westboro has come out with a press release and several tweets. They're as nasty as you'd suppose (including the unintentionally hilarious line "you have nothing but hatred in your hearts") ... but STILL no word of a lawsuit. And the cops say that because there were no punches thrown, no one in the swarming crowd will be arrested.
Stick a fork in them; they're done. They just don't know it yet.
Westboro Baptist showed up to protest the kid's funerals.
Their permit allowed half an hour's protest. In reality, they got 8 minutes before 100 people ran them off. Literally ran them off; the Westboro people had to flee the mob.
Thing is... Westboro always looked forward to stuff like this, because the "church" was funded almost entirely via winning assault lawsuits after they goaded people into lashing back at them.
Except now Fred is dead. And Shirley Phelps-Roper, who had argued the "church's" case in front of the Supreme Court, has been deposed by a cabal of men (including her own son, apparently.) It's rumored that Fred himself was excommunicated and kicked out of the house for defending Shirley during the coup.
If Westboro doesn't file a suit, they've more or less admitted that it's open season on them. The precedent will be set.
And I notice that I'm not hearing anyone from Westboro talking lawsuit. I'm fairly sure that in taking out Shirley, they've taken out anyone who could have filed it, much less successfully argued it.
I do believe that a few months, at most a year, will prove that Westboro didn't shoot itself in the foot. It shot itself in the head.
ETA: Westboro has come out with a press release and several tweets. They're as nasty as you'd suppose (including the unintentionally hilarious line "you have nothing but hatred in your hearts") ... but STILL no word of a lawsuit. And the cops say that because there were no punches thrown, no one in the swarming crowd will be arrested.
Stick a fork in them; they're done. They just don't know it yet.
