Normally I wouldn't say anything here, but I'm going to let you all in on a bit of knowledge as both someone who sees Phelps' protests more than he cares to and as a member of the Patriot Guard. Phelps makes his living by suing people. He goes out and makes them mad enough to provoke an assault or something along those lines and then sues. What's more, he and his whole family are lawyers and they know exactly what legal lines they can push. Basically the legal situation here is the same as a whole lot of other civil cases. You lose the case and you have to pay the winner's court costs. It's not the first time someone's been ordered to pay court fees because some jerk decided to protest their kid's funeral.
Oh, and for the record, these are extremely vulgar protests. It literally made me feel ill the first time I saw one. Anyway, I'm going to suggest taking a page out of the Patriot Guard's book for dealing with Phelps. When we are asked to shield a family from the protesters, we do so by forming a row with our backs to the picket line and ignoring them. I don't know what the net equivalent to reving motorcycle engines to drown out chants would be, but I can tell you that it works very well. These people want attention. Don't give it to them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:314757 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
