The very same thing occurred to me, Clyde. I am presuming that most of the people attending the funerals (legitimately) would be friends and relatives of the deceased, including Vets, some of whom may very well be suffering from post-traumatic stress. The presence of WBC pickets could be just enough to nudge them over the edge. It's amazing it hasn't happened already, considering the ready access to firearms in the USA. Just one quick burst of semi-automatic gunfire from an emotionally compromised mourner and dozens of WBCers would be wiped out in a matter of seconds. Someone was wondering why no-one's sued WBC before. I'm now wondering why no-one's shot at them. And wouldn't it be interesting to see Fred Phelp's funeral (I believe he's quite elderly) picketed - maybe with a gay kiss-in.
Kerry and Clyde -
It has already happened. Back in the 1990s....
(Bold highlighting is mine)
His church was bombed, and now he protests funerals of the war deadKansas preacher says he's coming to IdahoBOISE, Idaho -- A Kansas preacher and gay rights foe whose congregation is protesting military funerals around the country said he's coming to Idaho tomorrow to picket the memorial for an Idaho National Guard soldier killed in Iraq.
A flier on the Web site of Pastor Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church claims God killed Cpl. Carrie French with an improvised explosive device in retaliation against the United States for a bombing at Phelps' church six years ago."We're coming," Phelps said yesterday.
Westboro Baptist either has protested or is planning protests of other public funerals of soldiers from Michigan, Alabama, Minnesota, Virginia and Colorado. A protest is planned for July 11 at Dover Air Force Base, the military base where war dead are transported before being sent on to their home states.
Phelps gained national notoriety in 1998 when he picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student beaten to death in Wyoming.
Since then, Phelps said his church has been the target of hateful words and actions,
including a bomb attack six years ago.Phelps' church has picketed the funerals of AIDS victims for more than a decade.
French, 19, was a Caldwell High School graduate and varsity cheerleader. She was killed June 5 in the northern city of Kirkuk. French served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion.
Phelps said the fact that French led an all-American life gives him all the more reason to picket her final public tribute.
"An all-American girl from a society of all-American heretics," he said.
"Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime," Phelps said.
Caldwell Police Chief Bob Sobba said he cannot bar Phelps from going to the public funeral, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Albertson College of Idaho in that city.
"While we respect Mr. Phelps' right to protest, we would hope that he would respect the family and friends of this young person by not disrupting the memorial," Sobba said.
Idaho Air National Guard Lt. Tony Vincelli, acting as spokesman for French's family, said there were no plans to change the funeral arrangements.
The Rev. Brian Fischer, pastor of Boise's Community Church of the Valley, and himself a past target of protest by the Westboro Baptist Church, decried Phelps' plan.
"What Phelps is doing is a reprehensible thing, to take a funeral and turn it into a photo op for his hate cause," Fischer said.
"We hope everyone will ignore Phelps' group."
In 2003, Phelps demanded that he be allowed to erect an anti-gay monument in a Boise public park. To avoid a lawsuit from his group, city officials voted in 2004 that a Ten Commandments monument be moved out of the park.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/228401_westboro14.html_________________________________________________
Still though, like you both said, they'd better be careful. It could easily happen again.
