This is cool.
The thread title says it all. 
As much as I despise the Phelpses, I really don’t want to see vigilante justice and the police abusing their authority.
That sort of thing has a tendency of turning on it’s supporters.
Spoil sport.
*Inspector Kemp: A riot is an ungly thing… undt, I tink, that it is chust about time ve had vun. *
The police should be punished. I suggest that the officers involved be lined up and treated to shots. As for vigilante justice…I didn’t see anything.
Well, the guys at the gas station did kinda sorta beat up one of them.
Prove it.
Nope.
This sort of reeks of an urban legend in the making. Plus the phrasing - I grew up in and around Brandon. “got his arse waxed”? Aw, hell naw, nobody at Ole Miss talks this way.
Not to say beating up Phelpses is a bad thing but…I just can’t think this is true as presented. It’s just too good to be true. Actual news article, anywhere?
This is one of those things that I start to say how much I hate the abuse of power here and the willed blind eye to justice people are turning - but then I have a very hard time mustering up the required outrage. I’d like to say my principles are strong enough to withstand an assault on my moral sensitivity by the likes of the Phelps. In this case, I must admit, it just isn’t. Right or wrong, I did smile when I read this. I even hoped it was true.
If it was real, this is exactly what the WBC wants. They make their money off of assault lawsuits and similar, and generally thrive on being the martyrs of the American political/religious scene. Therefore, I’m going to doubt these stories until I hear of the WBC initiating legal proceedings.
Even if it was real, I’m opposed to people taking the law into their own hands unless someone in specific is being threatened with violence. Responding to insults with violence is just political correctness taken to an extreme; it can only make everyone who is at least somewhat unpopular that much less secure in their persons.
No real surprise here. Rural Mississippi simply is not going to tolerate intentional disruption of a soldier’s funeral. The Phelps crowd would be well advised to avoid the state in the future.
Exactly. No one was beaten up. He must have fallen down.
You mean, you’re not familiar with the considerable British population that is living in Mississippi? I have to say, I’m surprised. Down there, it’s all “Guvnah, why don’t we head up to Jackson for a spot of tea?” and “I say, old chap, we should attend the American football contest that will be taking place this afternoon.”
Yeah, this does sound fake, and in the original article the author wrote about how Phelps was a Democrat activist. So yeah, he has something to sell.
I’m conflicted. Places like Mississippi have a bad history with taking the law into their own hands, otoh, those fuckers deserve everything bad that happens to them.
[Anthropology lesson] You’re mixing your classes up. Any individual Brit could say “Guvnah, why don’t we head up to Jackson for a cuppa?” or “My dear chap, why don’t we head up to Jackson for a spot of tea?” but what you wrote is an unholy union that will drive the souls of men mad. In other words, William Hague.[/AL]
yeah, I agree. If there’s another thing the Phelps’s are, it’s lawyers. Good ones.
Just more evidence no one should bother going to Mississippi no matter how backwater and disgusting you are. In Mississippi you’ll find people even worse.
I have to say that I agree with you, including the loathing of the Phelpses. Nothing good ever comes of the law taking sides.
Well, there were two kinds of vigilantism in that Mississippi town. One was a Phelps being beaten up, and that’s not something the law should tolerate for anyone, no matter how despicable. The other was cars with Kansas plates being blocked in at the motel for a few hours. Of course, that’s illegal, but I can understand the local police having more important matters to deal with during that time, like maintaining order at the marine’s funeral. The people being blocked in can note the number plates of the cars blocking them, and sue for the value of the inconvenience if they wish to.
The tactics used in the article were tactics they have practice in. Intimidation. Holding people for “questioning” during protest activities. Conspiracy and collusion. Those tactics got Mississippi their arse handed to them in the 1960s. And since, as was said, the Phelps are lawyers, and darn good ones, all they did was fund future Phelps trips.