The article (which is really just some guy's blog) mentions Rankin County Pickup trucks, so I assume those are local government vehicles. But that incident pales into comparison to beating someone up over their political views and the illegal arrest and detention by the cops. Assuming that all actually happened. If a mob beats someone up, of course nobody is going to report who the criminals were for fear of their own mob retribution. How do we really know the guy was a Westboro guy who was going to protest anyway? If everything I read was true, I'd best anyone with the wrong license plate had a lot to fear in that town, no matter how innocent they were. And that's nothing to be proud of.

I understand why you guys are thinking the way you are and I'm not saying your evil for it, but I think you're looking at this all wrong by condoning it. A few years ago, IÆd be right there with you blindly supporting the whole end justifies the means thing. But not anymore. I'm come to realize that there are things far more important to defend than even offending people and that's our civil rights and our Constitution. If we give that up, there is no America to defend.

I know the family would otherwise have to suffer through the additional emotional pain because of the provocation of those idiots. It provokes an extreme emotional response, which is EXACTLY why they do what they do. The larger the response, the more powerful they get, due to additional media attention, which is one unfortunate by-product of reacting this way to them.

The government simply cannot get involved unless they act legally and fairly and that means government officials and especially police officers. It goes against everything this country was founded on.

If the public as citizens want to protest against the protesters by forming a peaceful human chain around funeral and peacefully preventing the protesters from attending the funeral, not by force or intimidation, but by simply blocking their access to the funeral, as opposed to kidnapping them and forcing them to stay somewhere during the duration, IÆd have no problem with that.

There are ways to handle this situation, both legally and morally without violating the constitution and peopleÆs civil rights. Especially innocent people who may be mistaken for Westboro people, but arenÆt.

Even if you think these people have no rights or that the constitution doesnÆt matter or that ends really does justify the means, how can you argue the fact that innocent people could have been swallowed up by this mob mentality and either beaten, falsely arrested or blocked in, since the people involved were clearly emotional and targeting people based on things like their license plates and not be recognized as being local.