The Westboro Baptist Church, who picket the funerals of dead soldiers and murdered children, is planning to picket the funerals of the two firefighters who were shot in the line of duty trying to put out a fire set by William Spengler . Spengler set the fire then started shooting at the first responders who showed up to the scene. Mike Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowkan were shot and killed when they showed up to the fire on December 24th. Firefighters Theodore Scardino and Joseph Hoftsetter were also shot but survived. Spengler shot and killed himself before being captured.
Prior to this incident, Spengler had spent 17 years in prison for murdering his grandmother with a hammer.
Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson Margie Phelps tweeted:
“They died for idolatrous worship-of-the-dead.”
Phelps included information about the funeral arrangements and the hashtag #PicketFunerals.
Hundreds of anti Westboro Baptist Church citizens are planning to show up to the funerals and form a human wall around the funeral processions so that the families will not be bothered by protests. Twitter user @donna_STFU made it clear to Phelps the town of Rochester would band together in the same way if Westboro Baptist Church attempts to picket the funerals for the slain firefighters.
The Inquisitr is also reporting that the infamous hacker group Anonymous recently upped the stakes against the Westboro Baptist Church by hacking into their website and posting the details of all their members online so that people could target the individuals who support the church.
A petition is currently posted to the White House website to recognize the Westboro Baptist church as a hate group. The petition is the most popular one ever posted to the site.
Do you think the government should recognize the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group?
