Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The group that came to Skokie in 2010 protest outside the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center said it planned to picket the funeral Highland Park native Aaron Swartz. They didn't show up.
Updated 9:50 p.m. Jan. 15 The church members did not end up coming to the funeral. Original story The Westboro Baptist Church, the group that came to Skokie in 2010 protest outside the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center on Rosh Hashanah, plans to picket Tuesday's funeral of Highland Park native Aaron Swartz, The Chicagoist reports. Swartz, an Internet activist, co-creator of social news website Reddit and founder of Demand Progress, was found dead in an apparent suicide on Friday in his apartment in Brooklyn. He was 26. Patch's full coverage of Aaron Swartz's death An activist for free online content, Swartz got in trouble with the federal government in 2011 when he was indicted for gaining illegal access to a subscription-based …
Monday, December 17, 2012
Westboro Baptist Church came to Evanston in 2010 to protest on the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. Now, the group says they will protest outside Sandy Hook Elementary, claiming, "God Sent the Shooter."
In September of 2010, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) came to Evanston to protest outside Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern University during the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. Known for demonstrating at military funerals and burning American flags, WBC members also stopped at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie and the Israeli Consulate in Chicago that day. Chanting anti-Semitic songs, their message was: "Obey God or Destruction." Fast forward to today, and WBC members are once again trying to exercise their 1st Amendment rights. A day after Friday's shooting in Newtown, CT, where police said 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother and then 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary, Westboro Baptist member …
Thursday, March 3, 2011
A roundup of the region's major developments for Thursday, March 3.
Here's what's going on in Patch sites around you: Mayor Curses at Mayoral Candidate in City Hall Child Reports Stranger Danger Supreme Court: Westboro Baptist Church Protected Under 1st Amendment Woman Sickened at Haven School/Merle's Outbreak Files Lawsuit
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Justices uphold dismissal of lawsuit over pickets at soldier's funeral in an 8-1 decision.
The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), which recently protested on the eve of Rosh Hashanah in Skokie--the most holy of Jewish holidays, had a big victory Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out a $5 million lawsuit against the group in an 8-1 decision, with the justices citing the church's First Amendment right to protest outside of synagogues, churches and even funerals for soldiers. Members of the church, which is based in Topeka, KS, are known to carry signs that read: "God Hates Jews" and "God Hates Fags." In a statement by Chief Justice John Roberts, he said the First Amendment protects protest on "matters of public import on public property in a peaceful manner and in full compliance with local officials." “Speech is powerful. It …
Dennis Robin
1:21 pm on Thursday, January 17, 2013
While I do believe that my personal internet files should be kept private, I hope that there are no Federal Agents among these "mishugene" protesters. Respectively, more ›