The man driving the Ford F-150 pickup truck, who fired the crowd with pepper-spray, was 62-year-old George Vogel. The Omaha police believe that George Vogel was targeting members of the Westboro Baptist Church protesters, who numbered around 12.
George Vogel was arrested just minutes after his assault with this large can of mace. He was booked with 16 counts of misdemeanor assault and one count of felony assault on a police officer. The spray didn’t hit any of the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, because they used their signs as shields to protect them.
600 members of the Patriot Guard Riders were protecting the military funeral service. Scott Knudsen, a captain for the Nebraska chapter of the Patriot Guard Riders, has said that they had no interaction with either the protesters or the counter-protesters. Apparently, their sole function is to shield the grieving family from the offensive signs of the Westboro Baptist Church group.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred Phelps (founder of this outlier hate group), claims that the counter-protesters did ‘jostle’ with church members. She also says that Patriot Guard members had infiltrated the counter-protesters.
George Vogel’s exact views on the Westboro Baptist Church have not been reported so far. One thing is clear, however, is that his aim was not too accurate with the industrial can of mace that he sported. Instead, innocent people, who did not share the hate-themes of the WBC, were laced with pepper-spray and got burning eyes.
It’s a little hard to understand what the WBC’s message is all about, but apparently they hate homosexuals so strongly, that they believe that soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan, since God is punishing the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality. This makes no sense, but then again, nothing does make sense with the WBC.
This controversial Hate Group strongly asserts its First Amendment Rights, by carrying highly offensive signs with slogans that often read: Thank God for Dead Soldiers, God Blew Up the Troops and AIDS Cures Fags. Besides Homosexuals, the WBC also loathes Islam, Catholics, Hindus, select Protestant churches and Jews.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. So, George Vogel was wrong in his attempt at assaulting with pepper-spray these activists with nothing but an obscure message. How could God himself be such a large bundle of repulsion? Besides, Vogel did nothing but harm to innocent bystanders. And his heart shouldn’t be filled with malevolence, such as that crazy Fred Phelps.
Every time the WBC protests they garner lots of attention and press. The best way to snuff out this Hate Group is to ignore them. They don’t deserve any attention. They are just as Un-American as Nazi skinheads. With time they will fade away, if we collectively ignore them. (Source-CNN)
