Brooklyn Bashes Kansas Hate Group

BROOKLYN - An angry, state Assemblyman from Brooklyn tried to punch out a Kansas woman, who was carrying signs on Ocean Parkway denouncing Jews, Israel, gays and dead, American soldiers.

Democratic Assemblyman, Dov Hikind--who lost his grandmother in the Holocaust--had to be restrained by police, when he tried to tear posters from the hands of Shirley Phelps-Roper and her followers. Phelps-Roper is a leader in the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas group that now has a Freedom of Speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hikind interrupted an interview Phelps-Roper was doing with PIX 11 News to slap the posters, saying "Come on!" Phelps-Roper shouted, "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" while police supervisors grabbed the Assemblyman by the waist. "How dare you have those signs!" Hikind yelled. He then warned the Kansas group, "Just be careful the rest of your day in Brooklyn."

Only six representatives from Westboro Baptist Church showed at their first stop on Ocean Parkway, arriving in a maroon mini-van to post themselves on a sidewalk outside the Chabad of Kensington Jewish Center. About 200 counter-protestors turned out to face them, some cursing at Phelps-Roper. A woman standing on 18th Avenue and Ocean Parkway cried while looking at the signs, saying "I don't understand why they hate us." The local yeshiva, Torah Temimah, dismissed its grade school students early today, at 12 noon, so they wouldn't have to see the hateful showdown. But 10 year old Moshe Rosenberg watched the spectacle with his older brother. "They should go home and leave us alone," Rosenberg told PIX 11.

The Westboro Baptists had a police escort to their mini-van as they headed to their second, Brooklyn location on Avenue I and East 13th Street, outside Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. Another crowd taunted them, as they stood waving their posters. An older man wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt slammed the hood of their vehicle with a steel cane, as they headed for a third location in Manhattan, outside Hebrew Union College on West 4th Street in Greenwich Villlage.

Outside the Manhattan location, a gay minister got into a debate with one of Shirley Phelps-Roper's daughters. The minister told the young woman, "My job is to love you." The woman replied, "You know the consequences of sin."

Just last week, the Westboro Baptists went to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue their right to free speech. The father of a U.S. Marine who was killed in Afghanistan took the group to court, after they turned up at his son's funeral, carrying signs that said "Thank God for dead soldiers." The Westboro group has gone to many soldier funerals, arguing young Americans are dying in the war, because the United States condones abortion and homosexuality.

At today's demonstrations, some counter-protestors carried their own signs. At Hebrew Union College, the front entrance featured a poster with the colors of gay pride, declaring "Our diversity is our greatest strength." A young woman probably said it best with her sign, "Love is louder."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Brooklyn
• Bashes
• Kansas
• Hate
• Group
• Westboro
• Baptists
• Ocean Parkway
• Jews
• Israel
• gays
• Assemblyman
• Dov Hikind
• Baptist
• Church

[IzzNB10]

Lol. They're stuck way out there in the middle of no where in Kansas, and they're so bored so they figure "eh what the fuck, might as well turn against america."

[TheChickenRiceBowl]

This is...depressing. These comments. This video. Everything. Seeing people behave this way...just...I don't even understand. Religion isn't the problem. Our need to push our own beliefs on one another is the problem. Our inability to be in the same space with another that doesn't share the same views as us is what is going to destroy us all. They're trying to push they're beliefs on everyone else causing an obviously negative reaction. If no one gave them the time of day they would leave.

[ivolution93]

i don't know why but that little kid's voice made me laugh so much

[flyersphan111]

"I really believe that if you don't have a God in your life, that's how you're going to act."

Umm...

[benwil1785]

If you dont have god in your life thats how your going to act? I find that insulting as well

[Irishrogue61mak3]

Filthy jewish cunts.

They just cannot handle the truth.

Go back to Israel you fucking vermin.

[Themightyintegra]

@TheHinun Indeed.

[Sillygoose14111]

Those people have no right to call themselves Christians! By just holding one of those signs they go against just about every single teaching in the Bible! Hypocrites need to grow some sense!

[37personunkown]

lets riot and beat the shit out of them, its funny how they said that guy was a rebel THIS IS A COUNTRY OF REBELS DO THEY REMEMBER THE REVOLUTION

[XxCourageInaCanxX]

In my city, you can rarely tell who is gay..or maybe we just don't care enough to pay attention. We have gay cops, gay firemen, gay doctors, gay teachers, gay everything. There are even gay clubs and I have never once seen hate graffiti or violence around the buildings. If the WBC came here, they probably wouldn't get out alive. 100% they would be attacked with extreme violence, especially in our busy downtown core. People be packin...

[TheHinun]

0:57 That is SO wrong, I am and atheist and I act NOTHING like the WBC!

[50srocknrollfan18]

i am not really a part of any religion, but do not hate anybody. I will stand next to any Jew or Gay person in protesting against the church