I'm confused about the American Republican party

[Kevin]

Say Fred Phelps is demonstrating spewing his filth while you are burying your son who has been killed in Iraq. You walk up to him and punch him in the face.
Angrycommie thinks he had it coming and so you should not be arrested. I actually think the same.
The only issue with this is of course where do you draw the line? Making such a thing into a kind of law very difficult.

It depends on what Phelps was saying. If he was saying things directly to you and making threatening gestures it could be considered verbal assault and while you are only allowed to retaliate in kind it could be considered a mitigating circumstance and charges of assault against you might not stick if you punched him.

There are laws against certain types of speech, slander being the most obvious. If someone speaks defamation against you, you have legal recourse against them as well.

But if he is on public property and not threatening or slandering you, Phelps can be the total tool he is and speak his idiocy. Even if he is slandering you, you can't physically assault him. Of course other people also have a right to occupy that space and keep him away. This is often what happens with Phelps specifically people organize and prevent him and his group from being able to even get near the funeral.

The KKK often gets in trouble for spouting slander, or physically assaulting. However there are times where they protest and intimidate without directly threatening and their ignorant speech is protected in those cases.

I don't want to live in society where people are allowed to physically assault someone who is only using language against them. Of course I also don't want people to just be able to freely verbally abuse someone or disturb the general peace with just language either. But there is legal recourse against these types of things. Phelps himself has not been arrested for it, but some of his cronies have been arrested for disturbing the peace. Depending on the situation there are various types of action that can be brought against someone who is verbally abusing someone as well.


Shooting someone who has broken into your house isn't something that you can automatically get away with either. People have been jailed for shooting burglars while the burglar has gone free. Again it depends on the judge, the circumstances, etc. I've always been told that if you are going to shoot someone with a gun, it's best to empty the clip as it's much easier to argue defense/fear/etc than if you only fire a single shot. It's a misconception that you can just shoot someone for breaking into your home. Just the act of breaking and entering does not justify shooting there needs to be other circumstances.