Anonymous To Disrupt Westboro Baptist Church's Plans To Picket Charleston Shooting Victims Funerals

Anonymous To Stop 'Hateful' Westboro Baptist Church From Picketing Charleston Shooting Victims' Funerals

"Hactivist" group, Anonymous, is coordinating plans to silence the "hateful" Westboro Baptist Church who are threatening to picket the funerals of the nine people who were killed in the Charleston shootings last week.

The hate-filled "church" group, formerly led by preacher Fred Phelps and his family, are no strangers to press coverage and scrutiny.

Anonymous are co-ordinating to stop Westboro Baptist Church from disrupting the funerals of those killed in the Charleston shootings

Westboro regularly pickets funerals of fallen American soldiers, brandishing signs such as "god hates fags" and "thank god for dead soldiers".

Now, their attention has turned to the nine people who were shot dead last Wednesday at the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina in what police have called a "hate crime".

In several messages posted on Twitter the Westboro Baptist Church say that Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old who has been charged with the murders, was sent by God.

Anonymous and Westboro are no strangers to one another.

But, given Westboro's increasing threats to picket the funerals of those killed, Anonymous has posted a severe warning to the group.

In a statement posted online, the hackers list their "standard operating procedure" to "contain these morons" (Westboro).

Anonymous says: "We have used this SOP (standard operating procedure) to great effect on numerous occasions.

"It is quite likely that due to our cyber attacks and the ensuing publicity that the WBC will simply not show up at the Charleston funerals, we must nevertheless be fully prepared for them to do so.

"This preparation on the ground, in and of itself can often be the final straw that leads to them to cancelling their plans to protest the funerals.

"It is critical to keep a sharp focus on the goal for Anonymous and supporters regarding ground action against the Westboro Baptist Church. The point is NOT to counter protest these idiots.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, left, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, holds a protest sign outside funeral services for Sgt Daniel Sesker

"That would simply serve to disrespect the funerals even more and create havoc in the vicinity of the funerals.

"The goal is to contain these morons, and to block their hateful message in such a way as they can not be seen by those in the funeral procession or at the venue."

The group then lists details of how best to obstruct Westboro from disrupting the proceedings of the funerals.

The group says it will be sharing intelligence about the movements of Westboro protesters via the hashtag #TrackWBC and is posting successes of its cyber-attacks via the hashtag #OpShutDownWBC.

So far Westboro has not ben deterred by Anonymous' plans to stop their sabotage of the funerals and have even suggested that some of those in the Anonymous group could be one of their own.

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