Medical Malpractice

Are protests outside VA hospitals or defacing the Vietnam War Memorial examples of free speech?

I think it's disgraceful what some left-wing radicals have done. They are protesting outside VA hospitals chanting insults at the brave soldiers inside that have sacrificed everything for the rights of these very protestors. Recently, the "Wall" was defaced by some other disrespectful members of society. Yet, there was never a story on the network news about any of this. Why do you think that is?

Public Comments

1. 50 years ago they would have been shot on sight.
2. If you are not breaking any laws, sure, But . . . I believe there are laws against defacing public property. You can deface your own property, but not public property because it belongs to everyone, not just you. And are probably laws that require a permit to protest in any great numbers (to ensure that the local authorities can be prepared to adjust traffic, and ensure the safety of the protestors and the general public).
3. A protest outside a hospital is free speech. Defacing a memorial is vandalism.
4. Yes-it is free speech. And quit trying to smear law-abiding American citizens exercising their rights by trying to link them to some vandal they have no conection to. Here's a head's up: when you do that, the only person you discredit is yourself.
5. Protesting outside a VA hospital would be considered free speech. But not something I would want to see. I think it's in very bad taste to do that. Defacing the Vietnam War Memorial (or any memorial) is NOT free speech. It's just vandalism.
6. The news won't report it. They think these people are heroes, and won't do anything to make them look bad. As for me, I consider then cowards at best and home grown terrorists at worst. They should be hung as traitors, After all, we are at war , right? Isn't that the penalty for giving aid and comfort to the enemy?
7. Protesting is a right of American citizens, no matter if you like it or not. Defacing property is a crime and should be prosecuted. Believe it or not, our brave soldiers are fighting for the right to protest. When we cut off this right, we are no better than China, Iran, etc. Maybe you should join a group that does positive gatherings supporting the troops. We can do that even if we are against the war in Iraq.
8. Sadly you are right. Many far leftists and a few far rightists (probably not a good word to use but trying to build a theme.) do not associate the ideas of free speech and responsible speech. Look at this nonsense with that idiot in Florida. Despite the fact he is resisting the police, despite the fact he was asked and despite that he was told to comply with the police instructions, he continued to rant and rave and resist and was appropriately tazered. There are people screaming how it was a violation of his freedom of speech! An equal argument can be made that thanks to this idiot the people who were next in line to speak and were not allowed to because of his antics had their freedom of speech violated as well (OK that's a separate issue, but it goes to show how limited some people's views are). How about the fact he was not practicing "Responcable" speech? Which is far more important than free speech in my oppinion. Some even use that freedom as a tool against others. Consider the last presidential election, there was a far left liberal faction who started a movement called Operation 'Shut up'. it's goal was to silence Fox news during the election. Imagine that, the wanted to silence some one else's freedom of speech while actively using the same freedoms to their own advantage. I know plenty of liberals who disagree with the actions of this disrespectful minority, however by not active taking a stand against it or ignoreing it (and this goes equal for people on the right) they become unwilling accomplices and should be subject to critisism againt the whole. ok a bit of a rant, but it is early.
9. Vandalism - never Stupid protests by attention craving nit wits - who cares.