April 23, 2013

Thousands of well-wishers witnessed an honor guard of firefighters standing to attention to salute pallbearers carrying Boston bombing victim Krystle Campbell's casket into church on Monday.

The line outside St. Joseph Church on for the 11 a.m. funeral of the 29-year-old stretched down the block as 23 officers on motorbikes joined the procession.

Campbell was one of three people killed near the finish line a week ago. The restaurant manager had gone to watch a friend finish the race.

In addition to the mourners, union members and a local motorcycle club showed up to prevent the Westboro Baptist "Church" from disrupting the funeral after they vowed to stage one of their infamous anti-gay protests outside the funeral. But there was no sign of the Westboro clan to be found...except on Twitter.

"U c us in Boston?" the Westboro Baptist Church tweeted to the Boston Globe, the Boston police and Teamsters. "look around u."

Teamsters Local 25 replied on Twitter: "Show your face. We're here in the open."

More than a thousand off-duty Teamsters answered Local 25 President Sean O'Brien's call to form a human shield to protect Krystle's funeral. We understand UNITE HERE members are also there. Krystle's mother Patty and brother Billy are both long-time members of UNITE HERE Local 26 in Boston. Patty has been a member of Local 26 since 1983, and Billy since 2000.

“I’ve never been prouder to be a Teamster and a Bostonian,” said Sean O’Brien, president of Local 25 in Boston. “The city of Boston is filled with people who care about each other and will lift each other up when we are down or need a hand.”

A side note, it also appears that the hacktivist collective Anonymous may have hacked the Westboro group's Facebook page. The page now features all updated posts and photos, and on Tuesday morning the following message greeted visitors:

"Goodmorning to all you "true WBC followers" we love you!

and from now on any use of the word HATE. will be extremely frowned upon and may cause your post to be deleted!

this is a anti negative zone now."

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