Small Arkansas Town Wants To Ban Free Speech And Freedom Of Assembly.

[Ponce]

Small Arkansas Town Wants To Ban Free Speech And Freedom Of Assembly.

No “Group” Will Be Able To Meet Without Cities Permission.

The Intel Hub
By Alex Thomas
July 18, 2011

A small Arkansas town of 850 is attempting to ban groups from meeting to talk about the city without first getting permission from the city itself.

In a move reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the Gould, Arkansas City Council has moved to ban all groups from discussing the city, even in their own home!

Mayor Earnest Nas, in strong statements supporting the peoples constitutional rights, said he is willing to go to court to stop this plan.

“This is America and even though this is Gould, Arkansas, this is still part of America. And in America, you can’t just vote and violate peoples constitutional rights,” said Nash.

This ordinance would effectively ban citizens from talking about the city at the dinner table, boy scout meetings, and book clubs. In fact, the ordinance is so Orwellian that the interview that the local Fox affiliate did with the mayor would actually be considered illegal under the proposed city ordinance.

A prominent lawyer looked over the ordinance and immediately deemed it unconstitutional.

Spokane Conservative Examiner

John DiPippa, Dean of the Law School at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, expressed disbelief when he first read the proposed law.

“The truth is the city of Gould doesn’t have the authority to tell anyone that they have no right to petition them, no right to speak and no right to exist in their city,” DiPippa told Fox16.

If the precedent is set in Gould, Arkansas it is only a matter of time before it is proposed in a town near you.

If the city council of this town actually believes that they can legally stop citizens from talking about city issues in the privacy of their own home they have another thing coming. This is America not Nazi Germany.

http://theintelhub.com/2011/07/18/small-arkansas-town-wants-to-ban-free-speech-no-group-will-be-able-to-meet-without-cities-permission/

[Dogman]

Arkansas Town Draws a Line on Clubs

Be careful before starting a Boy Scout troop in Gould, Ark. Or a Harry Potter (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/complete_coverage/harry_potter/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) fan club. Or a baseball team.


The City Council adopted an ordinance last week making it illegal to form any kind of group without its permission.



That is a clear violation of the Constitution, legal scholars agree. But it is also a sign of just how nasty politics has gotten in Gould, a farming town of 1,100 some 70 miles southeast of Little Rock, where members of the Council have struggled with a local political group that seeks to influence how the town is governed. The mayor, Earnest Nash Jr., also happens to be a member of the political group, the Gould Citizens Advisory Council.



Even by the standards of small-town dramas, Gould’s situation is bleak. The town faces nearly $300,000 in unpaid taxes, and there have been frequent clashes among the mayor, the advisory group and the City Council over how to repay it. Those clashes — and a perception by the City Council that the citizens’ group is seeking too much influence — led to the ban on new organizations.



“I’ve seen some humdingers, but never any ordinance like this,” said Mark Hayes, general counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, an organization for towns and cities.



And it is not the only ordinance bringing unfavorable attention.



Last week, the Council overrode the mayor’s veto of two other controversial measures. One required that the citizens advisory council cease to exist. The other made it illegal for the mayor to meet with “any organization in any location” either “inside or outside Gould city limits” without the Council’s permission.



The advisory council, which calls itself a nonpartisan group that educates voters and raises money for public causes, says it will continue its work. But the Council, in one ordinance, accused the group of “causing confusion and discourse among the citizens” by harshly criticizing local officials at public meetings.



As a result, the City Council said, “No new organizations shall be allowed to exist in the City of Gould without approval from a majority of the City Council.”
The ordinances were so unusual that one television news anchor, Donna Terrell of Fox 16 News in Little Rock, blurted out on air, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”



Political feuds become especially heated in places “where everybody knows everyone,” Ms. Terrell said in an interview.



The ordinances were passed last month, then vetoed by the mayor, and then overridden by the Council on July 12. The mayor said he would go to jail rather than stop meeting with local groups or withdrawing his support from the advisory council.



“These ordinances are blatantly unconstitutional,” Mr. Nash said. “For the most part, people are just ignoring them.”


On Monday, the City Council, too, began backing away. Sonya Farley, a councilwoman, said she would probably vote to rewrite the ordinances with more constitutionally sensitive wording.



But Ms. Farley said the Council was frustrated with the mayor’s tendency to hold community meetings without advertising them to the entire town.
“This ordinance was worded wrong,” she said. “It wasn’t written to stop people from meeting. It was written to treat everybody fairly.”



In the meantime, Mr. Nash said he would continue to do his job exactly as he always had.



“Technically, what I’m doing I guess is illegal,” he said. “But if I’m going to get arrested for meeting with citizens or letting them form their own groups, that’s a pretty good reason to go to jail.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20arkansas.html



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VP6TMd5e_o

[po boy]

“This is America and even though this is Gould, Arkansas, this is still part of America. And in America, you can’t just vote and violate peoples constitutional rights,” said Nash.

Sure they can and you can even plea to something that is unconstitutional. If they want to suffer a damage by being arrested then take it to court and challenge the constitutionality of the policy.If they win they should then sue the city for the damage they suffer.

[Joe King]

I'd be very lol if the people of the town end up having to pay through the nose in a big lawsuit over this.

[po boy]

I'd be even funnier if the town was bankrupted by it's policy and the victor evicted those proponents from their homes.

[Joe King]

That'd certainly teach them to not let their agents pass laws with the explicit intention of denying people their Rights.

[po boy]

It would be a good start.

[Ponce]

In the video I noticed that the City Mayor and most of those people present were black.

[Dogman]

In the video I noticed that the City Mayor and most of those people present were black.

A lot of the Mississippi delta small towns are all black, or have a black majority.

[Joe King]

That's ok with me.

Learning why not to pass laws intended to violate peoples Rights is an equal opportunity endeavour.