Dealing With Dissent
In Iran, they shoot you in the street. In China, they confiscate your computer and toss you in prison. In Charlotte, it’s less extreme but no less insidious.
As part of a push to marginalize public dissent during meetings, the city council is apparently tweaking the rules for, ironically, its Citizens’ Forum. At least it sounded that way Monday night, when Mayor Anthony Foxx, a Democrat, put a group of concerned citizens in their place. Literally.
Neighbors were protesting the city’s plan to spend close to $700,000 for a sidewalk project near Park Road. While two citizens spoke from the podium, a handful of others sat in the audience behind them holding protest signs. The signs would have been visible during the meeting’s broadcast on GovCo TV, which apparently isn’t sitting right with the powers-that-be. Foxx set the sign-holding protesters straight.
“During the Citizens’ Forum, we typically try to have the focus on the speaker,” he told the group of concerned citizens, “so if you’re going to put the signs up we’re probably going to ask the speakers to speak over here [on the other side of the meeting chamber], on the advice of our city attorney.”
Wonder if the mayor will be as vigilant in enforcing the city attorney’s advice when it comes to folks waving signs in support of increased city funding for after-school programs?
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