'Emergency Declared In Arizona Town

[StarMountainKid]

I'm wondering if the citizens of the U.S. should declare a 'state of emergency' to get the attention of our government.

From the Associated Press:

The far western Arizona town of Quartzsite was in a state of upheaval Monday after the town council ousted the mayor from power and declared a state of emergency, all over an online video that shows a woman being arrested.

"I'm going to tell you frankly, this council is out of control," (Mayor) Foster said. "The chief has been out of control for some time and I've asked the state government to help a number of times," to no avail.

Foster described the government and Gilbert as corrupt and abusive of their power, and said all their recent actions are frantic efforts to cover up millions of dollars of money from lining some of their pockets.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_QUARTZSITE_FEUD?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Mayor Foster vs. the City Council about allowing a citizen to speak during a question period at the City Council meeting.

The video:

Edited July 12, 2011 by StarMountainKid

[Damrod]

A perfect example of the loss of constitutional rights. Without knowing the background, I read the article and watched the video. I did not see where the woman was in violation of anything, was not unruly or exhibiting disorderly conduct...other than more or less demanding the respect of her first amendment rights to allow her to speak.

I would hope that the state or feds would investigate this city council...they definitely seemed to have an agenda that did not include citizen rights of freedom of speech...

Hope it gets straightened out in a civil and noble way...prob won't though...if they are sneaking out cash...someone is prob gonna get hurt before it's settled...

Hope this isn't a harbinger of things to come at a bigger level...

[Fluffybunny]

This is pretty typical of what I have witnessed when it comes to meetings of this level. As long as the citizens want to go along with the mayor and the council, everything goes smoothly, the split second someone wants to ask a question that is in a very tense area...bingo, along come the goon squad to start throwing people out.

From what I could tell, the woman had the floor, and was continually interrupted by other council members. No time out was sounded, and there was no agreement amongst the members to take her time from her(although the one bonehead tried to call for a majority rule).

This is our government from top to bottom. At this low level, people just get ignored and tossed out. At higher levels...I bet your taxes get audited and life becomes rather difficult. At one of the fire departments we were at, there were 4 fire council members who were supposed to take the side of the citizens and balance it with the needs of the fire department. Unfortunately the guys in the fire council were all about 85 years old, and retired firefighters from the district...back in the 1950's. The were all senile, and had no idea what was going on in the department and what was needed. There concerns were more to taking money from the department to go have "meetings" in Vegas. When I showed up, I asked them if they could account for the thousands they had taken during a time of budget crisis for our department(We firefighters were buying much of our own gear to be safe; thousands of dollars a year). I asked them if they too were willing to buy things out of their own pocket just as we firefighters did...

Well that didn't go over well. They hated me, and I loved it. I sat in on every council meeting just ot question their expenditures( Hotels for meetings in town where they all live...). I became rather hated by those old boys, but I figure if I have to go spend $3500 OF MY OWN CASH to buy good turnout gear so I don't burn to death, then they could maybe pack a lunch, or let me make a lunch for them, rather than have it catered for several hundred dollars a week.

People in power are ridiculous and corrupt.