Fascist is not a word I throw around lightly. In fact, Godwin's Law states that the first person in an argument to use the word Nazi, loses. But to have a city councilor dragged by the Sherrif from a council meeting while he is trying to discuss his reasons for voting against a project supported by the mayor, Duncanville's Mayor David Green crossed a disturbing line.
I don't care how big a pain in the butt this councilman, Paul Ford is. He is a duly elected official of the city and represents those that elected him. Those citizens that he represents deserve more respect than was shown by this small town tyrant, Mayor Green.
God knows there were a lot of people that would love to have seen me dragged from the City Council chambers during my three years on Tulsa's city council, but even with the famed dissent that our council had, it never came close to the shameful display put on in Duncanville, Texas.
Mayor Green, if you should ever read this, know there is at least one citizen in a neighboring state that believes your actions soil the dignity of our republic. This kind of thing should NEVER happen in America.
You sir, are in my opinion, a fascist.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
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5 comments:
Is this a precedent for the treatment of people attending tea parties. All Obama needs is a legal precedent and he's covered.....in his mind.
Taking and creating an opinion such as yours with only the little clip that you've viewed is tantamount to taking the box score of a sporting event and writing a story about the game.
If you only had the total and complete story of the entire situation I’m sure you would have a different opinion. I live in the city where this situation occurred.
In fact, Paul Ford’s constituents just voted him out of office. Perhaps his own people had grown weary of putting up with his antics and his numerous violations of the Open Meetings Act. Which by the way, was the reason for the arrest. He was railing about something NOT on the agenda and was continuing to disrupt the meeting. This was about the fourth time this has occurred.
There are other videos from this chamber as well, and it is abundantly clear that the mayor, who acts as the chair of this body, is dictatorial and has neither knowledge of, or respect for, the rules, including Robert's Rules of Order. For example, in this case, it requires a majority vote of the entire body to remove a member. But not so much as a motion was made to remove him, he was simply removed by the fiat of the chair.
another example of -
DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS !
don't kno 'Robert' so his rules don't apply :)
i am on the phone with mayor green now. What happened is that there is a law in Texas that requires that the itinerary be posted on the website 72 hours in advance, and that the city attorney must keep the councilors on topic. Mr Ford has repeatedly disrupted council meetings in the past. Most of the other councilors supported his removal. Before the meeting, Mayor Green gave a brief that anyone disrupting the meetings and leaving topic would be warned, then removed. All we saw was Mr. Ford being removed and making a hulabaloo. If Mr. Ford would like to avoid this in the future, he needs to have his topics posted BEFORE the 72 hour deadline. That is all. Sounds pretty easy to avoid having to go to the emergency room for a reinjured back.
Chris, I know you well enough that you would never purposely steer us wrong, but I think what happened here is that you just weren't given enough information.
I really did start through the phone menu with the intention of just calling Mayor Green a Fascist. By the time I got to my destination, I wanted more information. I got it, and I'm glad I did.
Tabi
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