Not really anything that I can debate, I just thought this was interesting. Apparently there’s some sort of ongoing coup d’etat in Quartzsite, a small town in Arizona. The Mayor, elected to clean up corruption, has been ousted after the allegedly corrupt rump council met in secret. Half of the police force have been placed under virtual house arrest, the police department have declared a state of emergency and now the police chief is running the show.
This, incidentally, is the same town from which the recently viral video of a woman being arrested, over the protestations of the Mayor, for speaking in front of the council on the subject of corruption was from.
The town manager, Alex Taft, now says that the problem is that the Mayor is encouraging people to be disruptive in meetings, and that Miss Jones is a known public menace. :rolleyes:
Okay, I’ve been doing some looking around in the intarwebz and there’s quite a bit of video of meetings and interviews, and a few photos of allegedly “questionable” situations involving police and council members.
Jennifer Jones, the lady who got arrested and escorted out of the meeting, maintains a blog called The Desert Freedom Press
The local cops started handing out tickets for everything and everyone and the money collected vanished and a Judge seemed to be in on it. The fire chief got shot, in court, while fighting his ticket.
The judge stepped down and exempted all the tickets and the police disbanded but I can’t find anything on what has happened with the Federal investigation.
All this to-do in Quartzite? Hardly seems worth it. Except for the annual swap meet, the place is barely more than a pit stop. (there is the Hi Jolly/Camel Corps monument which is kind of neat…but that takes about 2 minutes to see)
This is small potatoes. Have you seen what the Feds are doing lately? A gang of teabaggers is holding the whole country hostage. I’m beginning to wish I’d bought more gold.
The mayor says there’s been about $250k that gone missing every year for like 20 years. That’s about US$5 million, so unless that’s money you’d throw in the street, I’d say it’s a fair characterization to say it’s a big deal.
This whole thing is fascinating to me, in the same way that the Wisconsin legislature’s actions in March were fascinating: it seems as if I’m able to see a subversion of democratic processes happen right before my eyes, and I’m not sure there’s any way to stop it.
Another crazy-ass small town story is the situation in Gould, Arkansas, where the city council banned the creation of new groups in response to a dispute with the mayor. (This despite the specific mention in the First Amendment of “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”)
