Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The room, belongs to the people.

The Torrance County Commission meets in a room that belongs to the people. Not in some esoteric sense, but in the most fundamental sense; they built it, they maintain it, and they make the rules about how the people will behave in it. They are called laws.

There are laws against disrupting public meetings. Not only did the people write the laws, they gave politicians and public servants the authority to enforce them, including police.

When a complaint is filed under the law, the respondent has due process to defend his interests and innocence. When "rules of decorum" are violated, the targets have no due process, especially against their own police.

Politicians and public servants do not have the authority to write their own rules, rules of decorum, about how the people will behave in their room. They have not been given authority to enforce their own rules.

In particular, they have no right to establish and enforce rules applying mostly to people whose outward appearance shows only an interest in gathering information and in holding politicians and public servants accountable in their public service.

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