Torrance County Commissioners just want "decorum"

The Torrance County Commission will take up Resolution 2012-07 tomorrow morning.

If passed, the Commissioners will have limited the free exercise of Constitutionally protected human rights within the room. They should have a very, very good reason. There is fact only one reason to limit the free exercise of an individual's rights, and that is to protect the rights of others in the room to freely exercise those same rights.

It is not their responsibility to create a room where one citizen cannot annoy another. It is a betrayal of public trust to create a room where a citizen cannot annoy a commissioner.

If commissioners are not comfortable with the annoyance that comes with politics and public service, they should not be in politics or public service. Nobody is forcing them to serve.

According to the resolution, commissioners feel a need to limit
the free exercise of citizens' rights,

"in order to maintain the proper decorum required for
conducting the business of the county."

There are laws that apply to people who actually interfere with county business. If people are really interfering with county business in commission meetings and breaking the law in so doing, commissioners have a responsibility to enforce the law.

Because they know they can't have someone arrested for videotaping them, they invent another set of rules; rules of "decorum".

Rules of decorum have nothing to do with conducting county business. They have to do with creating a room that suits the interests of the decorators; the county commissioners.

It isn't their room to decorate.

They have no business writing or enforcing decorum.
They have no authority to arrange the room according to their
personal needs. The room belongs to the people.
They come to the people's room to serve the people.