Arkansas Watch

Citizens’ rights violated

Many people around the state are shaking their heads at the actions of the Gould City Council. The City Council, tired of a citizens group pestering them, voted to “disallow” the group to exist within the city of Gould. The mayor’s veto of that measure was over-ridden.

While those of us in the northwest part of the state may look on such actions with disdain, I want you to know that it is not just the City Council in Gould which has an attenuated view of citizen rights. I spoke with Jan Lea, who is the Third District organizer for Secure Arkansas, the other day. Secure Arkansas was circulating petitions for a ballot amendment which would bar illegal aliens from receiving certain public benefits. The right of her group to do this under the constitution of this state is undeniable.

“The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good; and to petition, byaddress or remonstrance, the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.” - The State Constitution

She reported to me that many city governments in northwest Arkansas did everything they could to try and suppress the petition drive within their city. In Springdale especially, police would roll up and tell them they could not solicit petitions, even on private property. When they stood their ground, the police kept calling more and more “officials.” They called them from the Highway Department, or from wherever they could.

The goal was to look for “violations” that could be used as an excuse to send the petitioners packing.

Finally, they left after the police, in consultation with a Highway Department official they called specifically for the purpose of finding some excuse to expel them, told them that they could not have signs near the road, even if they were holding them. Of course, businesses commonly hire folks to hold signs like that, but the multitude of laws are selectively enforced on politically disfavored groups. There are now so many laws that we are all in liable to be breaking some of them every day.

What better way to keep the peasants in line? Stick to cheering the Hogs and drinking beer and maybe we won’t find some law you are breaking and arrest you. But if you are foolish enough to think that you really are free people who control your own government, prepare to learn otherwise.

She reported other problems in other places in the area, but that was the worst. The others ran them off of public property. In light of the Constitution, that’s bad enough, but to hassle someone until they leave private property for which they have the owner’s permission to be on smacks of tyranny.

What we increasingly find is that we have the “freedom” to operate within a rigged system, and that when we go outside it, our “freedom” does not mean much. Try getting a few signatures on a petition that the moneyed interests in a city oppose and you will find out just how tenuous your “freedom” is.

Forget trying to “take back Washington” my friends.

We have to take back our own homes first.

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Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 4 on 07/27/2011