This could be an entangling alliance. I’m still struggling with the feeling that I’m missing something. At the last meeting of Asheville City Council, several people came to participate in public comment. The common thread seemed to be a complaint against the Asheville Police Department for filming Mountain Moral Monday. It tied back to the civil liberties policy council adopted, thanks to much work by Councilman Cecil Bothwell.
I’m no stranger to alarms about a growing police state, but this liberty and justice for all stuff is a tad foreign. Why, you would practically have to go back to the era of slavery.
The attorney picking up the case went to the local daily for leverage. An outstanding story was subsequently published, but now the other newspapers don’t quite know how to handle it. They could either divert business to the local daily or plagiarize.
Today, in the paper that has a monopoly on this story, columnist John Boyle shared some unanswered questions. My unanswered questions would include: (1) Why were so many advocates for freedom of assembly, and being smartphone-recorded by anybody but police officers, so gung-ho about pot? (2) Why was Police Chief William Anderson, standing up in the back of the council chambers, motioning to somebody up front with his smartphone? and (3) Why did the city claim they were having problems filming council’s meeting and perform AV adjustments during the closed session?
