In response to the confrontation between police and Occupy protesters over the weekend, the Winston-Salem City Council ‘considered temporarily changing the city ordinance governing free speech and public assembly to prohibit such activities on City Hall grounds.’
After some members expressed concern about making such a swift change to city ordinance, the council voted to delay the discussion until the Jan.3 meeting.
Ironically enough, it was liberal council member Dan Besse who suggested the change. But check out his logic:
Besse said he proposed changing the ordinance because he was concerned about public safety and about protecting the City Hall grounds.
“There is nothing at this point to prevent some quasi-fascist group from coming out and getting into a screaming argument with these guys on that corner of the lawn, which was never designed and isn’t set up to accommodate extended open-air public meetings,” Besse said.
OK, I realize Occupy Winston-Salem has been a peaceful movement, engaging in negotiations with the city regarding a site for its protests. But that’s not been the case at other Occupy protests, and the potential for further unrest is there as what will certainly be a very ugly 2012 presidential campaign gets under way.
With that in mind, I find it interesting that Besse is concerned with right-wingers causing trouble on city grounds.
