Gould, Arkansas City Council To Ban Citizen Groups
Small Arkansas Town Wants To Ban Free Speech, No “Group” Will Be Able To Meet Without City’s Permission
Gould, Arkansas Convicts 1934
Monday, July 18, 2011
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/832/356/NL/
By Alex Thomas
July 18, 2011
A small Arkansas town of 850 is attempting to ban groups from meeting to talk about the city without first getting permission from the city itself.
In a move reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the Gould, Arkansas City Council has moved to ban all groups from discussing the city, even in their own home!
Mayor Earnest Nash, in strong statements supporting the peoples’ constitutional rights, said he is willing to go to court to stop this plan.
“This is America and even though this is Gould, Arkansas, this is still part of America. And in America, you can’t just vote and violate peoples constitutional rights,” said Nash.
This ordinance would effectively ban citizens from talking about the city at the dinner table, boy scout meetings, and book clubs. In fact, the ordinance is so Orwellian that the interview that the local Fox affiliate did with the mayor would actually be considered illegal under the proposed city ordinance.
A prominent lawyer looked over the ordinance and immediately deemed it unconstitutional.
Spokane Conservative Examiner
John DiPippa, Dean of the Law School at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, expressed disbelief when he first read the proposed law.
“The truth is the city of Gould doesn’t have the authority to tell anyone that they have no right to petition them, no right to speak and no right to exist in their city,” DiPippa told Fox16.
If the precedent is set in Gould, Arkansas it is only a matter of time before it is proposed in a town near you.
If the city council of this town actually believes that they can legally stop citizens from talking about city issues in the privacy of their own home they have another think coming. This is America not Nazi Germany.
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July 20th, 2011 at 6:52 am
We should not be surprised by this. This action by the Gould City Council is the direct, end result of years, (decades really), of trashing the Constitution and its meaning. By being dishonest, by pretending to honor their Oath to the Constitution, while subverting it here and there (just a little bit, you understand), you end up with a society of dishonest people. Honor, integrity, and honesty are sadly needed in this country.
Those who sit in front of their TVs, listening night after night to the propaganda of the Power Elite, and who do nothing, will eventually end up with the Gould law as the model for their own city, county, State and Nation. And it isn’t about what THEY should do to correct the situation. It is about what WE should do to bring our towns, cities, States and Country back to freedom and common sense. If a Law, such as the Gould Ordinance, is passed, which is obviously unconstitutional, then it is your duty, and my duty, yo break that Law; repeatedly if necessary. Civil disobedience in the highest tradition of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi is what is required of us if the Power Elite are ever to be driven back into the holes they came from.
In San Francisco, an unarmed teenager was shot and killed by police for fleeing from them because of a lack of a $2.00 train ticket. Is this what America has become? This is not the America I want. I will continue to resist tyranny, be it at the town, city, State or Federal level. The children of America need us now, more than ever. I will not be remembered as one who sold my nieces and nephews into slavery.
Shorty Dawkins
July 20th, 2011 at 9:53 am
If Stewart’s not too busy in Quartzite, maybe he could lead an intervention team to Gould and straighten those people out. However, I just read that the ACLU is already there, so that may not be necessary.
July 21st, 2011 at 11:03 am
How in the hail do they propose to enforce a ban on specific converations in someones home as they sit at the dinner table? And, whats more, is, in any case of repeate offenders, do they purpose to put repeat offenders in prison, or just take em out back and shoot them? Considering the nature of this hokey ordinace, my question is not necessairly unreasonable.
When one reads about stuff like this, one has to just wonder, WTF?????
July 21st, 2011 at 11:13 am
Hey shorty, how long do you think you and i would last if we lived there? Can you imagine, were walking down the street, in oposit directions. We meet at the courner and i say to you,”hey shorty! did you hear what the idiots in the city council just did?” And you’de go, “what a bunch of assholes. And then, an hr latter, there we would be, out in the woods, and POP! POP! an, that’ed be the end of us.
July 22nd, 2011 at 7:17 am
X-A 1-6
All I can says is, they won’t shut me up. Need I say more?
Shorty Dawkins
July 22nd, 2011 at 11:40 am
The passage of this city ordinance is so grossly unconstitutional as to require the reasonable person to consider the mental competence of those who made it law.
July 24th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
I have been a citizen of Gould 1 1/2 years and know something of the city council. They definitely went too far in the ordinance. They were trying to take care of a problem and didn’t do it right. This little of 850 people has had some problems: a gasoline bill of $1500 for 3 weeks. The bank building being used and the city expectedd to pay for the utilities, the police and street people being furloughed. When the police and street were furloughed the IRS said if we did not need these workers they expected us to sell the vehicles. The citizens advisory Council, who is just looking out for the city has a several members with a shady past. One has 80 tickets ranging from speeding,to fleeing arrest. Another leader in the group has a history of hot checks.
another member has been ticketed for no drivers license, stolen plated and no title, twice. As I say, I know they did wrong with ordinances, but they were frustated since the mayor had totally dominated the city council meetings. He woould make up the agenda and not the council to put anything on the agenda. When he could do this no more he would call the meeting ajorned and walk out when this stopped working he would veto everything in total even though the ordinaces were to be vetoed individually with a reason. Everything is not it seems. I am sure you have been misled by the media before. Just a headsup on what really went on.
July 27th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Hey Csriss,
Thanks for posting here. It’s good to hear from a resident of Gould. I always figure that the news I get may be “filtered” toward one side’s bias or the other, so your on-location observations are appreciated. Thank you.
I still have a problem with anyone trying to tell citizens they cannot talk about their city’s business. It’s a First Amendment issue and is very important that anyone in leadership for any town or city understands that public office is open-season for dissent, and the people must be allowed to speak to power.
Thank you for reading here. I hope your town is abiding peacefully.
Salute!
Elias
August 7th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
I’m from a small town in Texas, and I can tell you strange things can happen. It’s like no one knows that they are part of a (once) great nation, or they forget the values it was founded on. People make up laws to fix small problems and broadbrush the solutions. It usually doesn’t spread much further than the city limits. Its the nature of humans to be fundamentally corrupt and untrustworthy, and without safeguards they screw up big time. Here’s the key: educated, courageous citizens not afraid to call the idiots on their screwups. Speak up when you first see the symptoms and vote accordingly. America was asleep before the Oslima took control. BOY DID HE WAKE US UP. Hope its not too late. Stay awake and active. TV programming sucks anyway! Get up and get out while you can.