Against the mayor's orders, and the rules of parliamentary procedure, the police officers attempt to wrestle the microphone out of her hands before she goes into detail, only stopping when the mayor is literally yelling at them. When the officers finally stop manhandling her, the council then attempts to make a motion to kick her out, which isn't possible since you cannot make motions while people are talking, but the police take her out anyways.Now, this is surely not the first time we have seen a public speaker be handled by police in a controversial manner. What is striking to me in the Arizona case is the fact that, according to the above source, procedure had been freely manipulated by members of the council and that the woman had been taken away despite the mayor himself protesting. You can hear the mayor standing up for the woman even as the city council members vote to have her removed. What is further troubling, to me, is that news searches don't retrieve any relevant hits (as of yet). So, the situation is this: we have a video in which it is very clear to see what is immediately happening during the time of the incident and little commentary or analysis of the situation. This doesn't sit well with me.
The ability to speak out during municipal government meetings is, I believe, a corner stone to a healthy and vibrant democratic republic. Often times, it is lamentable that so few people participate in municipal government- and when they do we unfortunately have incidents like this being the only discernable highlight (or, more accurately, lowlight). And, unfortunately, it is difficult for me to parcel out the current political climate in this country from what I see in this video.
Politics, I believe we can all agree, has become an incredibly polarized affair where one side is opposed to the government as a matter of principal while the other is seen to be firmly in bed with the government. There is a false dichotomy and one that muddies legitimate political discussion, and it is also one that has elevated tensions between factions of political actors in this country. So, when I saw this incident happen I could not help but put it before this backdrop of American political discourse. Tensions are high, and people make errors of judgement when that is the case.
Now, I mentioned the glaring lack of news coverage for two reasons. First, it allows for some of the more unsavory aspects of Internet culture to rear its ugly head. Conspiracy Theorists have already begun to declare that this is evidence of some grand, dictatorial conspiracy manufactured by the "elites." I have remarkably little patience for this nonsense, and when I see gems like this in the comments section:
I can't help but lose hope that people will see at the heart of this matter. This was not the product of some grand movement in this country towards fascism or whatever other foolishness people want to conjure up. No, as far as I can tell, this was firmly part of human error that is borne of a poor and disappointing political discourse at large. Without careful, thoughtful analysis this situation is not taken as a reminder of these tensions but rather given as fodder to those who poison discourse either with conspiratorial thinking or with polarizing rhetoric. There should be more of a reaction to this instance, in Arizona at least, than there is. But this youtube commenter clearly wants only to continue the unhealthy environment that engenders these kinds of outcomes in the first place.
why is there not an uprising? She was following rules of the meeting, was recognized on the floor, was not defaming, only stating.Fucking WAKE UP sheeple. This is an embarrassment to us all as Americans and a slander on the first amendment right o free speech.The ONLY thing she may have done wrong was to turn her back on the council to address the assembly directly.
To me, from the content of this video, it appears clear to me that the mayor was perhaps the only public official doing his job (if he was doing so because the woman agreed with him rather than the council on an issue, I do not know) and that the police officers were only carrying out their duty, if a little too zealously. Furthermore, I would not be surprised that if, in this case, the council members where experience a high degree of stress and subsequently acting out of overly-defensive mindsets. That does not excuse their actions in the slightest.
It may also be key to remember, for those who feel like this situation is only newly found in this time and age, that the Internet has only allowed instances like this to be known to a broader audience. Before YouTube, this blog post about this particular case in Arizona would be highly unlikely. And before telecommunications had reached this level, how many cases like this transpired and nothing about them was known outside their immediacy? Yes, it is a key assest to be able to witness these kinds of events and to speak of them, directly. But I fear that this blessing comes with a curse- one where people can witness every error made everywhere, but consume it faster than they can think. This should be an opportunity to think about how we relate to our elected officials, and how those officials now operate in an environment of almost constant attack in a highly polarized fashion. Now, maybe these council members really are particularly dense and foolish. I don't know, and that's precisely my point. I can consume this video before I can think- before I can gather all the information I need. All I can assume is that tensions were high, and these council members failed their duties to their constituents in a very fundamental way.
But aside from this speculation, I don't want to speak to much about this situation because I do not have a comprehensive understanding of the events of that night or the context of that meeting. What does seem clear, if things are as they appear, is that this woman's outcome was not the result of illegal behavior on her part, but of over defensive public officials who reacted too sharply. And for that, I would think they would lose their positions. That is, assuming municipal governance has an importance in the minds of the people whom it serves.
UPDATE: After a little more searching, I found this video of a woman being arrested at a council meeting in the same town of Quartzsite Arizona on April 19th, 2011. The woman in this video's name is Jennifer Jade Harriss Jones (or Jennifer Marie Jones in this much longer video). The woman in the video I linked at the top of this post is Jennifer Jones. My assumption is that these two women are one in the same, though I am not totally certain. At this point, nothing changes about what I said in the above post, but what does change is a question of the circumstance leading into the events depicted in the original video posted here. This ambiguity of information does nothing to ease the latent tensions everywhere, and continue to promote a high degree of distrust. Especially when you read the posts on this version of the video. It is possible that this woman has been a repeated disruption to town meetings in the past, though I do not believe this excuses the behavior of the council in the slightest. In fact, there appears to be a long list of complaints against the way the Quartzsite city council has been treating the public.
Jennifer Jones (Jade, Marie, Harriss- at this point I can't keep track) is apparently the publisher of the Desert Freedom Press and has been known to be arrested repeatedly. Now, if the links are getting a bit confusing at this point, I apologize. My attempt here is to demonstrate that my original point was to be very cautious before laying any sort of claim about the situation that occurred, but to also find and implore context when reacting to the video. There is a great deal of political uncertainty in Quartzsite Arizona, and I hope that people will carefully read what is available before jumping to conclusions. It is my opinion that there is more than enough evidence of wrong-doing by the council members, and that Jones has put herself right at the heart of the controversy. For more information visit here. As for my part, I think the section above the update speaks for itself.
