I would like to address our city's use of the "Nuisance Law." I believe that this law is unconstitutional. Mayor Wright and the City Council brought this law about under the guise of the Buffalo's Sinkhole issue and now it is being arbitrarily used to intimidate certain businesses and individuals within our city.
Last week, in the Hickory Daily Record, we read about Fantasia's Nightclub being issued a temporary restraining order to keep them from operating. The city referenced generalities about many bad incidents that had happened there, but gave no specific details.
Assistant DA Eric Bellas stated, "Fantasia's must refrain from allowing any type of nuisance or illegal activity to occur on the property. If the establishment doesn't, the property will be subject to forfeiture."
The case "The City of Seattle vs McCoy" relates to a similar action in which city officials tried to use a nuisance statute to take possession of a bar when the owner wasn't participating in the illegal activity that the city considered a nuisance. The ruling found that taking this person's property this way, without compensation, was a violation of the man's rights under the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution.
Hickory city officials are already facing legal action, because of their steadfast resistance to allowing the Cercil brothers (who happen to be Hispanic) to open up an establishment downtown. They have used several questionable tactics to prevent this dance club from opening.
In the same article, Police Chief Tom Adkins said, "though Fantasias is in a commercial district and many of the businesses closest to it are closed, up for sale or shuttered, complaints continue to come from the club's business neighbors."
Should we close down Wal-Mart or McDonalds, because of what some of their customers do when they leave their premises?
Adkins further stated, "A nuisance action is a powerful tool we can use to eliminate problem establishments in Hickory, where traditional law enforcement methods have failed."
We don't want your Police State, Chief Adkins. It is not your job to decide what businesses are or are not viable here in Hickory. It is your job to enforce statutes that are on the books, not ones that are randomly enforced and subject to much philosophical and legal interpretation. How much is all of this legal wrangling costing this city?
What I have seen smacks of xenophobia and shows how small minded certain elements of our community are. This is not pre-1960; we shouldn't discriminate against people because they are different than us. It is time to accept the fact that there will be many culturally diverse elements within our community that we don't understand, but we must show tolerance toward.
This nuisance law is a bad law. Once again I say, enforce the existing laws. Do not use tyrannical systems that have been well established to be biased. If we don't protect the rights of all of the people, then our rights are no longer concrete and so they are basically non-existent.
|
| Join To Get Blog Update Notices |
| Visit the Hickory Hound Group |
Monday, October 20, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I agree completely James. The people need to know the laws and how they're being applied. Otherwise, we risk becoming the victims of those who will, inevitably, misuse them.
Mr. Shell,
You are right. You also echo what I have been saying for months now.
I also believe that the people of Hickory need to wake up and smell the coffee. We need to vote in an entirely new city council. We need to hire a new city manager, and all new departments heads. We especially need a new police chief. We need a progressive and non racist police chief. A chief like Rodney Monroe in Charlotte.
We can not allow our elected officials and the Police department to continue to discriminate against minorities in this town.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany, the citizens never stood up against them. We all know what happened then. Now you can't find a German who does not say "I was against the Nazis."
Let's not wait to say, "we were against racist politicians and police."
We need to take action. Vote this racist city council out of office and demand a new police chief.
Before you throw out all the department heads, remember that many of them are good people who have long careers in public service. They no longer have the freedom to 'do the right thing' since Gary McGee left, but are instead hamstrung by the current City Manager's dictatorial style. Look at how many have left since he took over -- compare that to the stability of the work force you had before he came in. Those that are left are the ones who can't leave because they have kids in college or are too close to retirement. Anyone else in those first two or three tiers of management has bailed out long ago.
Council should bear much of the blame here, and deserve to be voted out. They've put a toady in as City Manager who buckles to Rudy, Sally and Jill and has no backbone to tell them that "this isn't right". Instead, he'd throw anyone under a bus to protect himself and his own position. You only have to talk to County employees to figure out that he was detested when he was there because he cannot be trusted. Most of them were thrilled that he got hired away.
It will take Hickory 20 years to recover to the innovative, progressive city it once was, even after a mere 3 years of Mick Berry's totalitarianism. Maybe a new Council would "encourage him to explore other opportunities elsewhere" so he could become someone else's problem, although anybody with the common sense to do any significant background check would realize that he's bad news.
Bruce, Danny, Brad & Z. Anne -- you're a terrible disappointment. You used to have integrity and be concerned about the City -- now you're just sitting back while all of the programs that made Hickory a great place to live are dismantled. No wonder new businesses won't come here. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
Post a Comment