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.
