Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Quashed Liberty
Well, it didn't take long for the male majority on our City
Council to get right back in stride in this new year. Tuesday
night we saw a new low water mark for municipal leadership
established as civil liberties were quashed during the Costa
Mesa City Council meeting. It sometimes reminds me of a limbo
contest as these guys see how low they can go.
In a heated and emotional Public Comments portion of the meeting - which was preceded by sign-waving, bull-horn induced confrontations outside the council chambers prior to the meeting - we saw tempers flare, politicians both chided and praised and at least one speaker hauled off to jail.
In yet another exhibit of faulty judgment, our young jailer/mayor decided to curtail public comments after a raucous hour which ended with the same young man who cussed him out as a blankety-blank racist at the last meeting in December again causing a ruckus and was again escorted from the auditorium by the police. When the meeting reconvened more than a half hour later, Mayor Mansoor agreed to allow a few more speakers to present their views, even though there were many, many more who wished to speak. Somehow, the police apparently got involved in determining which speakers represented which side of the issue, although the final speaker pointed out the folly of that decision.
It's hard to understand why any level-headed leader would cut short the comments on such an important issue. Perhaps a crowded calendar might explain it, but that wasn't the case last night because the council subsequently wrapped things up by 9:30. Maybe someone had a late date - or wanted to be sure he got his mug on the late news.
Whatever the reason, the net result was that debate of this important, controversial issue was reduced to those few speakers who managed, either through strategic placement in the front of the line or through persistence, to speak their piece. Of the twenty-nine people who spoke specifically on this subject, eighteen were not Costa Mesa residents. Of the nineteen who spoke in support of Mansoor's plan to cross-certify Costa Mesa law enforcement officers and jailers to perform immigration interviews, thirteen were not identified as Costa Mesa residents. It looks like imported demonstrators formed the core of the support Mansoor is receiving on this issue, but we will never know because he refused to let all speakers have a turn at the podium. The Minuteman Project, for example, apparently rallied five dozen supporters to the meeting, most of whom are not Costa Mesa residents.
The side opposing Mansoor's plan were not without imports. One woman felt such passion for the issue that she apparently drove all the way from Chicago to address the council. Another, a native American from a tribe along the Arizona/Mexico border, made the trip to speak on the subject.
Once again, our young mayor demonstrated just why all of us should be nervous with him at the helm. The double standard he applies to the conduct of his office will probably never be more obvious than in the decisions he made Tuesday night. First, he allowed the supporters of Minuteman Project founder, and failed congressional candidate, Jim Gilchrist to stand to show support following Gilchrist's three and one half minutes at the podium - longer than normally allowed. Then, when Costa Mesa resident and activist Coyotl Tezcalipoca - who, according to news reports, also apparently uses the name Benito Acosta - was speaking critically of Mansoor and the other male members of the council, the mayor cut his time short and refused to let Acosta's supporters stand and be recognized. Not only that, but he had Acosta dragged from the council chambers and arrested. Mansoor's discriminatory application of the rules certainly seemed to demonstrate Tezcalipoca's opinion, as expressed in the epithet he shouted at our mayor at the last council meeting.
Watching the out-of-town agitators speak before the council last night reminded me of when I was a little guy. As boys will do, sometimes we would find ways get into mischief, whether it was a bee hive that needed exploring, an errant ball tossed into a grumpy neighbor's yard or the first snowball to be tossed at an unsuspecting target. At those times, usually the weakest of us was prodded to take that first jab with a stick or climb the fence to get the ball or fire the first snowball. The mob mentality was that, if the "little guy" did it and got away with it, then we all could, too. If he got caught or stung, well, he was just the little guy. That's what I thought about when I watched the meeting last night. It seemed to me that Gilchrist and the other out-of-towners were more than happy to praise our easily-swayed young mayor to move forward. After all, it was no skin off their nose if he messed this up.
I am not, nor have I ever been, a supporter of illegal immigration. I've made that point many times on this blog. However, it is scandalous to see our elected officials trample on the civil liberties of residents of this community, citizens and non-citizens alike. By forbidding public comment by all who wished to speak on that subject, the mayor violated the rights of those turned away. This heavy-handed, almost gestapo-like, approach is completely inappropriate and will certainly not be forgotten as the campaign season begins later this year. Our young jailer/mayor is well on the way to turning this city into a dictatorship.
12:19 pm pst
In a heated and emotional Public Comments portion of the meeting - which was preceded by sign-waving, bull-horn induced confrontations outside the council chambers prior to the meeting - we saw tempers flare, politicians both chided and praised and at least one speaker hauled off to jail.
In yet another exhibit of faulty judgment, our young jailer/mayor decided to curtail public comments after a raucous hour which ended with the same young man who cussed him out as a blankety-blank racist at the last meeting in December again causing a ruckus and was again escorted from the auditorium by the police. When the meeting reconvened more than a half hour later, Mayor Mansoor agreed to allow a few more speakers to present their views, even though there were many, many more who wished to speak. Somehow, the police apparently got involved in determining which speakers represented which side of the issue, although the final speaker pointed out the folly of that decision.
It's hard to understand why any level-headed leader would cut short the comments on such an important issue. Perhaps a crowded calendar might explain it, but that wasn't the case last night because the council subsequently wrapped things up by 9:30. Maybe someone had a late date - or wanted to be sure he got his mug on the late news.
Whatever the reason, the net result was that debate of this important, controversial issue was reduced to those few speakers who managed, either through strategic placement in the front of the line or through persistence, to speak their piece. Of the twenty-nine people who spoke specifically on this subject, eighteen were not Costa Mesa residents. Of the nineteen who spoke in support of Mansoor's plan to cross-certify Costa Mesa law enforcement officers and jailers to perform immigration interviews, thirteen were not identified as Costa Mesa residents. It looks like imported demonstrators formed the core of the support Mansoor is receiving on this issue, but we will never know because he refused to let all speakers have a turn at the podium. The Minuteman Project, for example, apparently rallied five dozen supporters to the meeting, most of whom are not Costa Mesa residents.
The side opposing Mansoor's plan were not without imports. One woman felt such passion for the issue that she apparently drove all the way from Chicago to address the council. Another, a native American from a tribe along the Arizona/Mexico border, made the trip to speak on the subject.
Once again, our young mayor demonstrated just why all of us should be nervous with him at the helm. The double standard he applies to the conduct of his office will probably never be more obvious than in the decisions he made Tuesday night. First, he allowed the supporters of Minuteman Project founder, and failed congressional candidate, Jim Gilchrist to stand to show support following Gilchrist's three and one half minutes at the podium - longer than normally allowed. Then, when Costa Mesa resident and activist Coyotl Tezcalipoca - who, according to news reports, also apparently uses the name Benito Acosta - was speaking critically of Mansoor and the other male members of the council, the mayor cut his time short and refused to let Acosta's supporters stand and be recognized. Not only that, but he had Acosta dragged from the council chambers and arrested. Mansoor's discriminatory application of the rules certainly seemed to demonstrate Tezcalipoca's opinion, as expressed in the epithet he shouted at our mayor at the last council meeting.
Watching the out-of-town agitators speak before the council last night reminded me of when I was a little guy. As boys will do, sometimes we would find ways get into mischief, whether it was a bee hive that needed exploring, an errant ball tossed into a grumpy neighbor's yard or the first snowball to be tossed at an unsuspecting target. At those times, usually the weakest of us was prodded to take that first jab with a stick or climb the fence to get the ball or fire the first snowball. The mob mentality was that, if the "little guy" did it and got away with it, then we all could, too. If he got caught or stung, well, he was just the little guy. That's what I thought about when I watched the meeting last night. It seemed to me that Gilchrist and the other out-of-towners were more than happy to praise our easily-swayed young mayor to move forward. After all, it was no skin off their nose if he messed this up.
I am not, nor have I ever been, a supporter of illegal immigration. I've made that point many times on this blog. However, it is scandalous to see our elected officials trample on the civil liberties of residents of this community, citizens and non-citizens alike. By forbidding public comment by all who wished to speak on that subject, the mayor violated the rights of those turned away. This heavy-handed, almost gestapo-like, approach is completely inappropriate and will certainly not be forgotten as the campaign season begins later this year. Our young jailer/mayor is well on the way to turning this city into a dictatorship.
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