Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Because poor people don't need civil rights

In Helena-West Helena, Arkansas a 24 hour curfew has been imposed. The police can now stop anyone who is out at anytime for any reason. Apparently this has been going on for the past week and was extended again last night by a 9-0 count. "As far as I'm concerned, at 3 o'clock in the morning, nobody has any business being on the street, except the law," Councilman Eugene "Red" Johnson said. "Anyone out at 3 o'clock shouldn't be out on the street, unless you're going to the hospital." I see some major issues with this line of thought as I am sure many of you do. First, there are other reasons that someone may be out at 3 AM like they are working the night shift. Second, this curfew is not just during the nighttime, unless I misunderstand a 24 hour curfew that means you can be stopped any time of the day from 3 PM to 3 AM. This curfew does not discriminate based upon time, but I would be willing to bet that an African-American is more likely to be stopped than a Caucasian person. If the issue is people committing crime or causing problems at night, than institute a curfew at night for a limited amount of time, but having a 24 hour curfew for over a week is blatantly a violation of these people civil rights. "Now if somebody wants to sue us, they have an option to sue, but I'm fairly certain that a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it here," Mayor James Valley said. "The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution." So it is ok to infringe on civil rights when the government decides it is ok, huh. I am sick of politicians deciding that they can shit on the Constitution whenever they feel like it. Someone needs to sue this town, the ACLU has threaten too do just that now they need to follow through with this threat.

2 comments:

GourmetGoddess said...

errrr, ummm, how is this not akin to martial law?

I, too, call down upon them the wrath of the ACLU!

Anonymous said...

What the heck!?!?

I'm with GG. That's so blatantly a civil rights violation. I guess it's essentially saying there doesn't have to be a cause for being stopped. Leave your house and you're immediately suspect?

Scary.