Blackmoor Vituperative

There is a grassroots organization in Virginia called the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Their raison d’etre is to make sure that law-abiding Virginians are not forced to be disarmed and defenseless by the laws of our state. They are reasonably successful at this.

Last night, a couple of dozen VCDL members, some of them residents of Richmond, attended the Richmond City Council meeting, with the intention of informing the City Council of their opposition to the Mayor’s membership in New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s deceptively named anti-gun coalition, Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns (it is, in fact, “mayors against all gun owners”).

I will let Philip Van Cleave, current president of the VCDL, describe what happened:

Very interesting and long night at the Richmond City Council meeting
tonight. We had over twenty members present. The Dark Side had five.

I had signed up to speak at the meeting three weeks ago by contacting
the City Clerk, who dutifully took down my name and said I was good to
go for November 23rd. She also asked what I was going to be talking
about.

But, tonight when City Council finally got to public comment, they
called 6 names only, 3 of which were anti-gunners who praised the
Mayor for joining up with Bloomberg’s anti-gun coalition.

MY NAME WAS NEVER CALLED and they moved on to other business quickly.
[…]

(from Dirty Tricks at Richmond City Council, VA-ALERT)

Whether or not you think their cause is worthwhile, these people have a right to be heard. They followed the prescribed procedures for signing up to speak. They obeyed the rules. What did Richmond City Council do? They put five shills in the audience and called three of them to speak.

You might not think this is a big deal. You might think normal, law-abiding folks should not be permitting to own and carry firearms. You would be mistaken, but that’s not really my point with this.

Let’s say that your local school is infested with rats, cockroaches, and centipedes, but the Mayor has joined a coalition that seeks to require all schoolchildren to come to school barefoot (because kids can smuggle drugs in their shoes, or some such nonsense). Outraged, you and nineteen other like-minded people find out how to address the city council, you contact the City Clerk weeks in adavnce to sign up to speak, you show up on time, you wait your turn… and then of the six people’s names who are called, none of your group is called. Instead, half of those asked to speak spontaneously praise the Mayor’s bold membership in the anti-drug group, Mayors Against Illegal Shoes.

What the hell just happened?

Whether or not you agree with the VCDL’s particular cause, this is a blatant abuse of power by the Richmond City Council. Every citizen of Richmond and the surrounding cities should be offended by this corruption in local government.