The City Council asked for more decorum at its town hall meetings held the first Tuesday of every month.
And in March the Council got what it requested.
The town hall meeting held Tuesday, March 5 in the City Council Chamber was not loud or raucous.
The only person who spoke to the City Council from her seat was Anna Fesmire, the vice president of the League of Women Voters who had just left the podium and couldn’t resist adding one final humorous comment.
There was one F-bomb delivered from the podium by Ryan Tardiff, but nobody on the City Council appeared to blink an eye.
The main reason the meeting was calm, was that not many people attended and some who normally speak didn’t. Those who did promised to keep bringing up the death of Marcus Deon Smith on Sept. 8, 2018, until they get what they want which seems to be to have Police Chief Wayne Scott fired because the first press release about Smith was inaccurate and to fire the police officers who were trying to help Smith, because Smith died.
Much of what is said from the podium is not accurate, but it gets repeated so often that after a while its hard to separate truth from fiction.
Smith did not die in the street while in police custody and he did not die of asphyxiation. The medical examiner ruled that the Rip Hobble device that police used to restrain Smith was a contributing factor in his death, not that it killed him. But his death was ruled a homicide.
The City Council did once again demonstrate its tin ear when it comes to dealing with the state legislature which has Republican majorities in both the state House and state Senate.
The City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for the state legislature to pass the Equal Rights Amendment that was introduced in 1972. The deadline for ratifying the proposed amendment was originally 1979 and was extended to 1982. So recommending ratification in 2019 is a few decades late and it is not likely to accomplish anything except to further alienate the majority party in the legislature and that is the party that will decide whether or not to give the Greensboro City Council the special favors that it has requested and the additional funding.
It also seems relevant that the current City Council that is demanding equal rights for women is made up of eight women and one man.
If the equal rights amendment were passed would that mean that the City Council would have to include more men?
