It is Verboten to question officials of the Government.
Via WISTV:
In Fairfield County, three concerned citizens say their rights were violated in a Wednesday afternoon county council meeting.
“It was a good conversation, like I said. It was probably the best dialogue we’ve had in years,” said one of them, Bob Carrison.
Council was meeting at Fairfield County’s Commerce Park to talk about picking a new county administrator. The main thing on the agenda was an executive session, a session where members of the public aren’t allowed in.
“We had no intention of staying. We had no intention of being there while the executive session was on or when they were in executive session. Our intention was to simply come, be a voice, and say, ‘Look, this is an important issue,'” said Jeff Schaffer, another one of the citizens.
But the three say things went south before the executive session – fifteen minutes before the meeting was even convened.
Councilman Kamau Marcharia called Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office on them. An incident report says he told deputies he wanted the three removed.
“As I arrived I was met by Councilman Marcharia and he stated that the three people had to leave because they were having interviews and no one needed to be there,” the report reads.
A copy of the 911 call, obtained by one of the citizens through the Freedom of Information Act, was sent to WIS.
“We need an officer down here now!” Councilman Marcharia says in the recording. “They’re intervening in the process even though we haven’t gone into executive session! They’re in there questioning us an demanding information, and they need not be here!”
The three citizens say deputies didn’t need to be involved. They say they were not causing a disturbance, were only there to stress to council the importance of picking a good county administrator, and had planned to exit the meeting once council voted to enter executive session.