Civil Liberties
Perhaps because of the large number of outspoken and thoughtful people in our community, we have often found ourselves at ground zero in battles over civil liberties. In the 1980's Chapel Hill elected the first openly-gay elected official in the state, but Carrboro bested that by electing North Carolina’s first out mayor a decade later.
More recently, Chapel Hill grappled with free speech issues in the wake of 9/11, approved and then dismantled red light cameras in 2003-4, and was challenged by fundamentalists over support for gay marriage in 2005.
http://www.crimethinc.com/blog/2011/11/27/breaking-and-entering-a-new-world/
"Underground Reverie" proporting to be involved in the Yates building seizure have published a slideshow telling their side of the story. Its interesting that they seem to equate property rights and repression, and view this as just one battle in a larger war. The question "If we can occupy a building, what else might we seize" implies they're wanting to come back and try this again. Personally, I hope they don't "start taking over" as vast majority of Chapel Hill/Carborro residents really don't want to have their democracy overthrown by anarchists, thank you very much for not asking.
And then there's the signs that say "Off the pigs", "pigs gonna pay", and "all cops are bastards".
Carrboro’s controversial four-year-old anti-loitering ordinance, which prohibited people from lingering at the intersection of Jones Ferry and Davie roads past 11:00 am, was rescinded in a unanimous decision Tuesday evening at a meeting of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen before a full chamber of community members.
In advance of tonight's Council meeting, Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil sent the email below this afternoon to members of the Town Council, Chief of Police Chris Blue and Town of Chapel Hill employees.
Roger and Chief Chris Blue are conducting an internal review of "the events centered on the vacant Yates Motor Company building." Others might more aptly characterized those "events" as "the deployment of an ~ 25 person SWAT Unit to arrest seven people charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering at the Yates Building."
The Council will consider the Petition that I and 77 other cosignatories submitted to the Council. That Petition requests that the Council establish an independent task force to review the events leading to the deployment of the CHPD SWAT team on November 13th, and report back its findings and recommendations to the Council and the public.
The Town Manager's proposal is neither independent nor transparent. The parties conducting the investigation have conflicts of interest, namely their real or perceived bias to protect the image and reputation of the CHPD and the Town of Chapel Hill.
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