« A bear. In a car. | Main | Octopus danger »
July 26, 2010
All teen-aged girls soon to be banned from Elmhurst
The eye-roll, originally uploaded by MojoPhotoCo.
What the heck is it with some city governments these days? For example, Elmhurst, a perfectly nice suburb right by 290, is looking pretty dumb because it ejected a woman from a City Council meeting after she sighed and rolled her eyes. As this Tribune editorial notes, it's all a bit loony:
"Making faces behind the mayor's back is disruptive, in my opinion," said committee chairman Stephen Hipskind, who told Heslop to leave. (Wait — the mayor didn't even see it? Facepalm.) Other aldermen objected to the eviction, and two of them got up and left, ending the meeting for lack of a quorum. (Silent applause.)
Now the city attorney has been directed to research the legal definitions of disorderly conduct and disruptive behavior (we're shaking our heads here), with an eye to drafting an ordinance to curb non-verbal outbursts. His work should begin and end with state law, which defines disorderly conduct as "an act in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another, or to provoke a breach of the peace."
Now, I would suppose there is more to this than is being reported. For example, a gentleman in Joliet got throwed in jail for an ill-advised yawn. So, being removed from a meeting could be seen as not-so-bad.
However, supposing all she did was sigh and yawn, how is it disruptive? How does it interfere with the democratic process? City Council meetings can be raucous and boisterous affairs, and I think it is quite absurd to call an eye-roll disruptive.
Now, this one time, I was sitting in court when my boss was giving an argument. He asserted the other party had done some really uncool things, and that lady happened to be sitting in court. She emitted the loudest sigh I had ever heard - it wasn't as if she was screaming, but it was quite the noticeable sigh. I'm sure the judge heard it. But was it disruptive? Not especially. It was more amusing, really, than anything.
entry no. 1491
Posted at July 26, 2010 05:24 PM