STAND for Free Speech

We, the undersigned citizens of Charlottesville and surrounding counties, call upon the Charlottesville City Council to allow people with dissenting views to be heard in Council chambers and to strike down new meeting procedures, some of which are likely unconstitutional, that were designed to put a higher value on conformity and decorum over an open and free exchange of ideas.

When our police department is understaffed and there are too many unsolved crimes in our community, we question the use and abuse of police resources to monitor and control citizen dissent in Council chambers.

When the City’s own Human Rights Commission speaks out against limitations on public expression and is overruled by a majority of Councilors, we question the Council’s commitment to hearing a diversity of opinions, especially opinions that run counter to their own.

We the people ask for FULL transparency in Council meetings so that the citizens of Charlottesville may observe their elected officials in action without the cameras being turned off whenever the mayor’s feelings are hurt or sensibilities are offended.

Therefore with all of this stated, we the people of Charlottesville and surrounding counties call for City Council to return to prior rules that had been enforced before February 2016 and used quite effectively by other Councils and other mayors.