Thread by @socialistdogmom

a surprisingly empty house at cville city council right now. not starting until 7, but more empty seats than usual, especially considering the day’s news.

more people in the seats now, but galvin, bellamy, and fenwick are still missing. let’s get started guys

there he is. thought he wouldn’t show. but we’ve got kessler in the house. can’t wait to hear him whine about his permit being denied.

his body guard seems unamused by this assignment

interesting change of agenda: matters by the public is being done first, rather than after announcements. they just want jason out of here as quickly as possible. that cop must be getting paid overtime to hold his hand.

accurate sign is an accurate response to this pathetic public comment. he made the same speech last time. BYE.

kessler’s up. a woman is being escorted out for saying what we all think.

things are devolving. szakos is reminding us about the first amendment. kessler is very worried about his 3 minutes.

mary carey and kristin szakos are getting into it pretty good. don gathers is holding the cops at bay. they damn well better not touch her.

he is bragging about his “permitted rally.” keeps asking for his time back after interruptions.

“i’m not here for nazism, i’m here for the forgotten people. i’m here for white people.” you’re not here for me, shithead

“mr. kessler, you’re getting dangerously close to hate speech.” wow hot take szakos

“you cannot deny me.” oh we can and we did.

time’s up, bud.

“the last person who went over had to leave.” szakos do not compare mary carey to jason kessler.

szakos stirred the crowd up, cops all over. trying to make a black woman leave. they cut the live feed.

nikuyah is trying to intervene. i hope she can smooth this over. this is just about szakos’ pride now. she couldve let it go. let the meeting continue. she’s stubborn and now this is where we are.

“i have been advised, we can proceed with the meeting. if there are further interruptions...” she trails off. we clap, largely sarcastically. she’s taking the advice of don gathers & nikuyah walker, no doubt.

this is her last meeting on council. what a way to go out. looking like a petty little old racist. i’m embarrassed for her.

during the chaos, i stood up, made eye contact with her, and told her “two hours ago, i saw a cpd officer knock a man unconscious and drag his body from the steps of this building. i hope you can understand our anxiety when officers loom over this woman.”

she saw me. she heard me. she did not appear to register what i was saying. she did not care. his blood is still there. those officers are eager for more.

a man ran over his time while talking about parking meters. it was like a cartoon. he kept speaking, with her staccato interruptions of “sir” “stop” “don’t” “sir” as he tried to edge in a few more words. these are adults.

i hate the parking meters too, but i’m not sure the narrative of “august 12th hurt our community and what we need most to heal is tearing out the meters.” three people in a row.

woman couldn’t remember what the C in CRB stood for. crowd offers up “citizen” and “civilian” but jeff fogel gives us “comrade” ✊🌹
where’s our comrade review board? the cops could use some oversight, comrades.

speaking of comrades... michael’s up! speaking about the dewberry performance agreement. we can’t give that hotel skeleton a million dollars. it’s a bad damn deal.

signer is unhappy with this criticism of his shitty decision.

a woman is speaking about her son’s murder. she’s spoken before. last time, they told her to follow up by calling the city manager’s office. she says she did and no one followed up with her. this is a common theme.

from the dais, they say “we will fix this, call our office.” they win twice: the person is quieted in the moment and the crowd assumes the problem is being solved. but they let these people down time and time again. it’s all optics, no action.

unrelated to the current speaker: the colorful mural that hung behind the council members is gone. it’s just a plain gray wall now. wonder what prompted the change? what did it say? something about “love,” right?

“you’ve done what i didn’t think was possible. you’ve further fractured an already divided community.”
“you’ve failed the city while allowing the white supremacists to flourish.”
goddamn don, tell ‘em. 🔥

oh damn. mason pickett called don’s church to complain that he disrespected him?! mason is beyond disrespect. he is not human. he is trash.

jeff fogel is talking about the new permit guidelines. sure, they kept kessler from getting his permit, but this will hurt us all. gatherings of 10+ will need permits, 60 days in advance. that’s beyond onerous.

jeff is reminding them of their own words. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT on important decisions. these permit guidelines need some workshopping.

council doesn’t typically answer questions during a public comment, but jones tells fogel that thomas was NOT forced to resign, did so voluntarily. jeff isn’t buying it. the crowd obviously doesn’t either.

crowd wholeheartedly agrees that acting chief pleasants is a fascist, an animal, a dangerous man. one man in the audience stands up and is in disbelief that pleasants is in that role as of this afternoon. he had no idea and is horrified.

“none of this should be happening!” an older black woman is overwhelmed by the number of topics she feels moved to speak about. she hadn’t even planned to come out tonight.

“they shoulda known they weren’t coming’ for peace. all they had to do is go to the library and read some books about the kkk.” she’s not wrong.

the man (former president of cville NAACP) who just realized pleasants is chief now is speaking. he’d planned to talk about something else. “you can’t hire that man. it’d be the biggest farce in the world. he’s the worst policeman in the country.”

that’s the end of matters from the public. on to announcements. weird transition. rick turner had fiery words. now fenwick is reading the list of days city offices will be closed for christmas.

trash won’t be collected on christmas day. the crowd is restless. jeff fogel mutters “are they going to announce the resignation of the police chief?” this may seem obvious, but i talked to people outside tonight who didn’t know yet.

“we heard your concerns loud and clear” wes to the woman whose son was murdered. he’s giving the same bullshit lines as the last time i heard her speak. i swear. i’ll find the fucking video to prove it.

“we’re pleased to announce charlottesville has been named a soulsmart silver level city” what are you even saying to us galvin?
(solsmart? is she saying SOLAR? what’s happening?)

no one cares about this. sorry.

galvin just used the words “social justice issue.” it looked like it hurt. but it was about purchasing land, so she was able to get the words out. barely.

they weren’t going to address it, but szakos asked jones about the the police chief situation. allegedly, pleasants is acting until an interim chief can be hired “in two weeks” — he was vague enough that it doesn’t rule out the possibility of that BEING pleasants.

nikuyah, from the gallery, demands that business as usual be suspended until we get some answers about al thomas. signer is flustered. wes raised his voice at rick turner.

crowd is getting rowdy again. there was a moment when mike seemed confused about whether nikuyah should be removed for speaking without permission... she’ll be ON THE DAIS next to him in january, so that’s be awkward.

nikuyah is right — there needs to be MORE ACCOUNTABILITY. thomas can’t take the fall. the investigation isn’t over. state police are stonewalling. state is withholding documents. thomas isn’t solely at fault.

“do any of you understand white supremacy? and the foothold that it has?” 🔥🔥 this is my councilwoman @NikuyahWalkerCC

sour faces of white supremacy. at least try to look receptive to her words.

mike says to tanesha, “i don’t want to remove you.”
i yell, for my own amusement, “yes you do, you fuckin’ love it.”
he makes eye contact, laughing, “no, i don’t.”
i haven’t seen him genuinely smile in a long time. but damn does he love to throw black women out.

galvin is reading changes made to the CRB item on the consent agenda. wes doesn’t seem pleased — he’s shaking his head and muttering a bit to fenwick.

we’re back from break and headed into a 45 minute hearing on proposed updates to permitting guidelines. (pretty sure) this isn’t one with any public comment period, but it’ll certainly have some controversial elements.

city attorney brown is at the mic with three lawyers who worked (pro bono) to modify standard operating procedures. galvin emphasized that we didn’t pay for this. brown starts by saying jones already saw & approved of the proposal.

brown’s plan seems to be to bore me to death before i can figure out what villainous shit he’s cooked up. because i can’t even hear what he’s saying over the sound of my own boredom

he’s citing rules richmond has for demonstrations at their lee monument... not sure that’s applicable since richmond’s lee monument is state property. the governor issued executive orders to regulate those demonstrations.

now there’s some disagreement about the size and type of flames that could be allowed. birthday candles? candlelight vigils? clergy candles? this is mind numbing. this solves no problems.

“implements of riot” is a frighteningly broad term for things that can be prohibited. glossed right over that one.

permits previously required for 50+ people. now they’re looking to make it 10+. that’s such a small group of people. we had more than ten people for the dewberry protest tonight.

the exception for “spontaneous” rallies that wouldn’t require a permit means that you could rally within 48 hours of an inciting event without a permit. what does that even mean. how is that regulated. otherwise, submit 60 days in advance for a permit.

brown now saying these regulations won’t keep people with “the vilest, most odious views” from coming to charlottesville and that they aren’t supposed to. so what is the point then? because all i see are barriers to organizing by folks helping this city.

bob asks the lawyers if this is their area of expertise. it is not. he asks if they’ve done it before. she says they’ve “reviewed” the best practices, what’s been done in similar localities. so... no.
bob cuts her off and says “i’m headed in a certain direction.”

damn, bob is on it tonight! he points out that we’re hamstrung by dillon rule, that richmond is different because the governor used an executive order. he’s right. these lawyers are not on the ball here.

city attorney brown having his ass handed to him by outgoing councilman bob fenwick. bob is unpredictable, but when he’s on, he’s on! it’s always a surprise.

kristin is trying to clarify a point about a specific location. these out of town lawyers don’t even know where she’s talking about. and they aren’t paid enough to care. you get what you pay for with free help.

“the challenge with these rules is balancing first amendment rights with public safety.” i am so fucking sick of this exact sentence. i’ve heard it more than i’ve heard my own name this year.

“you are in effect crystal balling it” gross, brown.

brown is saying it’s better to punish someone after the fact than deny a permit. that’s... worrying. he’s talking about kessler. i thought he was implying it, but as i typed this, he used his name.

“has hate speech not worked its way into case law yet?” — damn fenwick!
brown says speech that doesn’t cause harm is protected. but it did. it did cause harm.

“one more thing about candles, very candidly...” OH WES. did you mean to do that?
i’m so sick of talking about candles. that’s not anyone’s number one concern. anyone. well, not anyone who has any actual skin in this game.

“handheld is important.”
“less than six inches.”
PLEASE GIVE THE CANDLES A REST.

brown is defending his poor effort by saying its gotten much harder to get a handle on with “social media and internet and marketing.”

police concerns about practicalities of confiscating items: where do we put them? do they get them back? —- brown saying they opted to just have people with prohibited items leave the area. he’s talking about a “stadium” approach.

asked if they consulted at all with the aclu, he gives an evasive no. ends the statement by saying jones approved what they wrote.

brown says “permit” with the emphasis on the second syllable and it’s slowly making me insane.

galvin suggests they hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance. GOOD CALL KATHY. i can’t believe that wasn’t already the plan.

brown alludes to “an email this weekend about someone reapplying who’d been denied.” this has to be kessler.

“it’s an area of law that’s evolving. we prohibit intimidating conduct in this chamber.” shut up mike.

lawyer is citing the challenge of how to handle a “guest” at an event engaged in behavior that would threaten the permit. boohoo.

szakos is soooooo grateful for their hard work! she’s really laying it on thick.

“can i poll my colleagues on the candles? there are some pros and cons.” JESUS MIKE. he’s saying tiki torches had never been a weapon before, so maybe they can find a way to use candles offensively.
we’re really digging into this candle thing.

there WILL be a public hearing prior to the second hearing. good. we’d’ve forced it to the floor anyway, so this is best for everyone.

we’re on to the dewberry hearing. again, the tactic seems to be aggressive boredom.

$110,000/year for ten years. damn that’s a lot of money. the city is so generous. to some.

signer just asked what ROI stands for. please tell me this is a joke. it’s worse than when galvin, who has a degree in economics, needed bonds explained to her during a budget work session.

fenwick asks for confirmation that dewberry is self financing this project. his lawyer says “he has been.”
“so he’s NOT self financing, then?”
BOB YOU’RE ON FIRE TONIGHT 🔥

galvin talking about options for land claimed by eminent domain... “it would have to be a public park, a public school...”
crowd shouts, in unison, “or public housing!”
damn y’all it’s like we practiced ✊

discussing a year old report stating the “building” is structurally sound, bob asks who paid for the report. dewberry capital did.

signer is really outdoing himself on the condescension front tonight.

oh snap. look at that vote.

let me be super fucking clear about this: THE PEOPLE DID THIS. this failed because we stepped up. we were loud, we were informed, we were present. we refused to allow them to give over a million dollars to a parasite. we won this one.

wow we’re spending a lot of time and money to analyze parking utilization. not sure why we need meters for this, though.
“i think most people would agree there’s a lot more spaces open in the middle of the day” with the meters. no shit, buddy.

wow big insights. the streets a block outside the metered area are “probably” busier now.

oh wowwww we’re paying another company to get things upgraded so we can pay to park with an APP on our PHONES. i prefer to be taken advantage of via a technologically up to date method.

setting prices “not too low” guarantees that some spaces are available. what he’s missing is that those spaces are available because low income people aren’t in them.

hi, i’m here from capitalism to explain how capitalism will continue to de-poor your nice places. i will now take your questions.

wow galvin said “social justice” again. she must’ve just learned about it this week.

“you said the theory tha undergirds this is counterintuitive. could it be that the theory that undergirds this is just wrong?”
and
“you don’t own a business downtown, do you?”

BOB FENWICK GOING OUT ON A GODDAMN HIGH! 🔥🔥

“the only people there for eight hours are employees taking advantage of the free parking.”
TAKING. ADVANTAGE. of being able to get to their low wage jobs?
kindly go fuck yourself, sir.

fenwick proposing the city go ahead and buy metal detectors for use at future free speech events. “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

back to public comment to close out the meeting.
nancy carpenter ❤️❤️🔥🔥
homeless rights advocate with passion.

missed a few speakers talking nancy in the hallway — hopefully she can find out if gerald, the homeless man i saw assaulted by cops this evening, is ok.

heard from a woman frustrated that free public comment isn’t until the end of the meeting, usually around midnight. people who work/have kids can’t do that. she had to take off work to be at the meeting. she’s right — hearings at 11pm is not accessible.

“signer and galvin, you really showed your true colors” ... “you showed where your priorities lie, and it’s not with the people.”
re: the dewberry vote. he’s right on.

still shaking from my first effort at a public comment. glad they let the “no swearing” rule slide a bit.

someone rightly pointed out that we spent an absurd amount of time hashing out the CANDLE ISSUE, but we let the whole “armed militia marching in the streets” thing go without discussion.