City Hall uses fear, bullying to intimidate City Council

BY RICHARD JOHNSON

This is the dissection of a social media post, designed to scare you back into your houses and to force the City Council

City Hall is trying to bully the council on the budget.

to cough up more money so themayor and her crew can squander it.

Ladies and gentlemen: The story you are about to

hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the … innocent? 

According to a weekend memo from the police chief:

1. Public safety in jeopardy from a cut in city police funding.

2. Your kids’ lives at school in danger.

3. Police training is in jeopardy. 

4. It is essential to follow the dictates of management, er, the mayor. 

5. We must single out government officials and lesser funded agencies that oppose this disinformation campaign for public ostracism.

That covers all the bases.

 Now what do it all mean?

1. Public safety is a social media hot button used to rile the masses and incite action against the council. As long as they can keep you rioting on Facebook and not rioting in the street, they’re golden. 

2. They hope none of the governing body is smart enough to dust off that annual renewal that the police set up with the school district. Oh crap, it’s a contract with rules that have to be met and funded. They also hope no one sees we don’t have resource officers in use during summer break, so no one is really in any jeopardy. 

They also pray that no one from the public will look at sections 5, 6, 8, and 13 that were passed by the governing body on the consent agenda last year with no discussion. Should we really be using kids’ safety as fodder to further our agenda? 

3. I wonder if anyone will ask if the programs for the training that city supposedly is losing were federally or state funded? Was that funding was suspended, and if so, when? 

4. Will anyone ask about the police department’s enrollment numbers? Will they ask why no one is applying for the positions we are posting? Perhaps the problem with openings in the department lie there, and not with City Council funding?

5. The mayor sent an email to council with a not-so-hidden threat: She asked all department heads to alert the public on the negative implications of the current budget on services rendered by the city. Alert the public or attempt to force the council’s hand? Don’t like my budget presentation? I’m the CEO and manager of the police force under city code. I dare someone to stop me. You’re all ignorant peasants. Go tend to your crops. 

6. Why did those pesky Founding Fathers create checks and balances? Don’t they know that tyranny is a more efficient form of government? Why do we have to have councils in the first place?

It’s kind of awesome that one of the programs mentioned in the memorandum of understanding with the school district is anti-bullying. But here we are, singling out public officials as well as lesser public agencies who disagree with the mayor for verbal attacks and trying to frighten the public into stampeding the council. Apparently bullying is fine as long as we at City Hall are the bully. 

Did you see the community posts in support of us? They are being driven by City Hall-generated fear to support an Orwellian police state with a cop on every corner, 24/7/365 observation and more tactical vehicles and weapons to the city’s arsenal. Never mind that the city’s crime stats support the need for none of that.

The best part about all of this for the mayor and her lackeys: If anyone speaks out, they will just say the speaker hate cops, and that the people who hate cops are criminals.

Richard Johnson is the former City Council member from Ward 3 on Cheyennne’s east side.