The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is formally fighting against a Ville Platte ordinance that it says “prohibits foot traffic on all public streets, highways, roads, alleys, parks, places of amusement and entertainment, places and buildings, vacant lots and other
unsupervised places throughout all of Ville Platte” after 10 p.m. on weeknights.
According to the lawsuit, the ordinance was enacted in February in response to a spike in car burglaries throughout the Evangeline Parish town.
The “walking curfew” is in effect between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, the lawsuit states.
Originally, the law was set to expire after 60 days, but the council has approved three extensions on the curfew since its passage. The current extension is set to expire next week. The Advocate reports that the council recently voted against extending it for another six months.
“The people of Ville Platte have been forced to remain indoors in violation of their rights to pursue their activities,” ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie R. Esman says. “This law makes criminals out of Ville Plate residents who simply want to walk their dogs, go around the corner to visit a neighbor, or walk to a nearby store to buy needed supplies. Ville Platte has wrongly detained scores of people simply for walking to their destinations. Punishing people for relying on their feet rather than a car for transportation makes no sense and has a disproportionate impact on those who can afford it the least.”
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Ville Platte resident and Evangeline Parish NAACP president Arthur Sampson, claims that the city of Ville Platte has refused to provide a copy of the ordinance to Sampson, despite repeated requests for a copy from both Sampson and his attorney.
“Not only has the city refused to provide plaintiff a copy of the curfew ordinance, the city has responded to plaintiff’s requests by providing copies of other ordinances and misrepresenting those ordinances to be the curfew ordinance, when they were actually ordinances pertaining to
reflective clothing and restrictions on open alcoholic beverage containers,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also claims that the night after the law was enacted, Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine reportedly patrolled the streets in a police car with lights flashing.
Ville Platte Police Chief Neal Lartigue, one of seven city officials named as defendants in the lawsuit, tells The Advocate he supports the ordinance, which he says was enacted “for public safety.”
Read the lawsuit here .
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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