Last night, at the March 1, 2016 Cedar Hills City Council meeting, Councilman Rob Crawley read the following Statement into the public record during his comment period, and posted today at his blogspot, he can only speak for himself and not other Councilmembers or the mayor:
I would like to make a statement regarding the controversial subject of Mr. Cromar and video taping the meetings. Clearly the city was wrong in trying to limit his rights to video tape the meetings at the side of the room. I am glad that we have loosened up the resolution limiting the press and where they can be. I think that the city was wrong, first of all, to have the resolution on the books that it had. I also think the city was wrong to stop a meeting and threaten Mr. Cromar. 
You know the Constitution is under fire and has been since it was passed by those that would prefer that government had more power over the people. I believe certain sections of the Constitution are completely ignored such as the 10th Amendment. We have a duty to speak up not only when we see a violation of the Constitution, but even when we see government skirting the line or getting into gray areas regarding the Constitution.
I would like to read the 1st Amendment to the Constitution:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
To abridge means to curtail, shorten or lessen. If Congress doesn’t have the power to lessen the freedom of the press, then certainly Cedar Hills City does not.
I know that Mr. Cromar wanted an apology for trying to curtail his freedom of the press. I applaud the Mayor for admitting that Mr. Cromar was 100% correct. However, we failed to give him an apology. I don’t always agree with Mr. Cromar and he doesn’t always agree with me. However, there is one thing that he and I wholeheartedly agree on and that is the upholding of the Constitution. I have seen Mr. Cromar harassed for exercising his freedom of the press on more than one occasion and I have remained silent. I want to give him my sincere apology for not standing up for his Constitutional right at these times. I do not have the authority to speak for the city to apologize on behalf of the city for this, but I will say that my 20% vote would be to offer him an official apology from the City as well. [emphasis added]
I am going to try to do better at first recognizing when an issue of Constitutionality exists and second standing up for the Constitution.
For Crawley's complete blog post…
http://cedarhillsrob.blogspot.com
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For the related post…
STATEMENT Ken & Barbara Cromar: Mayor harassed and bullied us with illegal ordinance
http://www.cedarhillscitizens.org/statement-ken-barbara-cromar-city-harassed-with-illegal-ordinance/
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