I’ll say that again.
Let.
People.
Speak.
Close to home and across the nation, we’re now seeing bad situations made much worse by public officials’ attempts to deny people who have legitimate concerns the opportunity to voice those concerns.
In Indianapolis, Mayor Joe Hogsett and the City-County Council have managed to escalate what was an ugly situation into a crisis, one that threatens to undermine the capital city’s government and destroy once-promising political careers.
The ugliness springs from accusations of sexual harassment within the Hogsett administration. At least three women have accused the mayor’s former chief of staff, Thomas Cook, of sexual harassment.
An outside investigation of Hogsett’s handling of the matter found it to be, at best, lethargic and, at worst, tolerant and indulgent.
None of this was or is good, but the situation wasn’t out of control until a council meeting in which one of Cook’s accusers—former staffer Lauren Roberts—stood up to speak.
Council President Vop Osili repeatedly interrupted her, saying she wasn’t confining her remarks to the question at hand—which was whether the council should accept the outside report and authorize payment for it.
Quickly, a brush fire became a raging conflagration. Sheriff’s deputies pushed, shoved and otherwise manhandled Roberts and her allies out of the meeting.
All the while, Roberts demanded that the deputies not touch her. One of her female supporters shouted at a deputy trying to shove her back up an aisle, “Get your hands off my breasts!”
Not a great night for democracy.
The response to the disaster was immediate and intense.
The isolated calls for Hogsett to resign as mayor became a chorus, even among Democrats. And many voices also called for Osili and other Democratic council leaders to depart, too.
All because they wouldn’t let people speak.
Indianapolis, though, wasn’t alone in engaging in such foolish and self-destructive repression.
When U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, tried to ask U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem some questions about President Donald Trump’s decision to send troops to Los Angeles—most likely, illegally—to deal with protests there.
Padilla found himself thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
Padilla’s detention, sadly, was part of a pattern. Noem and other members of the Trump administration have reacted to any attempts to question or criticize their often-extralegal attempts to deport undocumented immigrants or suppress dissent by slapping handcuffs on their critics.
The result has been a flood of expensive and avoidable lawsuits. In the Padilla case, for example, the taxpayers likely will pay both the senator’s and the Trump administration’s attorney fees.
Worse, these ham-handed attempts at repression have further divided an America that already was fraying at the seams.
Record numbers of Americans stormed out to demonstrate against the Trump administration during the “No Kings” protests. Streets, even in red states, swelled with Americans marching in opposition to this president.
Again, because he doesn’t want to let people speak.
I’ve got to admit I do not understand this determination to shut people down, particularly in these circumstances.
The Democrats in Indianapolis had all the votes they needed to do whatever they wanted with the sexual harassment report.
Letting Roberts speak her mind might have created a few uncomfortable moments at the meeting and a day’s worth of unflattering news stories, but both would have faded fast in a world that seems constantly to be on the edge of blowing up.
Frog marching her and her supporters out of the meeting, on the other hand, guaranteed that neither she nor the story would go away.
The same goes for Trump.
The Republicans in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives have made desperately and depressingly clear their desire to perform tricks for this president as if they were pet poodles. The courts also have been cautious about confronting him.
If he has all the votes he needs in Congress and a docile judicial branch, he shouldn’t worry about anyone asking questions.
In both Indianapolis and across America, trying to shut people up isn’t just anti-democratic.
It’s dumb.
So why, then, the attempts to squelch speech in Indy and elsewhere?
Well, maybe, just maybe, the folks in power are afraid that the folks asking the questions could have a point.
Again, let people speak.
Let.
People.
Speak.
