I witnessed a former councilman get arrested minutes before the start of Tuesday’s Killeen City Council meeting.
That was the first thing that happened.
After that, things went downhill.
At some point, there was a break and people were yelling at each other all around me. I had my camera, but I didn’t know where to focus. To the left, something crazy was happening. To the right, something crazy was happening.
In the back, there was CJ Grisham, a well-known activist and lawyer, arguing with Nolanville Mayor Andy Williams. I saw the assistant police chief looking over at them.
While many people at City Hall that night were focused on that, constant council critic Camron Cochran was yelling at resident Bill Paquette, who stared passively ahead. Cochran was arguing something about how his branch of the military he served in — the Air Force — was better than Paquette’s, calling those service members cowards.
Paquette never responded, even when Cochran took time out of his four minutes at the podium to call him a horse’s ass for the crime of having letters to the editor published in the Herald.
Some of Cochran’s letters have not been published. That is mostly at the editor’s discretion, but I’m sure it had something to do with his repeating the same talking points that he had at the City Council meetings.
When Killeen Mayor Debbie Nash-King eventually gaveled the meeting down, resident Michael Fornino did his best to try to capture the attention of everybody around him. He started shouting and arguing with everyone around him. Most of it was incomprehensible gibberish.
I heard one person say something to the effect of, “Why can’t someone just kick him out already?”
I’ve been wondering the same thing for months.
As vile as some of these council critics are, I firmly believe that there is absolutely no reason why the City Council can’t have public comments on non-agenda items. Other places have no problem.
I suspect that the problem lies in the ways the rules of decorum are enforced. There seems to be a conscious effort by the mayor to hold back on enforcing basic common-sense civility. Unfortunately, this means that the rules are enforced inconsistently, leading to confusion and opening the door for criticism from “free-speech advocates.”
But I felt a sudden glimmer of hope when I saw police officers rush out into the hallway. I followed them with my phone out, ready to film whatever was behind the door. It was two people arguing, and one of them was Fornino.
Fornino was arguing with resident Davon “Chicago” Muhammad, who said not to disrespect the mayor. But eventually, Muhammad just left.
Fornino started preaching to the people who were watching who, at that point, were me and the cops. He started saying that Nash-King said this, Nash-King said that at my newspaper’s office.
The cops left, I left, and Fornino was left alone to scream into the void.
Fornino has chosen to call me a retard and a boy by email, but he has no insult that he will say to me in person. But if he did, I would think of this moment, smile and nod.
Resident Sean Price had previously mentioned a group known as the Black Hebrew Israelites as being a hate group in Killeen.
Well, they did show up. I saw four of them in a circle outside of City Hall.
I also noticed Price and Fornino tucked away in a corner, away from their usual spot during a break in the meeting, apparently not wanting to share the same space with them.
One of members told me by phone that they were not a hate group.
Following Tuesday’s special meeting on the comments, the workshop meeting afterwards was much less exciting, but I really liked the idea of a brewery downtown. Hopefully, there’s some punk music there.
After the meeting, I asked Paquette how he felt about being verbally attacked by Cochran. He responded that he was above it.
At the same time that I was talking to him, I saw Sean Price cursing at a downtown business owner who was walking to her car.
As Paquette was talking to me I watched, thinking to myself that maybe I should step in, but choosing not to.
Fornino soon joined in the harassment, for no reason at all; he was just standing by his car, shouting across the parking lot.
The business owner shouted as she got in the car something like, “Have the day you deserve.”
I saw two police officers in the vicinity who didn’t do anything. Everyone was yelling so loudly I know there is no way they couldn’t have been audible to the police.
The council meetings have been a bit crazy, but harassment in the parking lot is dangerous and preventable. Likely more could be done.
One only has to imagine what things are going to be like when the city election gets closer. I doubt removing the non-agenda citizens’ comments is going to stop the negativity. It will probably get worse.
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