Alton Tries to Silence its Citizens

[Merrymeeting]

Originally Posted by ITD

If they can't handle public criticism they should not be in public office, the selectmen should have given him his 5 minutes, he probably would have gone home satisfied, the selectmen would have forgotten about it in about 10 minutes and it would have been over. Instead, they need to exert their authority and make mountain out of molehill. The town will end up paying for this, it should in my opinion.

In normal circumstances, most would agree. But in this case, this is a "citizen" who has been continually disruptive, refuses to conform to Robert's Rules and other norms of public behavior in meetings, and is preventing the meeting from proceeding.

At some point it stops being free speech and just becomes obnoxious.