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Kneeling at Fayetteville’s throne

By BEN NELMS

I think it’s a shame how some innocent and defenseless elected and appointed officials in Fayetteville city government are being referenced these days in regard to the unfolding situation at the police department.

After all, the potential lawsuits, the increasing volume of former officers who are speaking out, the number of current officers who recently voiced a no-confidence position for the Roberts administration and, let’s not forget, the mean and unrelenting local press (that’s this newspaper) all have it wrong and are just taking unfair advantage of the unfortunate situation in which Mayor Steele and the City Council currently find themselves.

And all this with the re-election bids of council members Larry Dell, Walt White and Al Hovey-King just around the corner.

The more I think about it, I believe everybody should stop this nonsense and believe everything that Steele and the council tell us.

After all, they are our elected representatives in local government, they are always open and up front, they are always strong advocates for city employees and citizens, they practice local government transparency and accountability, and they are always responsive to questions and comments posed in person and in council meetings.

And as for me, I should turn over a new leaf. I should stop reporting on the mess in the police department, stop issuing all those pesky Open Records Law requests and refuse to listen to the former officers that say the culture of fear is real.

And, oh, yeah, I should not have taken Chief Roberts out of context in his now-infamous “mules with blinders” comment during my interview with him last month.

Okay, enough of this chimera. I may be only four months into reporting in Fayetteville but I’m already seeing some things that are eerily familiar. It presents itself as a kind of dichotomy.

On the one hand I see a mayor and council that certainly appear to do a good job with the tasks before them.

Yet, with the recent upheaval in the police department and, more particularly with Steele’s manner of response to questions and comments during the “public comments” portion of the May 19 meeting (by the way, it’s all on tape) and the deafening silence of the council, I get the impression that, for some unexplained reason, they are on the defensive.

Otherwise, why act that way, both during and after the meeting? Could it be that the “throne” mentality so often ascribed to Chief Johnny Roberts actually pervades City Hall?

Personally, I just wish the council meetings were recorded for playback on a cable public access channel.

And as for quoting Roberts out of context, that’s why I (like Roberts) often tape interviews and public meetings.

The playback of the “mules with blinders” portion of the interview showed, as Joe Morton acknowledged after he read the article while listening to the tape, that the quote was precisely in context.

Roberts received a lion’s share of print space because we felt he deserved to be heard. But apparently your newspaper was bad and wrong for printing the contextually correct statement.

Like others in Fayetteville, your newspaper is supposed to fall in line (along with officers and citizens) like good baby ducks, marching to the beat struck by the mayor and council.

The contextual question of the mayor and council’s intention for transparency becomes a moot point as long as we all keep our place in line and remain in quiet submission like good little duckies, as we kneel at the Fayetteville throne.