Charleston to have its own “thought police”

Committee to be appointed by the Mayor (Viewers, this is not a joke!)

Warwick Jones

We couldn’t believe it when we first saw the notice in the City Council meeting agenda. But then we got a copy of the proposed ordinance. Yep, it seems the Mayor wants the City to have it own “thought police”. Orwell’s vision is about to materialize in Charleston.

At the meeting on Tuesday evening, Council will have before it an ordinance attempting to define what candidates for elected office in the City can say and not say. And to enforce it, the Mayor is going to appoint a committee of which he will be a member to impose fines on those who transgress.

Get it! The Mayor can impose fines on those running against him or for Council if he thinks they are transgressing. You’d think that in this unreal proposal, the Mayor would have the sense to have an independent committee. In our view, the largest lies have been told by the Mayor. Does he propose to fine himself?

We can add a lot more. But we’ll let readers judge. By the way, we are not lawyers. But we suspect that the ordinance is unenforceable.