Word of the day: jitney\JIT-nee\ noun: *1 : bus; especially : a small bus that carries passengers over a regular route on a flexible schedule. 2 : an unlicensed taxicab.
Town officials justify the law suit for fear that the 51 year old lady or her fellow protesters “could turn violent.” Saltville economic development director Tracy Mitchell was quoted as saying that “We just don’t want violence” and explained that Ms. Bailey was “targeted” in hopes that it would “quiet other land owners and end the dispute over the ownership of the rail line.”
Could turn violent? Targeted? Quiet others? What kind of jitney professional history does this development director hold?
Since when is a hypothetical crime actionable? One might reasonably guess that Ms. Bailey is probably a royal pain in the butt to the town officials. But the words of the economic development director reveal a disturbing motivation behind the town’s action against this lady and her friends. This sounds an awful lot like intimidation to quash voices of dissent under the color of officialgovernmental authority.
The idea of public officials from the Town of Saltville trying to intimidate and stifle the right of free speech by filing a law suit that threatens financial ruin to a “targeted” individual with the express hope that it will “quiet others” involved in this dispute is fundamentally WRONG!
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