Vermont Town Hammered Over Petition To Arrest, Prosecute Bush and Cheney
The town's Selectboard approved the measure last Friday, meaning that voters in Brattleboro will be asked to vote on the following resolution in early March:
Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?
The Rutland Herald reports that town officials stopped answering the phone on Monday because of the "nastiness" of the calls they were receiving from websurfers across the country. "We're getting e-mails and phone calls, nasty, nasty e-mails, I've only a gotten a few," Town Clerk Annette Cappy tells the paper. "You couldn't repeat most of those calls, they are nasty and nasty."
The whole thing appears to be a waste of time. AP says none of the officials named in the resolution has the authority to arrest, detain or otherwise prosecute to the president and vice president. "It is largely symbolic," Kurt Daims, the petition's author, tells the Herald.
The Vermont Cynic, a student newspaper at the University of Vermont, notes in a story about the controversy that "The White House did not comment on the issue."
Here's the statement that town officials posted on their website amid all the hullabaloo about the petition:
On January 25 the Town Clerk’s office received a petition from Brattleboro resident Kurt Daims. Per Town Charter, a petition containing signatures from 5% of Brattleboro voters can be placed on the ballot for a Town-wide vote. Mr. Daims’ petition did contain the required number of signatures. At a meeting on January 25, the Brattleboro Selectboard voted 3-2 to place the petition on the ballot. Reasons given by Board members voting in the affirmative centered on the belief that if a petition contained the required signatures, the voters should have the opportunity to vote on the matter. Reasons given by Board members voting on the dissent centered on the belief that articles outside the scope and authority of the Town should not go before the voters of the Town. The Brattleboro Town Attorney has stated that the petition has no legal standing, as the Town Attorney has no authority to write an indictment and the Town Police Department has no authority to attempt an arrest of the President of the United States.
The Town will vote on the article on March 4.
How would you vote if you lived in Brattleboro? Vote here.
(Photo of Selectboard meeting, top, and Daims taken by Zachary P. Stephens, Brattleboro Reformer via AP.)