I bet the made-for-tv movie will star Kevin Costner

July 12, 2011 7:42 AM

Welcome to Quartzite, Arizona, where nothing really happens. Oh, except for this.

It's a plot that has pretty much everything you would need for a low-budget thriller...small town corruption. A heavy handed chief of police. A gunslinging mayor charged with fighting corruption. A rabble-rousing martyr. And a state government closing in just a little too slow to keep the sh*t from completely hitting the fan.

posted by jadayne (65 comments total)

Local governments are the most corrupt.
posted by Flood at 7:46 AM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Vice Mayor Barbara Cowell told The Arizona Republic on Sunday that Foster's characterization of the council imposing "martial law" was inaccurate...

...before demonstrating the cool new sight on her pink .380
posted by griphus at 7:48 AM on July 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

Wow, totally crazy.
posted by odinsdream at 7:49 AM on July 12, 2011

I really thought I was going to see a massive RV encampment of rock-hounds.
Don't know if I'm disappointed or pleased.
posted by SLC Mom at 7:52 AM on July 12, 2011

Not sure what was so special about that. The woman was out of order. I could not make out exactly what she was saying, but whatever it was, it is not relevant. In New York, a council meeting has to be held in public, but that does not mean that it is a forum for the public. In fact, the town board does not even have to allow public comment. It just has to conduct its business in public.

The woman grabbed the microphone, turned her back to the council and started preaching to the assembled citizens. That is not the way it works.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:53 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Quite the active audience. I wonder what the cafeteria will be having for lunch tomorrow?
posted by buzzman at 7:53 AM on July 12, 2011

The police in Arizona seem to be completely out of control. It's the Wild West out there. At some point, the feds are going to have to come and take control.
posted by empath at 7:56 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I was in the process of making a FPP about this myself. There's so much interesting stuff at play here.. my facts may be a little off, as I'm not fully done researching and cataloguing them, but here's what I understand:

Two weeks before that video was made, 9 out of 14 city police officers voted that they had no confidence in the police chief (pictured in the video saying "Don't resist the officer.")

The council, police chief, and city manager seem to be involved in some kind of corruption/embezzlement, and the mayor (heard in the video chairing the meeting and saying, "Officer, the lady has the floor, you are violating my rules of order.")

The lady seen being arrested has no prior criminal record, but has been recently arrested at least 10 times by the police chief, after attempting to probe and report on the scandal. She has a lawsuit for police harassment pending against the city. In one incident, the mayor showed up to the scene of a confrontation between the two of them to intercede on her behalf, and was arrested. None of that has gone to trial yet.

JohnnyGunn: I am pretty sure she was not out of order, but I can't really be sure without knowing more about their rules. The chair of the meeting yielded the floor to her during the public comment period, and defended her right to speak. When the other councillors tried to make a motion to have her ejected, both the woman and the mayor indicated that such a motion was itself out of order at that time.

The right thing to do, of course, would be to let the woman have her say, then respond to it as appropriate. If you can simply eject anyone who discusses something that you disagree with, why have a public comment period at all?
posted by teatime at 7:57 AM on July 12, 2011 [27 favorites]

Local governments are the most corrupt.

Cite?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:02 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Huh. This is why my Mom got out of small town government.
posted by Think_Long at 8:03 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

All this needs is a dodge charger and some dynamite arrows.
posted by mhoye at 8:04 AM on July 12, 2011 [13 favorites]

teatime, i tried formulating and reformulating this post several times since, as you said, there are so many juicy tidbits i was afraid i'd be leaving out. But in the end, the sheer number of them made for too top-heavy a post, so i just stuck with a few, more general posts, with the assumption that everyone would stumble upon them. Also, the town site, the sherrif's office, and the mayor's facebook page have all exceeded bandwidth or been taken down, so there's a lot less to look at.
posted by jadayne at 8:05 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

BTW, i can't wait to pull this one out of my back pocket the next time i get into one of those "Federal gov't good for nothing yadda yadda yadda....local and state gov'ts know best yadda yadda yadda" discussions in which i find myself occasionally embroiled.
posted by jadayne at 8:08 AM on July 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

More info here, here, and here.

And, an incident from June of this year.

The mayor has pressed disorderly conduct charges against the three officers involved in removing the woman with Arizona DPS.

I agree that local governments are the most corrupt, because they have less scrutiny. If the police had seized or simply forbidden this video, this incident would have never come to light. Truly, the best [use] of the web.

(Of course, some person from the same town and with the same last name as the police chief is repeatedly filing false copyright claims with YouTube, causing copies of the video to become unavailable.)
posted by teatime at 8:09 AM on July 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

The woman grabbed the microphone, turned her back to the council and started preaching to the assembled citizens. That is not the way it works.

Um, yes.

AFTER THE COUNCIL ILLEGALLY SHUT HER DOWN AND TRIED TO HAVE HER FORCIBLY REMOVED WHILE SHE WAS CALMING ADDRESSING THE COUNCIL IN A PUBLIC FORUM.

Jesus, man.

Selective editing will always prove your point.
posted by gcbv at 8:09 AM on July 12, 2011 [14 favorites]

The right thing to do, of course, would be to let the woman have her say, then respond to it as appropriate. If you can simply eject anyone who discusses something that you disagree with, why have a public comment period at all?

This. Even if she was out of order, the solution under Robert's (assumed to be what they're using, judging from the dialog) isn't "have them arrested."
posted by odinsdream at 8:10 AM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

This. Even if she was out of order, the solution under Robert's (assumed to be what they're using, judging from the dialog) isn't "have them arrested."

And I was just reviewing the Robert's Rules for exactly when tasering is in order.
posted by aught at 8:13 AM on July 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

A smarter small town tyrant would've just let her say what she wanted to and then done the opposite anyway. Trying to stifle her in mid speech is only going to magnify the issue. Smart tyrants don't give a shit what people say; petty tyrants seem to think thought policing is important.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 8:13 AM on July 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

The issue is whether she was legitimately (under the rules of the council not Robert's Rules) at the microphone. If so, then let her speak under the appropriate terms. (Some have time limits, etc) If not, she should be asked to stop and if she refuses, I see no reason not to arrest her for disorderly conduct. The merits of her argument are not relevant. The relevant issue is the rules of the council for speaking and cutting off a speaker.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:15 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

It will be interesting to see if it turns out there's anything to the payroll fraud charges mentioned in the AP article (on the order of $250 k per year for the last 20 years, supposedly).
posted by aught at 8:16 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

He said since being in office, he has discovered that every pay period, eight to 10 paychecks go to unnamed people and that he has been denied access to financial records to find out where the money goes at every turn

I love small town fiscal mismanagement scandals. Thanks for posting this.
posted by salvia at 8:17 AM on July 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

I felt extremely uncomfortable watching this. When the illusion of authority is stripped away, people turn into confused animals.

At one point the police chief orders the officers to do one thing, and they do. Then the mayor orders them to do another, and they do that. I don't know how that town's government is structured, but when you've got the police chief ignoring the request of the mayor, something is clearly messed up.
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:19 AM on July 12, 2011 [10 favorites]

she should be asked to stop and if she refuses, I see no reason not to arrest her for disorderly conduct.

Actually, I would think the appropriate response would be to escort her from the room. Arresting her is way over the top.
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 8:21 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

The council, police chief, and city manager seem to be involved in some kind of corruption/embezzlement, and the mayor (heard in the video chairing the meeting and saying, "Officer, the lady has the floor, you are violating my rules of order.")

Gah, I meant "and the mayor ran for election on a platform of investigating them", not that he was part of the corruption.
posted by teatime at 8:22 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

but when you've got the police chief ignoring the request of the mayor, something is clearly messed up.

When you've got the Police Chief actively harrassing the lady who is claiming corruption charges against said police chief, a police chief who ignores the chain of command by ignoring the mayor, and THEN TAKES OVER THE TOWN IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER THE MAYOR IS OUTED....


oh yeah, something is clearly messed up.
posted by gcbv at 8:24 AM on July 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

What I'm most interested to know now, though, is who shot the video, and if they'll be filing suit to collect damages for the false DMCA notices sent to YouTube. (Or if they even can, under the law... I was really hoping there were statutory damages involved...)
posted by teatime at 8:38 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you look at the video you will see the flag has a gold fringe; clearly the town has been under martial law all along!
posted by TedW at 8:38 AM on July 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

Which ones are the teabaggers? I need to know who to ridicule.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:42 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fascinating! Thank you for posting this.
posted by ged at 8:42 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, if people do file suit -- or if the woman injured in the video who is also, apparently suing the police department for their earlier harassment. wins her case -- at least they should get their payoff since it seems that somebody in the government has been skimming plenty of money. Ah, if it were only that simple...

Speaking of complex, if Jan Brewer's administration comes into Quartzite to clean things up, that's certainly going to be a battle in which nobody is somebody for whom I can root and would certainly be a time during which ideology (free speech, anti-corruption) would overtake party loyalties.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:44 AM on July 12, 2011

MAYBE IF I USE CAPS LOCK THEY'LL LISTEN TO ME
posted by griphus at 8:44 AM on July 12, 2011

I read The Dome - this doesn't end well.
posted by kbanas at 8:45 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm guessing many millions of dollars are passed around in these giant rock shows they have. I'm guessing that the tiny town that owns the land where the rocks are sold would like a little cut. I'm guessing they have to kind of work around the laws a little. Corruption!
posted by kozad at 8:46 AM on July 12, 2011

In case anyone missed the scandal in the City of Bell.
posted by salvia at 8:50 AM on July 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Never had the pleasure of visiting Quartzite myself, but some friends in a band were stranded there for a couple of days after their van broke down following a California swing. I heard lots of wacky tales, many involving Richard, a Korean grocer who yelled at the boys because all they ever bought was "Dr Pepper and porn".

Sounds like a fun place.
posted by shecky57 at 9:06 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, when things get this bad in an American fiefdom, it's often the case that the DOJ can accomplish more than a disinterested (or too-interested) state government. Hopefully some of these gutsy people have made that long-distance call as well.
posted by Scram at 9:08 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Not sure what was so special about that. The woman was out of order.

Samuel Johnson said that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. Can we maybe add to this, that in a room full of patriots, the scoundrels must then fall back on obstinate calls to order?
posted by philip-random at 9:10 AM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I've been noticing a growing trend recently in the US: police are being used as a first, not a last, resort pretty much any time someone with authority has a minor grievance or squabble with another. This is disturbing.

I was impressed at how calm Jones was able to stay up until the point that the council/police escalated.
posted by threeants at 9:18 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have faith that Jan Brewers government will take notice of what's been going on, swoop in like an avenging angel, grab the police chief, vice mayor, and city council, and appoint them all to high-level positions in the state government. After all, such talent shouldn't go unrewarded.
posted by happyroach at 9:22 AM on July 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

TedW: "If you look at the video you will see the flag has a gold fringe; clearly the town has been under martial law all along!"

I haven't heard that one before, which prompted a Google search, which entertained me to no end for a good 30 minutes. God, how I love those conspiracy theories.
posted by falameufilho at 9:45 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire Stephen J. Cannell
posted by joecacti at 9:48 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've been noticing a growing trend recently in the US: police are being used as a first, not a last, resort pretty much any time someone with authority has a minor grievance or squabble with another. This is disturbing.

This has actually been happening for years, but it has mainly affected minorities. It's only in the past decade or so that law-enforcement as a tool of control has been used increasingly against anyone who isn't in the power structure. I'm not sure if it was directly tied to the drug-war or turning every beat cop into an anti-terror tactical agent, but I'll certainly agree that it's a disturbing trend.

It used to be that the only people I knew that were afraid of cops were the ones with something to hide (you know, because they had parking tickets, or were black), now everyone is wary, because you never know when you are going to be dealing with officer friendly, or some petty despot out to put boot to neck.

But this is my soapbox and I don't want to derail the conversation any more than I already have.
posted by quin at 9:56 AM on July 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Anyone read Under the Dome?
posted by eugenen at 10:07 AM on July 12, 2011

The issue is whether she was legitimately (under the rules of the council not Robert's Rules) at the microphone.

No, I'm pretty sure the issue here is that she was arrested after doing no more than refusing to yield the floor in a perfectly calm, reasonable manner. As others have noted, whether or not she was out of order, at worst she should have been escorted (the less than 20 ft) from the meeting. Other than grabbing hold of the microphone, she barely raised her voice. And it is not clear that she was out of order.

teatime and jadayne - actually, I would have preferred a more "top heavy" post in this case. Knowing the background of possible police harassment puts a very different perspective of the quick clampdown on her speech here.
posted by maryr at 10:13 AM on July 12, 2011

eugenen - I assume kbanas has.
posted by maryr at 10:14 AM on July 12, 2011

and then The Rock and the guy from Jackass show up and the Rock has this big stick and he's all BLAM! POW!
posted by Hoopo at 10:20 AM on July 12, 2011

falameufilho, I learned about the admiralty flag from this post.
posted by TedW at 10:45 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I stopped briefly in this town a week or so ago on my way to San Diego... something very strange was definitely afoot. It's hard to describe... but I got the heck out of there fairly quickly. I was all, "Screw this, I'm going to Blythe!"
posted by ph00dz at 10:52 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Man....wtf is wrong with Arizona?
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 11:25 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Man....wtf is wrong with Arizona?

Well, it's summer.
posted by Taft at 11:36 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Now who can argue with that? I think we're all in debt to Gabby Johnson for stating what needed to be said. I am particularly glad that these lovely children are here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed the courage little seen in this day and age.
posted by not_on_display at 11:47 AM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

The Main Event in Quartzsite
posted by mmrtnt at 11:57 AM on July 12, 2011

How is it even possible to pay someone anonymously? That is kind of staggering. I mean, at some point, payroll taxes are involved as well as the whole process of establishing the legal right to work, which I understand is kind of a big deal in Arizona.
posted by feloniousmonk at 1:01 PM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

It wasn't really anonymous, the checks were just made out to more Mr. Cash, and they forgot to write his first name.
posted by happyroach at 3:51 PM on July 12, 2011

I’ve driven through there a lot. It’s always seemed really weird, and I don’t even know why. We would always say "who the hell lives in Blythe?" and then "Seriously, who lives in Quartzite and what are they doing there?". At least move to Blythe.
posted by bongo_x at 4:08 PM on July 12, 2011

If they really did just make the checks out to Mr. Cash or something like that, it sounds like they just invited Mr. IRS and Mr. FBI over for a visit.
posted by feloniousmonk at 4:16 PM on July 12, 2011

Could I just say something?

Some of you guys step in and mock these townspeople (and rightly so) for being stupid, closed-minded, idiots who make a mockery of the law.

At the same time, though, some of you are being concrete-thinking simpletons in your own right. One town does not represent all of Arizona. The police in Arizona aren't "out of control" and you couldn't possibly derive that legitimately from this instance.

I don't care for it when I hear people essentially call Arizona is some monolithic Mexican-hating racist pig-cop state. Nobody with half a brain would ever say California is a big monolithic state. California has regions that are quite different from each other. Arizona's certainly the same. Like any other place, its politics reflect certain powerful communities in this state. They don't reflect the beliefs of everyone.

This incident and things like SB 1070 are absolute garbage, but people ought to be more thoughtful in how they respond.
posted by Old Man McKay at 6:38 PM on July 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

Also, for those of you wondering why this tiny truck-stop town would have such a corruption and power struggle junk... it's all about the Benjamins. It's always about the Benjamins, after all.

Every year, Quartzsite is home to several massive rock and gem shows. These shows are accompanied by huge swap meets, gun shows, cook-offs, all kinds of events. The little town that's normally 3,000 during the summer literally has hundreds of thousands of people show up between December and March of each year.

There is some money in running the show in this town. Those that are in charge, I'm sure, make some cash off of these big events. They control permits, fees, and likely take plenty of cash under the table for allowing certain vendors/events and disallowing others.

Here's a great LA Times video that shows just a couple minutes of Quartzsite during the winter, what kinds of people go there, and what goes on.
posted by Old Man McKay at 6:46 PM on July 12, 2011

Local government: home owners associations with more scope for evil
posted by Redhush at 8:19 PM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

"I don't care for it when I hear people essentially call Arizona is some monolithic Mexican-hating racist pig-cop state."

You forgot Democratic congresswomen getting shot in the face.
posted by bardic at 8:40 PM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

He said he's gone to Gov. Jan Brewer's office, the Attorney General's Office and the FBI with his allegations and pleas for an investigation, and that he's been ignored.

It is very unsettling when a mayor goes to the FBI with allegations of corruption in his town and they ignore him.
posted by eye of newt at 9:12 PM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

He doesn't know that he's been ignored. The Feds don't ride into town shooting guns, they investigate.
posted by Scram at 9:21 PM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't care for it when I hear people essentially call Arizona is some monolithic Mexican-hating racist pig-cop state. Nobody with half a brain would ever say California is a big monolithic state. California has regions that are quite different from each other.

Are you saying: don't assume the motivations of some in government reflect the motivations of the people in the state? If so, I completely agree. I also completely agree with most of the rest of your point (e.g., "the police in AZ..."). But if you don't think the state can be held accountable for the acts of its state government (e.g., "the State of California can't get its act together to pass a budget"), then I'd disagree. At some point people (me included) have to feel some responsibility, and if that means driving out to Redding to pound the pavement in hopes of defeating the person who screws up the budget every year, well, maybe I should. / splitting hairs
posted by salvia at 9:55 PM on July 12, 2011

I think a Department of Justice investigation is in order. Looks like Quartzite had a cop coupe d'état . It could happen in any small town anywhere. I am with those who say drop an out of state dime on thus scene.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:33 PM on July 12, 2011

Follow-up
posted by teatime at 1:23 AM on July 16, 2011 [1 favorite]