East St. Louis Mayor Enacts Martial Law :

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

St. Louis CBS Local published an article on the 27th of September 2012 entitled “Virtual House Arrest Ordered for Minors in East St. Louis.”

Apparently, “angered by the recent murders of four young people, the mayor announced today that police are going to impose drastic new measures to keep teens off the streets.”

Mayor Alvin Parks said, “there is something going on in the community at this point that we’ve got to safeguard them and keep them off the streets.”

He finishes, “there are people shooting at each other for no reason whatsoever.”

The following is an excerpt from the article listing some of the rules the mayor is now imposing:

“Among the rules:

**Minors are to be off the streets at ten o’clock on both weeknights and weekend nights.

**Minors on the street during school hours will be arrested on sight.

**Police will also perform I.D. checks on street corners and conduct gun searches, and Parks says he won’t hesitate to call in the National Guard if the spike in violence continues.”

According to a KMOV article as of two days ago, on the 29th of September, the mayor “is softening his earlier proposal this week of banning males in the city from wearing red or blue clothing.”

This is an unprecedented government control and it is the suspension of ordinary law, including the Constitution. This is martial law.

These provisions enacted by the mayor are suspending Constitutional rights on the basis of crime. It is entirely unconstitutional to lock down a city with unwarranted searches with no basis or probable cause.

If you read the rest at the link, know I don’t necessarily agree with their reasons and assessments about guns. However, the steps the Mayor has taken are far out of bounds. It is out of proportion to what it going on and I think that the Mayor may very well be losing his grip on reality. Delusions of grandeur perhaps.