Tea Party Organizer Muzzled at City Council Meeting

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Tea Party Organizer Muzzled at City Council Meeting

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By Bob McCarty

Could it be that Steve McQueen was denied his Constitutional right to be heard at a Quincy, Ill., city council meeting because of the fact that he is the chief organizer of the Quincy Tea Party movement? It sure appears that way.

It was the last thing McQueen expected to have happen when he appeared at the meeting last night. But it did happen. In a 7-6 vote down party lines, members of the Quincy City Council voted to him his right to speak, despite the fact that he had taken all of the proper steps required of a citizen to appear on the council’s agenda.

“I actually went last night with the idea that I was going to speak about our local city budget and a water-sewer increase,” McQueen told me this morning during a telephone interview. “I did ask to speak prior to going and I was placed n the agenda, so I went in with the idea that it was a foregone conclusion that I would speak. When I walked in and the vote happened, I was shocked.”

Shocked, yes. But not deterred.

To read more of my interview with McQueen (the citizen, not the late actor), click here.