Representatives Rob Bell (R-58) and David Toscano (D-57) held a public discussion downtown on Wednesday evening, as Bob Gibson wrote in yesterday’s Daily Progress, and the wide-ranging talk proved pretty interesting. The format was basically that of town hall meeting, a function that isn’t held nearly enough. One interesting bit is that both legislators supported examining a change in law to prevent kids from being interviewed by police without an attorney present, if their parents request one, as happened to the kid recently acquitted in the smoke bombing plot. The event was put together by The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and is part of a weekly series being held at the chalkboard; last Wednesday my mother spoke, and next Wednesday WINA host Coy Barefoot will be speaking.
Sean Tubbs was on the scene, and has the audio at Charlottesville Podcasting Network.
As always, I can count on you and Tubbs to keep me conversant on the goodies surrounding my daily life.
Thanks!
What’s the current law on that? Shouldn’t the law just me modified that the police cannot speak to a minor without a parent or guardian being present? That requirement alone would’ve prevented the “4 days” the parents were denied access to their child, and shennanigans like that.
Wow…I guess I was wrong about Bell – he does place a higher priority on pandering than expanding police & prosecutorial power.
My bad!
It will die in committee and that’s Bell’s intent. Then he can take credit for presenting this important community issue anyway.
Didn’t Bell take credit for the “anti-school bully law” during the last election? It could be he just has an interest in laws and school/educational issues regarding students.
And technically a Republican should be against any expansion of government power- smaller government and all that… yada yada. But no this is the real world.
This question was asked by Bob Gibson at 56:54 and continues on for about seven minutes. I’d very much like to be able to add timecodes for the questions, but I had to move on to something else and wasn’t able to. I’m always looking for volunteers to assist.
Sean- Thank you for your efforts making the podcasts available for all of us.