Originally Posted by
erikd
313, I disagree with your assessment.
First off, there are not that many people showing up to the meetings to rabble-rouse and complain. It's usually around 100 people or less, and there is usually quite a bit of media coverage, so 75 protesters with 25 media reporters jammed in a meeting winds up looking like a much bigger protest than it really is.
Secondly, most of these meetings take place in the middle of the workday when most people are at work, so many of the voices of reason simply can't show up because of the time.
Thirdly, most of the protesters are either union reps who get paid to show up to these meetings and complain about anything involving cuts, or professional rabble-rousers, like Malik Shabazz, who make a living by selling conspiracy theories to a small group of followers, or dottering old busybodies who have nothing better to do in their retirement than go to local government meetings and complain about how they don't like change because things were better back in the old days.
This type of turnout and comments are actually very common at local public government meetings.
I worked the board meetings for a local school district in a very affluent area for about 7-8 years, and my experiences were not much different than what you see at Detroit city council meetings. During most meetings, there would be a couple of the old busybodies who showed up regularly, and would frequently get up to make a rambling statement about how long they had lived the community, and that they didn't like whatever change was happening, because things were better 50 years ago, etc.
Whenever there was a big budget issue, such as outsourcing food service or janitorial contracts, there would be 75-100 extra people who would show up, mostly union reps and union employees, who loudly complained that it wasn't fair to be cutting union jobs because of budget constraints.
Whenever there was any discussion about residency requirements or becoming a "school of choice", there would be another 75-100 people who would show up to protest anything that would make it easier for "outsiders", "non-residents", or "Detroiters" to gain access to their schools or community venues.
There is a very vocal, but usually small, group of people in every community who will fight against any type of change, and are wary of people outside of their community. Too often, we mistake the vocal minority for the silent majority.