Mobile leaders speak out on Comic Cowboys Mardi Gras parade sign: ‘poor taste’
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Two Mobile City Council members agreed to co-sign a community letter to the Comic Cowboys regarding signage in the society’s Mardi Gras parade.
The sign read, which parade attendees saw Fat Tuesday, said, “MPD finally releases body cam footage with shocking result.”
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The sign, according to Patricia Law, insulted Jawan Dallas, who died shortly after being tased by Mobile police.
The body camera footage showing his death was kept under lock and key as it was used as evidence before a grand jury.
In November, a grand jury cleared the officers involved in Dallas’s death of any wrongdoing.
Dallas’s mother was in attendance as Law addressed the council.
“We’re not taking this anymore. Period,” Law said.
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Law, along with other concerned citizens, said she plans to send a letter to the Comic Cowboys to vent her frustrations.
“We just decided, the group of us, to stand up on behalf of the Dallas family and on behalf of other families,” Law said.
District 1 Councilman Cory Penn was the first council member to say he was in support.
“I will be joining in in writing a letter,” Penn said. “It’s not funny. I actually don’t even attend that parade because I don’t know what’s going to be said.”
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District 2 Councilman William Carroll followed Penn’s lead.
“Please send me a copy of the letter. I’ll be glad to sign it,” Carroll said. “It was inappropriate, and if that’s the message that the City of Mobile wants to send to the rest of the world, then we need to do something about it.”
The city cannot do anything legally to suppress the Comic Cowboys’ actions due to First Amendment rights.
City Attorney Ricardo Woods said the city cannot step in unless the society puts people in danger or uses “fighting words.”
The city does not review, sign off on, or approve floats featured in any Mardi Gras parade. Permits are issued “to ensure that there is adequate police protection and traffic control along the parade routes.” Permits do not regulate the content or signs featured by any organization.
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Caroll said the sign has no place in today’s society.
“It hadn’t been but 90 years since there was a rope in a tree and a fire where bodies were burned, and citizens were made to look at it, and kids were made to look at it and laugh like it was a joke,” Carroll said. “It’s just a mirror image of 100 years ago with today’s technology.”
Following the city council meeting, Law and Dallas’s mother joined a group prayer outside the council chamber.
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“Making jokes about any loss of life is always in poor taste, but regardless of my or anyone else’s personal opinion, all citizens have a right to peaceably assemble and exercise their right to free speech under the First Amendment,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said.
Stimpson was not at the council meeting.
WKRG News 5 contacted the Comic Cowboys but hasn’t received a response.
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