ORANGE-By: Leslie Rangel
Orange city council Attorney, Jack Smith is calling on it's citizens to use their freedom of speech to protest a proposed Confederate Memorial Park.
Citizens came to the council with concerns during Tuesday morning's meeting. They spoke up saying the park would bring back memories of a time in U.S. history when blacks were slaves and treated as second class citizens.
A private landowner has purchased about half and acre on the corner of Interstate-10 and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Orange.
Smith, the City attorney says legally, there is nothing the city can do. Smith says the issue is a matter of free speech and the first ammendment.
"It's just like the Klu Klux Klan has a right to demonstrate and have a parade, you may not like them, but they still have a right to do that. What upsets me and I think a lot of other people is they'll get a wrong impression about our town and driving down Interstate 10 and seeing this," Smith says.
He also tells citizens he and the council will do anything they can to stop the landowner from building the memorial park. He urges anyone concerned to protest, speak out against it, and even buy billboard space to counter the landowner.
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