ICE in Woodstock
The public meeting began with celebration and recognition from Woodstock’s Mayor, Micheal Caldwell, celebrating people on the board and a local police officer. The meeting took a turn when a woman in a red dress took the podium during the time to freely express your thoughts on what is going on in the city. She held behind her back a sign that shows that she does not need the governments' help in wanting to change to the community.
The meeting was held at The Chambers at City Center in downtown Woodstock, where citizens and family members gathered to celebrate the recognition of board members and one local police officer getting promoted. Where they then moved on to any public hearings that the public would like to make.
Mayor Michael Caldwell started the meeting with some recognitions from the board with those names being Arbor Day, Misty Smith, and Robyn Adams. He lets everyone know who he is about to congratulate and recognize what they have achieved and what advancements they have for the local police department.
Mayor Caldwell smiles at Cameron Dunn, the City Planner for the City of Woodstock, as a moment of recognition and congratulating him on his achievements and his work.
Dunn continues to make his remarks to the crowd, also while talking to the council. Dunn talks about how the city of Woodstock is on the rise and how improvements across the city are at an all-time high.
However, as they moved to the one public comment of the night on their agenda, the energy went from all exciting and congratulating, to a serious matter.
The evening takes a shift to the one public hearing of the night where a woman in a red shirt makes her way to the podium where she is holding a sign behind her back to make sure that everyone in the audience can see what was written. It said, “No ICE in Woodstock.”
Martha Jean Schindler, a resident in the city of Woodstock, is pleading with Mayor Caldwell and the rest of the board to help the citizens of Woodstock, to help them feel no fear when ICE comes into town. She feels like that ICE is causing all this fear among citizens of the city where she is demanding now that the board does something about it and gets ICE out of Woodstock.
Trevor Collias, a citizen of Woodstock, stated, “I know it is against the law to get in the way of Immigration Officers, but some of the things that I have seen on the news and on my social media, is just not okay.”
As Schindler stands firm at the podium and the microphone, looking straight at the mayor, where she mentions that we prayed before this meeting, and said the pledge of allegiance, where she then mentions where is the liberty and justice for all for the people that are afraid of ICE in their town. Where she then goes on and tells the board that we should not work with the federal agents because they are breaking the Constitution. However, some board members disagreed with the statement made by Schindler.
“Woodstock consistently ranks as one of the safest communities in Georgia,” Jeff Moon, City Manager for Woodstock, said, “Additionally, it is against the law for a local government to not cooperate with state or federal law enforcement agencies in Georgia.”
The entire time that the woman is up at the podium, the “No ICE in Woodstock” sign remains visible to the crowd as they remain silent as she is talking about how she believes that we need to get the immigration officers out of the great city.
“I have said repeatedly in my statements that we don’t live in a microcosm separate from the CONSTITUTION.” Martha Jean Schindler, a resident of Woodstock, stated. “State law does not supersede federal law. And ICE is not following the Constitution. We are watching that play out in real time across this country.”
She finished her speech as there was some people who were clapping, however most of the people remained silent, as did the board members, quicky moving on to finish out the meeting for the night.
Schindler was handing out ICE kits at the end of the night after the public meeting was concluded. The kit has whistles, pins, QR codes, and many other things. Also handed out was a packet of information that you can do in the city to help protect its citizens.
As the great city of Woodstock continues to grow and expand, the board and especially Mayor Caldwell has some decisions to make while he has been handed this issue to his table.