Cheyenne Chamber Urges Members To Support Harassment Ordinance

The Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce is asking the local business community to get behing a proposed ordinance aimed at malicious harassment.

Chamber President and CEO Dale Steenbergen sent out the following email to chamber members on Tuesday:

Members,
We need your help today!  Call the city council and let them you support minority groups in our community.  If we want economic development to thrive in our community people of all colors, creeds and cultures need to feel like this is their home.

Unfortunately, we have had too many incidents involving racism as of late.  Respect our military personnel our workers and our children by getting the cities support of the Malicious Harassment Ordinance.   Read the ordinance by clicking here.

Do it right now!  Write an email, make a call, stop them on the street, send a telegraph, send by pony express.  We need you reach out!  You will make a difference.  You can access the City Council contact information by clicking here.

Thank you for helping with this very important issue.

Onward and Upward,
Dale G. Steenbergen

One of the sponsors of the ordinance, councilman Richard Johnson, has compared the proposal to a local hate crimes law.

Some opponents of the ordinance on social media have argued that laws are already in place to protect people from the activities targeted by the ordinance. Others have expressed concerns that the ordinance could be used to muzzle freedom of speech, claiming that school boards in some parts of the country, for example,  have used such laws to silence critics.

Johnson disputes the idea that such a law could be used to silence free speech. He says the proposed ordinance was modeled on a lw in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He says he proposed the ordinance because of conversations he's had with residents who say they don't feel safe in the community.