It's a big, bad world out there, and Mayor Carol Bellmon wants protection from the crazies.
She says local officials should get the same treatment regarding threats or physical harm against them as the governor and state legislators receive.Current law provides that anyone who threatens or harms state (not local) elected officials is guilty of a felony. At Bellmon's urging, the Davis County Council of Governments has passed a resolution urging the Legislature to include local officials in the law.
Even though the mayor of a 5,000-resident city might not seem an especially attractive target for kooks and fanatics, Bellmon said she has been threatened at various times.
"People in our society today don't behave themselves as we might want them to," she said. "We are vulnerable."
On one occasion, Bellmon said she terminated a police officer who later came into her office to discuss the matter. Though he didn't make any overt threats, after he left "I realized I had just fired someone who was wearing a gun."
On another occasion, a person who was unhappy with how his case had been handled in court made like a voodoo priest and put a curse on Bellmon, the city attorney and judge.
That was a new one on Layton Mayor Jerry Stevenson.
"I'm not sure if I have ever had a curse put on me, but I know I've had plenty thrown at me," he said.