JP should be scrutinized for comments on masks

A recently circulated video shows Michelle Chiocco, a District 10 justice of the peace in Benton County, stand at a Benton County Republican Women’s meeting to announce she is a JP and has a response to covid-19 face masks being forced. During this speech, she likens the wearing of a face mask to that of a burka. I presume Michelle was intending to say the burka is forced on women and that a face mask is a slippery slope to being forced to wear it and being oppressed like Muslim women apparently are.

As a native Arkansan who also happens to be a Muslim who wears the headscarf, I have a few problems with Michelle’s statements. To be clear, the burka is a face covering that is private and personal and worn for solely religious purposes.

Because she wanted to leverage her position of power as a mechanism for gaining credibility, she should also be scrutinized for comments she makes while representing herself as a JP. Therefore, I felt it only right to hold her accountable for her comments to her superiors. Come to find out, as an elected official, there is no one who can hold her responsible for her comments, according to the county clerk’s office, the Arkansas Association of Quorum Courts and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack’s office.

First, how is it acceptable for a county official to isolate an entire group of people in our community by spreading misinformation about our religion and promoting fear of the unknown? Additionally, her statements break from the CDC guidelines by encouraging people to stop wearing face masks, as if she is a medical professional and knowledgeable about the spread of covid-19.

Second, her job title implies that she is supposed to promote peace. And I presume that her campaign was run on the basis of being a proponent of peace in our community. Her comments are divisive. As a Muslim-American woman, I expect when I am dealing with a member of the Quorum Court, I will be treated fairly and without bias.

Third, I find it abhorrent that elected officials have no mechanism for repercussions for their behaviors. So, if a JP got a DUI, who would hold them responsible then? No one? Do we as a community not have the ability to hold our elected officials responsible? This leaves the only option for repercussions being public scrutiny.

Do we as a community, find it acceptable to allow for a person in a position of power to isolate an entire group of people and spread false information and fear among our community? It also speaks to a bigger problem within our judicial system. When there is a bad seed inside of a system, it makes the community wonder why that bad seed thought they had the authority to act in the way that they did in the first place.

MANDY MONTGOMERY Centerton