Council Candidate Rev. Cedric Pride Arrested

Rev. Cedric Pride; Arrested 10/26/12

HELENA-WEST HELENA-  According to law enforcement sources inside the City of Helena-West Helena, Reverend Cedric Pride, a candidate for Helena-West Helena City Council, was arrested after a traffic accident for driving on a suspended driver's license due to legal problems that occurred in another state.

Details about the arrest, which occurred just over a week ago, have been difficult to obtain.  However, the Inside Scoop Online has been able to confirm that Pride, who is also a local minister, was involved in a traffic accident.  While the police were working that traffic accident, Pride's driver's license record was checked and law enforcement learned as a part of that check that Pride's license was suspended.  Helena-West Helena Police then took Pride into custody, cuffing him and taking him to HWHPD Headquarters on Plaza Street.

Efforts to obtain copies of the written records of this case have been unsuccessful so far.  Pride has been politically active before and is known to be a follower of Mayor Arnell Willis and his plan to increase the city's sanitation fees by $15 per month.  Pride also worked with Sanitation Director Bobby Jones, local vote hustler, ex-con and Willis henchman on the campaign of the winning candidate for State Representative in May.  Both Pride and Bobby Jones received $625 from that campaign according to the report.  Pride took this money while telling others locally that he was supporting the other candidate, local preacher Jerome Turner.

Pride is running in Tuesday's election against incumbent Alderman Chris Franklin, who has publicly opposed the $15 increase.  Pride's endorsement has appeared in flyers that simultaneously accused some candidates of being drug users and called for pulling kids out of the public schools.  He has not disavowed support from the extremists that compose this literature.

So we now know that as the Tuesday election approaches, Pride has committed multiple violations of the law, talked out of both sides of his mouth during the State Representative's race, has worked with ex-criminals like Bobby Jones and others who support Willis' $15 increase to the water bill, and has embraced the endorsement of the "Mad Letter Writer," who calls for abandoning our public schools and maliciously accuses other candidates of drug use.

Early voting concludes Monday.  Polls will be open election day from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm.