District 3 Justice of the Peace Harrie Farrow, who represents Eureka Springs on the Carroll County Quorum Court, was sharply critical at the court’s regular monthly meeting on Tuesday of comments made by fellow JP Hunter Rivett at the court’s March 21 meeting.

At the March 21 meeting, Rivett responded to residents who turned out to voice their opposition to a planned wind turbine project near Green Forest.

At one point, a speaker characterized Rivett’s comments as “rude.”

“I will respond in kind,” Rivett said. “I believe what is most rude is goons with guns, which is the government, forcing people to do or not do something. That’s what’s far more rude. What’s far more rude is the philosophy that we are all comrades in this together. That’s the same philosophy that led to gulags. Concentration camps.” At Tuesday’s meeting, Farrow called Rivett’s comments “horrifying,” noting that Tuesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Speaking during the portion of the meeting designed for JPs’ comments, Farrow said her son’s great-grandfather was held in a concentration camp, as was a woman who was a close family friend during Farrow’s childhood before taking her own life.

“I’m guessing, based on JP Rivett’s age, that he’s probably never met anyone who was in a concentration camp,” Farrow said. “I in fact have met many people. I think they would have been horrified by his statement.”

After the war, many concentration camp survivors did not have homes to return to, Farrow said, because their families had been killed and their homes confiscated.

“I think they would really be disturbed at the idea that being kind to your neighbors and thinking that we as a community should work together would lead to a concentration camp,” Farrow said.

Rivett, 26, appeared to indicate during Farrow’s remarks that he has met concentration camp survivors, but he did not respond to Farrow’s remarks.