The Mobile City Council heard concerns about the Comic Cowboys on Tuesday, as a group asked it to consider trying to strike a balance between free speech and public decorum.

Among the mystic societies that hold parades during Mobile's Mardi Gras celebrations, the Comic Cowboys are set apart by their unique tradition of satire. In contrast to the elaborate art of other societies' floats, the Cowboys rides bear placards poking fun at issues large and small. Over the course of their long history, they have occasionally provoked anger from officials and the public.

2017 was one such occasion. A handful of the group's banners, including one that illustrated the Black Lives Matter movement with a cartoon of a black man running with a stolen TV set, provoked a substantial outcry. Mayor Sandy Stimpson announced that he had quit the group, as did Councilman Joel Daves.

The council heard complaints from several members of the public afterward, including calls for it to regulate the group somehow. While several members of the council said they sympathized, the council's overall position was that it could not impose on the group's First Amendment rights.

Tuesday's discussion was far quieter that the sometimes angry exchanges in March 2017. The council heard from one speaker, David Smith, who was backed by a group of about a dozen supporters. Smith said he had provided the council with a copy of New Orleans law governing discriminatory behavior in public spaces, and asked the council to "work with us to adopt a nondiscriminatory policy for all parading Mardi Gras organizations."

David Smith

"The Mobile Council is not powerless in this matter," he said, proposing that an ordinance could respect freedom of speech and preserve a spirit of decency in public celebrations. He argued that the city "bears a moral, and arguably a legal, responsibility" for what goes on in public spaces.

Smith is the president of the Mobile County chapter of the NAACP. He said afterward that he spoke on behalf of concerned citizens, rather than as an official NAACP action.

The council referred the issue to its attorney, Wanda Cochran, who said that having scanned over the New Orleans ordinance, she wasn't sure it provided a template for what Smith was trying to achieve. But she seemed to invite further discussion. "I don't think the question can be answered here, without further study," she said. Council Vice President Levon Manzie urged Smith and Cochran to exchange information so that they could continue the discussion.

After the meeting, Smith said he was "cautiously optimistic" that the effort would bear fruit.

"We just want a little more sensitivity," he said.

The Comic Cowboys parade on Fat Tuesday, which falls on Feb. 13 this year. In a related development, the Mobile City Council's Feb. 13 meeting has been rescheduled for Feb. 14.