Tennessee GOP Sics State Troopers On Sign-Totin', Word-Slingin' Ladies At Gun Violence Meeting
The First Amendment comes before the Second for a reason, guys.
Tennessee mothers would like to see their state government sensibly address gun violence. Tennessee Republican lawmakers would like to see them shut up.
That was the major conflict this week as the gerrymandered Republican supermajority discussed a bill that would allow even more guns on school campuses. Yes, that is their brilliant response to the gun massacre at the Covenant School in March.
Republicans had adopted new, free-speech-chilling rules for attending subcommittee meetings, just in time for Monday’s “guns, guns, and more guns” debate. The public is now banned from holding up signs in galleries and committees. Tuesday, some folks cleverly pushed the rules. They held up the bitingly satirical book Joaquin’s First School Shooting and modeled a “Covenant Strong” scarf. Others were straight-up “screw it” and waved signs that supported restrictions on weapons of death. This pissed off Republican state Rep. Lowell Russell, who led the meeting.
Russell — such a big man — soon ordered a mass ejection of spectators, including parents still mourning the loss of their children at Covenant or simply terrified that their kids who did survive might have to relive that traumatic experience.
Just to clarify: These women were holding up small yellow signs that read “1 Kid > All The Guns,” but that brutal truth was too harsh for Russell’s sensitive eyes.
“What about our First Amendment rights?” Nashville mother Alison Polidor asked defiantly. “We have rights to hold a sign.” Well, not if Republicans have their way: Guns for everyone but no signs for you! It’s like right-wingers took the wrong message from that “Signs” song.
“Are guns still allowed in here?” one woman asked. Yes, Tennessee Republicans had previously passed a rule in 2017 allowing guns in the Cordell Hull building but not “hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks” because they “represent a serious safety hazard.” They even forbade visitors from smuggling in notebook paper with a message on it. Paper cuts are not more dangerous than bullets.
State troopers surrounded the dangerously literate women and prepared to escort them forcibly from the room. Once you’re tossing women out on their ass because they held up a sign during a public meeting, you might as well update your job title on LinkedIn to “Fascist Goon.”
“It’s my First Amendment right,” Polidor insisted, refusing to leave. “If you have to drag me out, so be it.”
“Is this what democracy looks like?” another woman asked as a trooper pulled Polidor from her chair and carried her out of the room. “Y’all won’t do this for people who bring guns to school!”
The troopers initially removed three women who held signs, but when several people applauded the women, Russell ordered the entire audience purged. He’s not very good with free speech demonstrations.
The Tennessean reported that “the crying of multiple Covenant School parents could be heard” as the entire room was cleared.
Other mothers, who’d come to participate in the democratic process, comforted a weeping Polidor outside.
“I wasn't saying anything. I wasn't doing anything,” Polidor said. “I was holding up a sign. And when we have come to a point where you can't hold up a sign, that's not OK. It's not democracy.”
House Minority Leader Karen Camper from Memphis denounced Russell’s authoritarian crackdown.
“For a committee chairperson to use their position to banish grieving Tennesseans from the committee room is beyond the pale,” Camper said. "This needs to be explained as to why people were removed and the room was cleared after citizens took to the time and effort to be present in their government. This is embarrassing. What are we doing?”
Fascism, you’re doing fascism. The question now is what are we collectively going to do to stop it?
[Newschannel5 / The Daily Beast / Tennessean]
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a apropos words mattering,
a linguistics joek:
"people who can't tell the difference between etymology and entomology bug me in ways I cannot express in words"
Mood:
https://substack.com/profile/13992719-crip-dyke/note/c-38938913