Tennessee
Troopers vs. moms: Tennessee House Republicans clamp down on dissent during special session
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A dramatic confrontation in a Tennessee House subcommittee — between state troopers and a group of mothers wanting to keep their children safe from gun violence — highlighted how the Republican supermajority is using its power to clamp down on dissent during a special session on public safety.
Members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol were called upon Tuesday to remove the women from the subcommittee’s meeting room as lawmakers began consideration of legislation filed in response to Nashville’s Covenant School shooting.
Their crime: quietly holding up small signs that voiced the opinion that one child’s life is more important “than all the guns.”
“What about our First Amendment rights? We have rights to hold a sign,” Nashville mother Alison Polidor called out as civil justice subcommittee chair Lowell Russell ordered the offenders ejected from the meeting.
The women were quickly surrounded by state troopers and forcibly escorted out of the room.
Bryan Staples/WTVF
“This is not what democracy looks like,” Polidor called out.
Two other women were also ejected for holding up small signs of protest.
“This isn’t more dangerous than a gun,” one of the women said, holding up her own small sign.
Outside, Polidor broke into tears and was quickly embraced by fellow mothers who had come to make their voices heard.
“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.”
In a legislature that allows permit holders to carry handguns into committee rooms, on the House side, signs are now illegal.
Bryan Staples/WTVF
On the Senate side, quiet acts of protest like holding up a small sign are allowed by the Republicans there, but the House decided Monday to impose restrictive new rules for the special session.
The Republican supermajority passed the new rules to clamp down on expressions of dissent, arguing that it’s necessary to preserve order.
Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, defended the rules.
“There’s been a suggestion here this afternoon that these rules are somehow anti-American or anti-democratic. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.
Now just holding up a sign — a practice that we’ve seen for years on a variety of issues — is grounds for ejection from public sessions of the state House.
“This is immoral. It’s extreme. It is something that is shameful,” said Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville. “It is a clear signal of the leadership of Speaker Cameron Sexton that this is no longer the people’s house.”
Jones was also among those who objected to the use of state police to limit the number of people allowed into the Capitol to observe debate on the House floor.
Members of the group Moms Demand Action and other activists experienced it firsthand.
“They would say wait, the doors are locked, you can’t go back out that way,” said Felesha Frierson. “We couldn’t get in, we also couldn’t get out at one point.”
Bryan Staples/WTVF
House Republicans blamed it on building codes.
In fact, we found a sign on the House floor, showing a maximum capacity of 284.
Up in the gallery, we counted seats — down one side and back up the other — to see if Republicans actually had a point.
We counted 248 seats in the galleries, plus standing room. That did not include room on the floor for the 99 members and their staffs, plus all of the room out in the lobby.
Then, we pulled this video from the beginning of the legislative session back in January on the day lawmakers brought their families as they were sworn in.
The galleries were packed, and no one was concerned about building codes when it was their people in the crowd.
Jones argues the tactics of the speaker and his allies may backfire.
“The more he does this, the more that it just brings people out to show how absurd this is, it shows how fragile their power is,” he added.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Republican leaders all day to show us the capacity numbers that they are using to keep people out of the Capitol.
We also asked the state fire marshal, the Department of Safety, and the highway patrol.
If anyone has actual documentation to justify keeping people out of the people’s house, they didn’t provide it.
SPECIAL SECTION: Revealed
Do you have information for our investigation? Email us: investigate@newschannel5.com