Cops schmooze with public as council apology eases Mott-Coonrod feud
Demetrus Coonrod, right, city councilwoman, speaks with Donna “Elle,” left, and Tippi Montgomery. (Photo David Tulis) Marie Mott and council chairman Ken Smith find points of common ground after city council Oct. 2. (Photo David Tulis) City councilman Demetrus Coonrod, humbled by a Christian mediation session, utters a public apology Tuesday to Marie Mott and […]
Cops, ATF aim guns at 6 children in wrong-house military raid near Eastgate
The six children of Tameka Parker were held at gunpoint as U.S. agents and city police demanded to search a house in a fruitless hunt for a fugitive. (Photo David Tulis) Jesse Parker is a gospel minister and public school teacher whose private house was raided without a warrant, and who was bullied into giving […]
City to criminalize begging, directs cops to do social work among poor
Landon Howard is shushed by Phil Noblett, city attorney, because critics of the panhandling rule have already had their turn to be heard and will not be heard from further. With him are protesters Beth Foster and Jeannie Hacker-Cerulean. Police chief David Roddy, center, is empowered under a proposed ordinance to arrest beggars. Worried about […]
Donna Williams
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How Berke could win all sides by restraining cops, ordering ’open’ city
Mayor Andy Berke speaks with members of the audience at a campaign debate at UTC in 2017. (Photo David Tulis) I realize it will take a while for the policy and political implications of transportation administrative notice to take effect. For busy men such as Mayor Andy Berke and city attorney Wade Hinton, it will […]
Rhea plan would ‘define, prohibit, abate, suppress, prevent, regulate’
A law to regulate much innocent activity as a nuisance in Rhea County, Tenn., is under consideration by the county commission. (Photo Tnvacation.com) The Rhea County commission is considering a proposal to seize power against the people under authorization of a state law that gives broad authority to cities and counties with token language about the […]
Police ethics rules require ‘respect of constitutional rights’
Chattanooga police department officers in a huddle. (Photo Wdef.com) But commoners would fear the officer’s approaching cruiser less if they could learn about the ethics rules he swore to uphold — and trust that he would obey them. And possibly remind him, as he reaches for his citation booklet or his club, of his oath. […]
Berke’s press ban: ‘No matter what he says, he’s not media’
Andy Berke names David Roddy chief of police Aug. 4, 2017, before a group of local media whose members are unlikely to ask questions about the trouble police officers have in obeying state law and caring about citizens’ God-given and constitutionally guaranteed rights. A ban by the mayor’s office of a blogger suggests that the Chattanooga […]
Gaddy says facing jail for cause of freedom, soldiers of foreign wars
Carol Gaddy stands next to a federal flag posted along the edge of her property along Coops Creek in Dunlap, Tenn. Her stand for God-given rights honors veterans and soldiers, she says. (Photo David Tulis) A feisty homeowner in Southeastern Tennessee who has defied a court’s order to voluntarily allow a search of her house […]
Berke cites life-saving de-escalation as police ideal in naming Roddy
David Roddy is tapped as the chief of the Chattanooga police department. Mayor Berke is at left, and city council member Darrin Ledford is at right. (Photo WDEF.com) Mayor Andy Berke, heeding growing public interest in reform, tells of an encounter between a drunken husband and an officer that in times past might have ended […]