Category: Free people vs. police state

Refusing to serve meat in national crisis, Graham offers thin manna

Kamry Hoskins holds her daughter, Heidi Culpepper, at the Franklin Graham rally in Chattanooga May 15. (Photo David Tulis) Franklin Graham delivers a speech to a crowd in 2016. (Photo Billygraham.org) Carlos Betancourt, a Baptist minister to a Hispanic church, enjoys the shade of an umbrella at the Franklin Graham rally in Chattanooga. (Photo David […]

Lone defendant says ‘no,’ puts system in tizzy

Hamilton County’s new justice building and old jail, background, are seen by a grand jury as needing more efficiency, to better move along minor defendants. But the constitution makes it troubling and difficult for accusations to be quickly processed, and courts and the legal profession have found ways around its requirements. A petty criminal defendant […]

Melvin’s virtue heightened, cop’s vice worsens as city video airs

Hanson Melvin talks to the driver of a police cruiser in which he is confined; David Campbell arrested him without probable cause and perjured himself in his police report and before the grand jury, but Mr. Campbell is not being charged with a crime. (Video Chattanooga Police Department) Chattanooga officer David Campbell was fired in […]

Trailer park landlord seeks re-election as mayor while hounding Gaddys from home

“I’ve never had any occasion to get upset with Dwain Land at all,” says trailer park renter Renee Luper, an invalid in Dunlap, Tenn. With her is son, Michael. (Photo David Tulis) A row of rusty mailboxes line Land Drive next to a Dunlap, Tenn., trailer park owned by Mayor Dwain Land, one serving budget-conscious town […]

Abusing Gaddys, Land wrecks good name; Greer for mayor

Jennifer Lockhart Greer teaches history and civics at the high school. The personal liberties secured under constitutional government are the fruit of simple promises. In Dunlap, Tenn., an elderly couple hiding from authorities are simple enough to believe these promises and to stand firmly upon them. By David Tulis / Tennesseestar.com The city’s civil prosecution […]

Mayor Land seeks re-election amid oppression of elderly couple

Carol and Thomas Gaddy discuss their house, under an injunction for no further work while city officials demand to search the property, though no one has sworn a warrant out for probable cause that a crime has been committed. The couple is in hiding, sought by a search warrant for contempt for not complying with […]

Trump no help; police state tactics worsen against Americans

Chattanooga city police officers often enforce statute within the city limits in full military gear, as displayed by SWAT members along the Chattanooga riverfront. (Photo Chattanooga police department) “Policing is broken… It has evolved as a paramilitary, bureaucratic, organizational arrangement that distances police officers from the communities they’ve been sworn to protect and serve. When […]

Marceaux cases would stymie ‘police state’ enforcement in all TN cities

Basil Marceaux of Soddy-Daisy is raising explosive questions about Tennessee courts and the state’s use of inferior civil courts to process criminal complaints. (Photo David Tulis) Former gubernatorial candidate and free-range motorist Basil Marceaux will appear before a Hamilton County circuit court to argue in one of a series of criminal cases whose defense is […]

Bill would aid fugitive Gaddys in property rights fight

Thomas and Carol Gaddy speak to supporters after her release from Sequatchie County Jail on Nov. 12 on charges of contempt. She spent two nights in a cell. (Photo David Tulis) A bill sliding through the Tennessee general assembly offers unexpected aid to Thomas and Carol Gaddy, the homeowners from Sequatchie County who are in […]