Lassitude grips city council as members do busywork, ignore Berke violence

Sharee Robinson-James, left, talks with police official Danna Vaughn about private criminal activity outside a city nightclub while, background, city council member Erskine Oglesby, left, chats with a staffer for Mayor Andy Berke. (Photo David Tulis) A great lassitude seems to afflict the residents of Chattanooga and keeps them from being angry about the abuse […]

Citizens to city council: Routine arrests ugly, hateful

David Tulis, Chattanooga’s “blogger with the biggest pen,” shows city council the narrowness of Tennessee transportation law in Title 55, warning that many abusive police arrests occur as officers operate outside its commercial scope. (Photo NoogaRadio on Facebook) Avery Gray is the angry mother of a girl arrested during an illegally arranged repossession of a […]

Cops drag woman out of car under commercial transportation law

Diana Watt, after being handcuffed, is ordered out of a car; the officer is counting down the time for her to act before he drags her out under the commercial transportation statute at Title 55, which requires the state to exhaust its administrative remedies. (Photo Jalonda Oattes on Facebook) Police’s routine claims upon travelers are […]

Prosecution of nonviolent Gray girl, 14, cover for 2 wrongs by cop

A repo man checks the VIN of a car he is about to seize in a noisy confrontation with the daughter of the debtor, who is dragged from the car by a city police officer in the sort of “breach of the peace” forbidden under Tennessee’s collateral repossession statute. (Photo police YouTube video) Dear Neal […]

Berke would make enemies if takes tough action over roadside abuses

Mayor Andy Berke of Chattanooga celebrates residents’ creativity in his state of the city speech April 19. (Photo Andy Berke) Ending police abuse of the traveling public in Chattanooga and beyond is an exciting prospect that will increase freedom and liberty in the area, draw more people to live and prosper here, and become an […]

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 […]

Begging ban hits 9 pages of type + appendices as shopkeeps voice support

A red ribbon flutters toward the tarmac after William Green, cente, opens his M.L. King Boulevard eatery, G’s Detroit Sausages, a shop whose customers are frequently hassled by beggars. (Photo Facebook) Four opponents of a city panhandling ban talk local politics after a second city council meeting focusing on complaints about begging and harsh measures […]

Hammond mulls 7 questions on travel right, transportation privilege

Truck driver Benjamin Brewer, who kills six people in a 2015 Chattanooga crash, is sentenced under state and federal law for being an operator of a motor vehicle who violated the rules for commercial use of highways. Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond is mulling questions i sent him March 8 following a March 1 interview […]