more on tax protest

[Subcommander Bob]

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2001/7/17/122855

Tuesday, July 17, 2001 1:27 p.m. EDT

               Tennessee Radio Talker Sets Record
               Straight on Tax Protest

               Over the weekend Tennessee newspapers were
               filled with reports of a near-riot at the
               State Capitol on Friday, after two Nashville
               talk radio hosts exhorted their listeners to
               march on the Legislature in protest over
               plans for a new statewide income tax.

               WLAC-AM's Phil Valentine and WWTN-FM's Steve
               Gill's call to arms prompted what the Memphis
               Commercial Appeal described as a "sometimes
               violent" altercation between police and up to
               2,000 protesters, an episode legislators
               called "harrowing and intimidating."

               "I was in fear for my safety last night,"
               state senator David Fowler later told Gill.
               "I was afraid someone might get shot."

               Reports of widespread window breaking made
               the protesters seem even more riotous.

               But Valentine tells NewsMax.com that the
               disruption, small as it was, was the result
               of police overreaction - more than 100 cops,
               some clad in riot gear, who were summoned to
               the scene by Gov. Don Sundquist, who backs
               the tax hike.

               "I began my remote broadcast in front of the
               Capitol and the people kept coming," the
               Tennessee radio talker explained.

               "Suddenly, the Nashville Police moved in. One
               motorcycle cop began ticketing motorists for
               horn honking. They brought in cops on
               horseback. The state police donned riot
               gear."

               Only later did Valentine learn that, as he
               put it, "some idiot had thrown a rock through
               the reception area window of the governor's
               office." The incident sent state troopers
               into overdrive, the radioman told
               NewsMax.com.

               "Two different people in cars were pulled
               from their vehicles and handcuffed,"
               Valentine said.

               "One was a gentleman who dared ask a cop his
               name after he witnessed him verbally abusing
               a woman in her car. The second was a mother,
               riding with her husband and 3-year-old
               daughter."

               According to the afternoon-drive-time talker,
               when the officer told the woman to go home
               she replied that it was her "constitutional
               right to protest." He shot back, "I'll show
               you a constitutional right."

               In a flash, the officer swung into action.
               According to Valentine, he began to "pull the
               woman from the passenger side of the car,
               then handcuffed her and threw her in the back
               of a squad car in front of her hysterical
               little girl."

               After the altercation, Valentine had both
               protesters on his show to describe their
               ordeals.

               Besides the folks he interviewed, Valentine
               says a local television news station caught a
               state trooper on videotape "choking one
               protester, then throwing him to the ground
               and dragging him by one foot while the guy
               showed no resistance."

               Tennessee media reports painting the
               demonstrators as a rabble-rousing mob
               hell-bent on violence are a complete
               distortion, the popular Nashville host
               insisted.

               "I was right in the middle of it. We had
               everything from soccer moms to grandmas and
               kids of all ages. It was more of a patriotic
               Fourth of July-type atmosphere than anything
               else."

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"Ok.  That's pretty much my limit."
---Black Unicorn