Kill the Bill Update - Saturday, March 20, 2010 #tcot #teaparty

Friday was a hectic day as things in Washington, D.C. became very fluid. A number of activists got underway headed for D.C. and those of us left behind looked around for ways we could assist. After working Facebook and Twitter to get as many people moving on that end of things, many began to begin planning for a small rally at John Tanner’s Millington office for Saturday. Unfortunately, it was almost midnight by the time I contacted some people, far too late for them to get a mass emailing out in time. There was also a rally in Nashville, TN today and other political events that many had already committed to.

However, the Mid-South, Memphis and Tipton County tea party organizations, along with other local patriots, managed to field a presence in Millington Saturday afternoon. Andrew Clarksenior was kind enough to make a brief announcement on his live radio show on WREC, and then entertained two live reports from us when things got underway. Unfortunately, we were also too late into the news cycle to get much in the way of local TV coverage, but Eyewitness News did get Jackie McPherson and a cameraman up. She spent some time with us talking to a number of the people who where there letting their voices be heard and did some excellent reporting on the event.

In a last minute scramble, some angry Mid-South residents are making their voices heard. They did it during a tea party protest Saturday in Millington.

“Kill the bill! Kill the bill!” shouted protestors, holding signs, waving flags, and chanting. About 50 people lined Highway 51, getting the attention of passing cars.

Lynn Moss and I were getting regular updates from the MSTP people on the ground in D.C. which we tried to pass along to the people attending in Millington. One report was that the vote count kept going back and forth and I don’t guess anyone had a clue by the end of the day how things stood. Another was an attempt by some tea party folks to ‘storm’ one of the Congressional office buildings to see their Congressman. They were met by officers with automatic rifles, and one of the tea party folks responded to them by saying, “Okay, next time we will bring ours!”

The first hour in Millington went great and by 3 pm we had a growing group of people. One Vietnam vet who had been driving past on Hwy 51 decided to go to the store and return with a case of water for us. He said he just had to come back and join us because we were representing what he had fought for. We had great music playing on a mobile sound system brought in by a local patriot group. Cars were passing by honking in support along with a few Obama supporters who expressed their views as well.

I must say I was having a wonderful time and more people had begun to arrive. County Commissioner and TN Congressional District 8 Candidate George Flinn called to inform us that he was on his way back from an event in Houston County and wanted to let us know he was on his way to join us. Then the unexpected occurred as a Millington police unit arrived. True to my nature (I was a police officer for 12 years), the first thing I did was head over to shake his hand and welcome him. Unfortunately, he was not in a partying mood.

It became a rather confused situation after that. He said we were harassing customers and blocking the businesses in the same center as Tanner’s office. It was true that most of the cars in the parking lot were from tea party folks, but the fact is that most of the businesses were offices which were closed (it was Saturday). He even asked for the Channel 24 news crew to be removed.

I love this photograph. As I was taking a picture of the police cars blocking the way to Tanner’s office, a young girl happened to walk into the scene holding an American flag. An empty parking lot with uniformed officers standing between her and her Congressman. A great lesson you taught today Mr. Smith.

Many people did leave when the police began their ‘clearing out’ effort, and I must say it did put a damper on things somewhat. If the story ended here, then Obama and his Tory’s would have had a small victory. However, as the police attempted to clear the lot, one business owner stood his ground and said no!

Jack Leonard owns a business on the other end of the complex and passed the word through a local resident Jim Williams that we had his permission to use his end of the lot. This I passed along to the police who then set up a line-of-demarcation, essentially dividing the lot in half. So, this is Obama bringing the country together? So I would encourage all patriots to patronize Jack Leonard in Millington for your insurance needs. I’m sure he would also appreciate a word of gratitude next week and it would certainly be well-deserved.

The police left at around 4 pm, so I headed back home to update Facebook and get some video uploaded. As I left, it was a smaller crowd, but the music was still playing on the south end of the lot and some folks had determined to do an all-night vigil. I was informed later that around 5 pm, the police returned and ordered everyone off the south side of the lot and the music shut down because it was “disturbing the peace”. I understand that effectively ended the gathering.

But just before I left, the radical rght-wing extremist pictured above just had to practice a little “civil disobedience” and violate the police order, holding up a few signs in front of her Congressman’s office. I will say this as nicely as I can, and people can take it for what it is worth. If Congress succeeds in passing this thing with the dirty trick tactics, bribes and pay-offs we are seeing this week, then Charlie Smith had better call a lot more police officers. The next time we get together the gloves will be off and it is going to take a lot more than 2 police officers to keep us away from our elected representatives.