TN vet arrested for asking board to speak up

| July 22, 2014

Chief Tango sends us a link to WATE which tells the story of Eddie Bruce Overholt of Greeneville, Tennessee who went to a local board hearing about allowing a chemical to build a new plant and dump it’s waste in a local river.

According to Overholt, he was under the impression that he would be able to speak at the meeting and voice his concerns about their plans, but he couldn’t hear the board’s discussions;

“The board met up at the front of the room at a big table, had us roped off, and they were talking so low nobody could hear,” he said.

He says all he did was ask the board members to speak up, and he was accused of disrupting the meeting and led out in handcuffs.

Overholt was also charged with resisting arrest and was put in jail on a $2,000 bond.

Category: Politics

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Gravel

Why do I have a feeling that there is more to this than just saying, [paraphrased, not direct quoted] “excuse me, can you please speak up?”

Pinto Nag

Bingo. I think there is a LOT more to this story.

Isnala

Da F*#k? There has to be more to this story.

Green Thumb

Agreed.

Anonymous

Progressive liberals are just fascists with better PR… wanna bet they’re Democrats?

0602

In Greeneville, TN? Not likely.

Atkron

I think the real issue is that instead of arresting someone in any case like this; the LEO should just escort the person from the room or building.

The government is supposed to represent the people at all levels. A public forum is designed so the public can let their representative know how they feel on a subject…. The people have a right to know and understand discussions were taking place even in hushed voices in a public forum.

2/17 Air Cav

Actually, there may not be more to this story. I would not be at all surprised to learn that this is Overholt’s firs arrest–at 76 years of age. Here’s some followup:

http://raycomgroup.worldnow.com/story/26074090/community-reacts-to-eddie-overholt-arrest

Isnala

Well s*#t fires and blues jays batman. I agree with one of the quotes in that story: what were they trying to hide? Sounds like they had to hold a public meeting about it but had no intentions of actually allowing people to hear.

FatCircles0311

It’s pretty sad how quick the police take action these days when looney toons tell them to.

Green Thumb

I am curious to see how this pans out.

Dave Hardin

The state Attorney General will not issue legal opinion for the general public. They will if any public official files a request. It takes just one local public official to put a halt to these proceedings for the time being. If these reports are accurate the board members,Mayor and City Attorney are in for a rude awakening. Local officials only get away with these things if they go uncontested.

Dave Hardin

I stand corrected, it seems the state of Tennessee’s Attorney General will not issue opinion to local authorities. Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-6-109 (b)(6). So a request must come from a public state official. There are still many state officials at the local level and it takes just one.

Thunderstixx

Indicative of the cancer growing in our government at all levels. Secrecy, arrest, imprisonment and making sure that each citizen commits at least once crime a day just by living.
This is a sign of things to come where we can all be arrested just by the whisper of an official.
First of all, the cop should have told the bureaucrat that he only asked a simple question and then refused to arrest him.
If we would only use the tactics of the left by going to that cops house and protesting him and the Chief of Police or the councilman this shit would stop.
We have to beat them at their own game. Otherwise this shit will continue until we are all locked up…

Ken.T.

Smells like rotten fish are under the table here. Some one with friends is hiding some thing from the public and doesn’t want any opposition to their income. About time a little bit of investigative reporting was done I think.