A protester is detained at the state Capitol on June 28
Protesters are speaking up about the actions taken by Tennessee Highway Patrol officers in recent days, saying state troopers used excessive force when arresting dozens of Black Lives Matter demonstrators on Sunday. The protesters were arrested on or near the steps of the state Capitol shortly after the end of a pro-police protest nearby on Legislative Plaza. Some of the demonstrators say police used tight restraints, and shoved and pulled people off of the wall surrounding the Capitol building.
The events at the state Capitol come after more than two weeks of protesters occupying a nearby spot on Legislative Plaza — an area the Black Lives Matter protesters have designated both as the People’s Plaza and Ida B. Wells Plaza.
Protester Sheronica Hayes says state troopers were uncommunicative, arresting people with little warning on Sunday afternoon and seemingly acting at random when it came to setting up barricades and perimeters. She also describes troopers getting physical with protesters, especially those attempting to climb over the wall at the top of the Capitol building’s grassy hill.
“They started to grab people that were actually on the wall,” says Hayes. “They pushed people off of the wall who were trying to provide medical attention to some people that got injured.”
Sunni Swank, who has been acting as a street-team medic for demonstrators, says she was attempting to mount the wall and see if anyone needed assistance, but was pushed back down by a state trooper. She would have fallen eight feet, she says, had someone not caught her. After a second attempt at scaling the wall, Swank says a state trooper put her into a chokehold and dragged her off the wall.
The Scene also witnessed at least one trooper pushing a protester off of the roughly eight-foot-high wall two times, before the demonstrator was detained.
Anthony Saladino, who was also arrested and cited, said the troopers didn’t answer any questions when they were detaining him.
“I was never told if I was being arrested, if I was being cited, never read any rights,” Saladino says.
According to a list sent to the Scene by Tennessee Highway Patrol, 42 people were arrested and cited with criminal trespassing, including three juveniles and a 62-year-old woman.
Protesters who were arrested on Sunday have complained about rough treatment from the troopers, with some sharing pictures on social media of bruises from their zip ties.
Angel Stansberry, a People’s Plaza organizer, says, “A lot of people have reported a lack of feeling in their hands, and they’re checking it out to see if they have nerve damage.”
Footage of one protester shows that her hands were zip-tied so tightly that troopers could barely manage to cut her free. She lost feeling to her fingers for hours, and has bruises on her upper arms. “We have at least four or five people reporting [bruises],” says Stansberry.
The protesters were held outside in the sun without water for hours, according to Hayes and Saladino. Saladino also says he saw one woman who seemed dehydrated and another beginning to sunburn. Protesters were eventually cited with criminal trespassing, loaded onto shuttles, taken to the Davidson County Sheriff's Office and released.
“We were detained for about four-and-a-half hours.”
“I couldn't move my arms afterwards,” says Hayes. “My shoulder was pretty much decommissioned.”
Hayes says she had asked a state trooper about the charge: “How was being on public property considered criminal trespassing?” She says none of the officers answered the question.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol provided no response to the protesters’ accusations of excessive force. When the Scene asked how people can be charged with trespassing on public property, the office replied with the text of the state's criminal trespassing law.
The protesters occupying the plaza responded to the arrests in a statement issued on Monday.
“These latest arrests are efforts by the Governor and the THP to discourage and dismiss these protests,” the statement says. “Over the last 16 days, THP has continually escalated the situation through physical violence and the arbitrary imposition of laws that are changed daily.”
The statement also says that on Monday morning, five people including a juvenile were arrested at the People’s Plaza protest site.
Protesters have been occupying an area in the plaza since an attempted camp-out on the steps of the Capitol building on June 12. They demand to speak with Gov. Bill Lee, and are also calling for the removal of the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust in the state Capitol.
There have been other arrests at the People’s Plaza site over the past few weeks, and state troopers have also confiscated supplies and belongings, including food and water. In one video posted on the People’s Plaza’s Instagram account, a state trooper can be seen citing the code for the Equal Access to Public Property Act of 2012. That code — which bans the “erection or use of temporary structures such as tents, tarps, and other temporary shelters for living accommodation activities such as sleeping, or making preparations to sleep” on public property — was created not long after Occupy protests took place in the same area.
Both Hayes and Saladino note that the barricades in front of the state house have moved in the past few days, going from the sidewalk level to the top of the stairs, offering more access to the property. Hayes says arresting protesters for returning to that area sends “mixed signals” and is another sign of poor communication. She says she feels frustrated by Sunday’s events.
“I'm pretty overall irritated by the actual detainment, and angry that this is how innocent peaceful protesters are treated by law enforcement,” says Hayes.
The Nashville Community Bail Fund tweeted that all arrested protesters seemed to have been released without bail.
D. Patrick Rodgers contributed to this story.
