Bill Hagerty Says He Stands with Law Enforcement Officers

U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty said Monday that he will continue to support law enforcement officials and their full funding.

This, after Minneapolis officials pledged to dismantle their police department.

“Our law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day to keep our communities safe. They are the only thing standing between anarchy and law and order,” Hagerty said in a press release on his campaign’s website.

“Over the past couple of weeks, we have seen criminals and anarchists hijack First Amendment protests with a campaign for violence and crime. Dismantling and defunding our police departments will throw our country into chaos. This is the wrong message to send. In a meeting with a group of Tennessee law enforcement leaders today, none of them defended the behavior of the Minneapolis police officers that have been charged. They want to see justice done, as do I. But the dismantling and defunding of law enforcement in America is not the solution. As your next Senator, I will work to uphold the rule of law, stop ANTIFA, and fight to secure appropriate funding and support for our law enforcement officers.”

Hagerty wants to replace the retiring U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

As The Tennessee Star reported last week, members of the coalition that campaigned for Nashvillians to create the Metro Community Oversight Board compared the idea of defunding police to history’s greatest civil rights accomplishments.

Also, as reported, last week, Hagerty encouraged U.S. President Donald Trump to use the Insurrection Act to mobilize active-duty military forces to defend communities from acts of domestic terrorism. This, as riots were happening in cities nationwide, and Nashville was no exception.

Nashville activists held a rally late last month honoring George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis while in police custody. Many protestors, as reported, carried signs demanding that the government either defund or abolish the police. The crowd, composed of whites and blacks, chanted “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace” many times over.

Left-wing activist Justin Jones spoke. Jones, as The Star previously reported, has had prior run-ins with law enforcement, one of which was for an alleged assault on then-Speaker of the House Glen Casada.

Jones, during that rally, asked Cooper a question.

“Mayor, are you still here?” Jones asked.

“Will you commit to demilitarize the police department and defund the police department? Raise your hand if you support defunding the police department?’”

Jones told the crowd that he “did not see the mayor raise his hand.”

Jones later told the crowd of thousands that “you don’t just vote out your oppressor. You overthrow them.”

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].

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