Democratic state senator doesn't get her way, so she threatens riots: 'Gloves out'



Democratic politicians frequently concern-monger about supposed threats to democracy. However, when democratic processes produce results they don't like, they're often the first to make threats or champion violence.

Tennessee state Sen. Charlane Oliver (D) recently expressed outrage over the passage of a bill that would prevent local officials from introducing policies or ordinances that limit the ability of police to properly fulfill their duties. Since voters elected not to empower a sufficient number of lawmakers with Oliver's leftist worldview to kill the bill, the cofounder of the identitarian activist group Equity Alliance suggested an alternative means of getting her way.

"Yeah, we gonna fight," said Oliver. "Dr. King said that the riots are the language of the unheard. You ain't see nothing yet. If you keep silencing us like this, what you think our district's gonna do?"

"We have had it up here," added Oliver. "Gloves out."

Background

Facing pressure from activists over the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by five black police officers last year, Memphis City Council passed an ordinance in April 2023 preventing police from conducting pretextual traffic stops.

Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas, the sponsor of the traffic-stop ordinance, suggested the idea was to limit interactions between the police and the public, and to have officers focus on serious crimes, not "poverty crimes," reported the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Republicans and community members recognized that the ordinance might ultimately make things a whole lot worse in the country's most dangerous city.

State Sen. Brent Taylor filed a bill in January that would effectively override the Memphis ordinance by barring "a local governmental entity or official from adopting or enacting a resolution, ordinance, or policy that prohibits or limits the ability of a law enforcement agency to conduct traffic stops based on observation of or reasonable suspicion that the operator or a passenger in a vehicle has violated a local ordinance of state or federal law."

"Crime is on the rise across the country," said Taylor. "Violent crime has reached a crisis level in Memphis. Police officers and sheriffs need to have more tools available to combat rising crime, not fewer. This proposed law will prohibit cities and counties from restricting routine traffic stops and other crime-fighting tactics."

The Republican state senator further noted in a Jan. 31 statement, "Routine traffic stops have resulted in major arrests and the apprehension of violent criminals for years. Whether it's the random drug trafficker pulled over for running a stop sign or the most well-known case — Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — routine traffic stops are a proven means of catching violent offenders, drug traffickers, and other dangerous criminals."

Taylor elsewhere indicated that it was clear to him that community members were growing "tired of crime and bad policies that don't allow police to do their jobs."

Democratic lawmakers denounced the legislation.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D) suggested that the legislature was "spitting" on the efforts by local leftists to seize upon Nichols' death as an opportunity to limit policing powers.

State Sen. London Lamar (D) said Thursday, "I pleaded with the sponsor to not run this bill because it's a slap on the face, not only our city councils, but all the local governing bodies in this state because we're telling them, 'You are not smart enough to decide policies that help govern your own city.'"

Memphis has a 0-rating on Neighborhood Scout's crime index where 100 is safest. The likelihoods of falling victim to a violent crime and a property crime in the Democrat-run city are 1 in 41 and 1 in 14, respectively.

Despite Democratic opposition, the state House approved HB 1931 in a 68 to 24 vote on March 7. The state Senate passed Sen. Brent Taylor's corresponding SB 2572 Thursday in a 26 to 6 vote along partisan lines.

Upon the bill's passage in the Senate, Taylor tweeted, "It's time to take handcuffs off police and put them on criminals where they belong."

The bill is headed to Republican Gov. Bill Lee's desk for ratification.

Democratic rage

Democrats and other leftists characterized the bill as both racist and government overreach.

State Sen. Lamar likened Republicans' attempts to execute the will of voters to slavery at a press conference.

"What we see here is drunk on power. 'I don't like that you take this position on this bill so I'm [going to] silence you.' That's a form of slavery," shouted Lamar. "I feel like a slave sometimes in this building. I'm over it. And all the members standing here are over it."

"I am tired of the Republican Party expecting us as minorities to do what they want to do but treat us disrespectfully," continued Lamar. "Nah, we're not doing that no more. ... We're at the time of the session where gloves [are] off."

— (@)

State Sen. Charlane Oliver went further than Lamar in her embrace of pugilistic rhetoric.

"It is a slap in the face and you might as well stomp on the grave of Tyre Nichols for bringing this bill," said Oliver. "Yes, we are emotionally charged. Why? Because it's personal for us. Tyler made this personal the minute he introduced this legislation to target one family and one life that was lost. So yeah, we gonna fight."

After invoking Martin Luther King Jr. in an apparent effort to legitimize rioting, Oliver added, "We gonna fight like hell. You don't expect us to respond when you gaslight us every single day with these bills?"

"Don't tell me this stuff ain't racist," continued Oliver. "Don't tell me it's not. It is rooted in racism. This was a Jim Crow bill that Taylor brought and all of his confederates voted for it today."

Taylor responded to Oliver's suggestion of reactionary riots, writing, "Despite [voters] overwhelming support for my bill that prohibits local governments from banning legal routine traffic stops, leftist opposition has been insane and totally out of touch with reality and our community's demands."

— (@)

Leftist activist groups such as the anti-prison outfit Decarcerate Memphis are hoping to pressure Gov. Lee to veto SB 2752, threatening "no justice, no peace."

Nichols parents have also asked to meet with Lee before he signs the bill in hopes that they might dissuade him.

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Tennessee Republicans pass bills to protect kids from confusion-affirming genital mutilations and drag shows



Republicans have mounted a successful campaign against woke cultural imperialism in the state of Tennessee, passing two bills to protect kids both from drag shows and genital mutilations.

Senate Bill 3 is legislation intended to protect minors from "adult-oriented" performances, including those conducted by men masquerading as women, strippers, and exotic dancers, all deemed "harmful to minors."

It was passed Thursday in the state House with a 74-19 vote. After a procedural vote in the Senate concerning changes made in the House, it will go to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee.

Lee indicated that he will also sign into law House Bill 1, a ban on giving mental illness-affirming puberty blockers and genital mutilations to children, which similarly passed in the House on Thursday.

Deviant adult entertainment permitted, but only for adults

Senate Bill 3 was introduced on Jan. 10 and transmitted to the state House earlier this month. It passed with a 74-19 vote on Thursday and will return to the Senate for a procedural vote before final passage, reported the Tennessean.

The bill amends state law pertaining to adult-oriented performances, defining an "adult cabaret performance" as "a performance in a location other than an adult cabaret that features topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers, regardless of whether or not performed for consideration."

Upon the signing of the bill, it will be an offense for a person to engage in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the performance could be viewed by minors.

According to the legislation, a first offense would constitute a Class A misdemeanor. A second or subsequent such offense will be a Class E felony.

State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R), instrumental in the passage of both bills, said that Senate Bill 3 "gives confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualized performance."

Leave those kids alone

HB 1 passed in a 26-6 vote along party lines on Feb. 13 in the Senate and again in the House on Feb. 23 in a 77-16 vote.

This bill replaces existing law prohibiting health care practitioners from prescribing a course of treatment involving harmful puberty blockers and hormones for "gender dysphoric or gender incongruent prepubertal minors" and established more concrete and sweeping prohibitions on the mutilations of youth in the state.

Majority Leader William Lamberth (R) said in House debates over the legislation, "These children do not need these medical procedures to be able to flourish as adults. ... They need mental health treatment. They need love and support, and many of them need to be able to grow up to become the individuals that they were intended to be."

Lamberth also told WATE 6, "We're not going to have, you know, any kind of quack doctor come into this state and start doing double mastectomies on children that are suffering through body dysphoria."

Upon its ratification, the bill will bar health care professionals, establishments, and facilities from performing or offering to perform medical procedures — either of a chemical or surgical nature — that are meant to enable "a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the immutable characteristics of the reproductive system that define the minor as male or female, as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth."

Additionally, it will no longer be permissible to provide medical procedures in an effort to remedy "purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity."

In the event that a medical practitioner or facility violates the law and in so doing transmogrifies a minor, the victim will now be able to bring a lawsuit against the health care provider responsible as well as against his or her parents, should the parent of the minor have "consented to the conduct that constituted the violation on behalf of the minor."

The bill additionally authorizes the attorney general "to bring an action against a healthcare provider that knowingly violates this bill's prohibitions concerning medical procedures, within 20 years of the violation, to enjoin further violations, to disgorge any profits received due to the medical procedure, and to recover a civil penalty of $25,000 per violation."

Though the bill, if signed, will take effect this summer, existing victims will have until March 2024 to cease treatment.

A spokesman for the governor told Fox News Digital Friday that Lee "appreciates the work of Leader Johnson and Leader Lamberth to protect children and intends to sign the bill when it reaches his desk."

Lee previously noted that he was "grateful to the leadership in both houses who have worked to protect kids along those lines."

LGBT activists have vowed to fight the legislation in order so that future generations of kids will have an opportunity to one day regret their irreversible mutilations.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee wrote in a statement Thursday that the ACLU and Lambda Legal "have promised the transgender youth of Tennessee and their families that they will bring immediate legal action against proposed restrictions on their health care should they be signed into law."

Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, a staff attorney with ACLU Tennessee, said, "Gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth is safe, necessary, effective and often life-saving. Legislators are risking trans young people’s health, wellbeing and safety with this dangerous legislation. We urge Governor Lee to veto this overreaching, discriminatory bill, or we will see him in court."

The Tennessee Democratic Party has condemned both bills and indicated that it will call on Lee to veto them.

\u201cBoth the anti-trans healthcare and drag ban bills passed the House today. We fully condemn both bills and their passage \u2014 they now go to the desk of @GovBillLee where we call on him to veto them.\n\n@TNGOP's focus on stripping rights from the most vulnerable among us is vile.\u201d
— Tennessee Democratic Party (@Tennessee Democratic Party) 1677190394

Johnson noted on Twitter, "Once again, Tennessee leads the nation. We’re committed to ensuring Tennessee is the safest place to raise your family. This is a huge win for our state, and we’ll continue working to protect our kids."

\u201cWe\u2019re back in full swing here in the Tennessee General Assembly \u2013 check back here in a week or so for another update on what\u2019s going on in your state Capitol.\u201d
— Jack Johnson (@Jack Johnson) 1676664439

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