August 23, 2014, GOP Gov Nathan Deal
hosted a public event his campaign dubbed as the Dawsonville Rally in Dawson County, Georgia. At the rally, Governor Nathan Deal and First Lady Sandra Deal sat in the front row.
Also sitting in the front row was female journalist Nydia Tisdale. Tisdale was filming the Republican speakers. Sitting in the second row was male journalist, Brian Pritchard. Pritchard was using a voice recorder and camera to capture the Republican speakers.
I want underscore the published fact that Gov. Nathan Deal hosted the public event.
It was at this rally where male journalist Brian Pritchard was never asked to stop using his voice recorder, never asked to stop taking pictures and never asked to leave. Pritchard wrote:
Brian Pritchard: I had my camera in clear view. I took pictures. I had my digital audio recorder out in plain view. I always record these events so I can refer to the recording for accuracy of a candidate’s quotes.
Conversely, Nydia Tisdale was forcfully pulled away from the rally by Officer Wooten and Former Dawson County GOP Chairman Clint Bearden. Once removed, Wooten bent Tisdale over a counter as he, Officer Wooten, pushed his body against her backside for a long period of time. Tisdale was arrested and charged with: with felony obstruction of an officer and criminal trespass. Her camera was confiscated but was returned several days after she posted a $6,200 bond.
As it turns out, Nathan Deal hosted the public event and did not put any restrictions on videotaping the speakers. When asked about Tisdale's arrest, Governor Nathan Deal’s Campaign Communication Director, Jen Talaver pretended that Nathan Deal was not the host of the rally.
TALVAVER: “as this incident was in no way related to Deal for Governor I am referring you to the owner of the private property at which the event took place.”
Ok, that's BS. "
as this incident" is totally related to Deal for Governor as Governor Deal hosted the GD thing.
The male journalist, Brian Pritchard describes Nydia Tisdale as a non-partisan video journalist.
Brian Pritchard: "Tisdale the owner of AboutForsyth.com has attended many of the candidate’s events. She videos them and uploads the videos to her website. Several of the candidates know her. She is a non-partisan video journalist."
Brian Pritchard was never asked to leave, never asked to turn off his audio recording, never asked to stop taking pictures ... hmmmmmm.....
What GOP war on woman?
.
Here's what we know from the video:
Nydia Tisdale is seen in the first frame introducing herself as a video journalists to people with Republican Candidates.
The rally started with former Dawson County GOP Chairman, Clint Bearden, welcoming people. Bearden saw Tisdale video taping him as he thanked the Burt's for "allowing" the GOP party to hold their rally at the Burt's farm. Bearden then went on to give "announcements" none of which included banning anyone from video taping, voice recording or taking pictures of the Republican speakers.
Keep in mind, Tisdale's video shows us that Clint Bearden can see he is being videotaped and at no time does he ever "announce" that videotaping is prohibited nor does he ever say videotaping is an arrest-able action.
The rest of what happened we only know about because the male journalist, Brian Pritchard, was left alone and was free to continue his recording and take pictures as things unfolded.
Roughly 12 minutes after the rally started, 2 speakers had already given their stump speech and a third speaker was giving his. That's when all hell broke loose for Tisdale.
Apparently, former Dawsonville GOP Chairman Clint Bearden instigated the arrest (more about that below) and followed Officer Wooten as he forcible pulled Tisdale away from he rally. So, during the arrest, and while Officer Wooten was pushing his body against Tisdale's backside, Clint Bearden is seen standing around looking like a dipshit while current Dawsonville GOP Chairwoman, Linda Clay Umberger was appalled at how Tisdale was being treated.
GOP Chairwoman UMBERGER: "She posted positively on Twitter to help get people here! I am the Chair. (To Tisdale) I am sorry that people are treating you this way. This is wrong!"
TISDALE: "I spoke with the owner, Kathy Burt, and she said ok."
JOHNNY BURT: "Listen I'm the owner and I said no!"
The male journalist, Brian Pritchard, who was free to record and take pictures published this:
Clint Bearden stood in front of the crowd and said let’s get this kicked off as he introduced Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens. With Tisdale’s camera rolling Hudgens started making his campaign stump speech. When talking about Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate Michelle Nunn, referring to the Chamber of Commerce debate between Perdue and Nunn, Hudgens said listening to Nunn
“I thought I was going to absolutely puke.”
Hudgens looked at Tisdale and said
“I don’t know why you’re video taping?”
This comment from Hudgens noticeably changed the mood in the room about Tisdale recording the event, especially for Bearden. Hudgens introduced Richard Woods. While Woods was speaking Bearden went and sat next to Tisdale, and according to Tisdale he asked her to stop videoing or she would have to leave. Tisdale told him that she was invited and would not stop. When we asked Bearden for a comment he referred us to the authorities that arrested Tisdale for a comment.
As Woods continued to speak Bearden went to Deputy Wooten for assistance. I then watched Bearden go and speak to the property owners Johnny and Kathy Burt. By this time Labor Commissioner Mark Butler had started speaking. Bearden returned and said something to Wooten. At this time both Bearden and Wooten approached Tisdale. Wooten told her she had to turn the camera off. Tisdale refused and continued to video. Wooten started to try to remove the camera from Tisdale’s hands. When she refused and struggled to keep the camera running, Wooten started physically removing her from the event. Tisdale physically resisted being removed turning the camera on Wooten screaming,
“identify yourself, who are you?”
~ Brian Pritchard
[emphasis mine]
The video shows that Officer Wooten was not in uniform.
Dawson News reports:
Linda Clary Umberger, chair of the local Republican Party, issued a personal statement on the incident. Her comments, she said, do not reflect a position of the local party.
"Being a Republican woman and the chair of the Dawson County GOP, I am still troubled by the removal of a woman who was videoing speakers at a political event this past Saturday at Burt's Pumpkin Farm in north Georgia," she said. "This meeting was advertised as open to the public and there were no announcements or signs requesting recording devices to be put away."
"Though I have a respect for private property rights, I also respect the First Amendment rights of an individual, which should be mutually respected," Umberger said. "I believe this was an unfortunate situation that could have been avoided if cooler heads had prevailed."
Interesting ... GOP Chairman had to clarify that her comments "
do not reflect a position of the local party."
Clint Bearden lied and falsely claimed that other journalists had been told to stop recording and they complied. We know that's a lie because journalist Brian Prichard was never asked to stop recording.
BEARDEN: "Unfortunately, [Tisdale] wasn't noticed until the event was ongoing. The request was then extended to her, the same as it was to the folks beforehand. I don't think anybody would have liked to have seen that happen that way, but the reality is you have a request by a private property owner that had been made earlier in the day, and other folks with video cameras had complied with that request."
One of the speakers at the event was GA. Attorney General Sam Olens who was also appalled at the treatment Nydia Tisdale received.
OLENS: “Let me be possibly politically incorrect here for a second. If we stand for anything as a party what are we afraid of with the lady having a camera filming us? What are we saying here that shouldn't be on film? What message are we sending? Cause it’s private property they shouldn't be filming? What is the harm? The harm that this poses is far greater than her filming us. What are we hiding? If we are telling you why we are running and what we stand for, what are we hiding?”
Pointing in the direction from where Tisdale was forced away Olens continued:
OLENS: "there is no reason for that, that is not right. It is private property. The private property owner has the right to not have the person there. Who is the winner in the long run? Not a good move.”
Nice speech, but I do wonder why Olens started off by saying "
Let me be possibly politically incorrect here for a second." Nothing he said was "politically incorrect" except for the fact that he thinks defending journalist is "politically incorrect."
As for the asshat who owns Burt's Farms, Johnny Burt. Well, seems old dipshit Johnny is kinda pissed that AG Sam Olens asked him to drop the charges against Tisdale.
JOHNNY BURT: "Sam Olens, our attorney general, came to me and wanted me to get the charges dropped. He came and sat down beside me after the incident happened. He said if I was in your shoes, that's what I'd do. [Tisdale] was here to make trouble and that's exactly what she did. It's very embarrassing to me and my family, because we work hard to get this farm the way it is."
So many disturbing things about this BS that Nathan Deal let happen at the rally he hosted.
1) Why is Gov. Nathan Deal's campaign pretending he did not host the public event?
2) Why was the female journalist asked to stop recording but not the male journalist?
3) Why does the female Dawson County Chairwoman, Linda Clay Umberger say her comments "do not reflect a position of the local party."
4) Why does the AG of Georgia think it is "politically incorrect" to defend a female journalist?
Why are the GOP so GD afraid of: women, being filmed, people of other religion, people who are not white, people who are educated, and science along with a host of other fears?
UPDATE:
I just found this ...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that when Officer Wooten bent Tisdale over the counter and pressed his frontside against her backside, Tisdale elbowed him in the right cheek area and kicked him in the right shin.
”He didn’t need to have his body pressed against my rear end,” Tisdale said Wednesday.
Linda Clary Umberger, chairman of the Dawson County GOP, followed the citizen journalist and the officer to an outbuilding.
“I watched as a woman was bent over the counter on her face, with an officer over her. If I had been her, I would have elbowed him in the face, too," Umberger said, "I was so upset at how they handled it – I walked out,”
said the county GOP chairman. It was one of those seminal events, she said, likely to split relationships and end friendships.
Recall from the video, Wooten never told Tisdale who he was and never showed her any credentials that he was an off-duty police officer.
That said, and I cannot speak for Tisdale, but, I would imagine that it is very likely that a person's (Tisdale's) natural impulse is to 'elbow someone in the face' or 'kick them in the shin' when that someone (Wooten) is forcefully bending them over a counter pushing his frontside into her 'rear end' ... especially since Wooten never identified himself as an officer.
UPDATE 2
Seems someone may have deleted Nydia Tisdale's cries for help from her video.
Tisdale was arrested on Saturday and posted bond the next day. However, police confiscated her camera and did not release it to her until 5 days after she was released.
Brian Pritchard posted the audio recording he was never asked to turn off. Pritchard starts his recorder after In his recording, at the 14:16 timestamp, you can hear Tisdale screaming for help.
PRITCHARD RECORDING:
here,
Meet and Greet
(sorry, I could not figure out how to embed the audio iframe recording so you have to click the link)
Timestamp 12:35
TISDALE: "Sir! What is your name?! What is your name?"
Timestamp 14:16
TISDALE: "HELP!" "HELP!" "HELP!" "HELP!" "HELP!" "HELP!" "HELP!"
Timestamp 14:27 (laughing from GOP rally audience)
Woman in crowd: "never ah dullll moment"
(laughter from GOP rally audience
Speaker: I tell ya, I've had a lot of things happen when I give speeches."
To sync Pritchard's recording to Nydia Tisdale's we need to sync the timestamps of when Nydia demands to know the name of the person forcefully removing her from the rally.
TISDALE RECORDING
Timestamp 14:26
TISDALE: "What is your name? What is your name?
Timestame 14:29
TISDALE: "Sir! What is your name!?"
Syncing the two recordings, we should be able to hear Tisdale screaming for help on Tisdale's video at the timestamp 16:10.
But, we never hear Tisdale scream for help even though her video lasts until the timestamp 18:34.
It seems to me, somebody, somewhere deleted some of Nydia Tisdale's video
.... hmmmm.....
(Hat Tip of Update 2 goes to DKos Brian B - thank Brian!)