Ironically, last Thursday, which was the last day of Black History Month, there was an incident at the Tennessee Capitol. Two African- American men decided to take a bust from the Tennessee Capitol building in order to prove a point that they believed needed to be heard. The two activists demanded that the bust be removed at once because it was a shrine to Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest who was an early KKK leader. Both were immediately arrested after attempting to remove the bust from the Capitol, later following an aggressive press conference that created some controversy. The activists claimed that it was not right to arrest them because they were exercising their first amendment rights. They claimed that they were peacefully protesting without causing any issues and did not warrant a reason to be arrested in such an aggressive way. This is not the only issue that the two have caused, they have also led multiple sit-ins at the Capitol this year as well. It appears as if the protest was not so peaceful after all, the two were seen screaming "take the statue down!" and throwing cups of coffee in the elevators of the Capitol. Even though they are sticking to the idea that their actions were 'peaceful', the employees are claiming that they will not tolerate the men physically and verbally assaulting them without precautions. This is a touchy subject because it does involve a very serious racial issue that should not still be happening in today's society, but it needs to be addressed in any way that the police would normally handle public aggression. Violence should never be involved in a peaceful protest, let alone carried out in a place of our legislature.
Resource: Yahoo News
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