State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens reportedly asked Nydia Tisdale “I don’t know why you’re videotaping” and was recorded moments later laughing as she yelled for help while a deputy forcibly ejected her from a political rally in front of Governor Nathan Deal and U.S. Senate candidate David Perdue.

Jim Galloway and Greg Bluestein wrote for the AJC yesterday, Videographer ousted from GOP event, and Sam Olens speaks up, that Attorney General Sam Olens was the only speaker at that rally to mention the incident later:

“Let me be possibly politically incorrect here 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? That because it’s private property they shouldn’t be filming? What is the harm?

“The harm that occurs post-this 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? There is no reason for that. That is not right. It is private property. The property owner has the right to not have the person there. Who’s the winner in the long run? Not a good move.”

Hudgens had been bragging about business in the great state of Georgia. I’m not sure this incident will help attract business.

Gov. Deal claimed afterwards he had nothing to do with it, but he was there, and he did nothing to stop it.

Lawton Sack wrote for Peach Pundit 25 August 2014, Carter Calls Out Deal Over Removal of Video Journalist, that a press release from Jason Carter’s campaign for governor said:

Gov. Nathan Deal refused to intervene, or even criticize the forcible removal of a video journalist from an open campaign event, even as the state’s top law enforcement official condemned the move.

Galloway followed up for the AJC today, How a plan to keep a GOP rally off the Internet went awry, noting if a private venue wanted no videoing, the proper thing would have been to announce that up front. But they didn’t, it was advertised as a public campaign event, Tisdale was invited. She even advertised the event on social media for a week in advance, including posting on all the candidates’ facebook pages and the venue owners’ facebook page saying she was coming.

Nobody did anything to stop anybody else from recording, including Brian K. Pritchard of fetchyournews.com whose sound recording and still pictures are why we know what happened.

Pritchard says Bearden later tried to blame it on the property owners, but Pritchard never saw the property owners anywhere near Tisdale. In an audio interview Pritchard did with Tisdale, she says she talked at length with one of the property owners, Kathy Burt, before the event and explained who she was and what she did. Nonetheless, Tisdale was taken to jail and her camera confiscated. She was charged with obstruction of justice and criminal trespass, and had to post several thousand dollars bond to get out the next day. Which seems especially odd given that she says Kathy Burt asked the deputy to let her drive away.

Jon Richards wrote for Peach Pundit 27 August 2014, Another Side of the Nydia Tisdale Story, quoting venue owner Johnny Burt as saying he had told the deputy to remove her and claiming Tisdale attacked the deputy with the camera and slapped him. Richards blames Tisdale, claiming she wanted to be a martyr. Which wouldn’t explain why only Tisdale was ejected, and not Pritchard, who was sitting two rows behind her with his recording equipment clearly visible.

Does any of this seem right to you?

Chet Martin wrote for Peach Pundit 26 August 2014, AG Olens wins Nydia Tisdale case,

Two days after Attorney General Olens made news for defending videographer/activist Nydia Tisdale, Judge Robert Adamson ruled in his favor on her behalf. In the heady days of 2012, Mayor Henry Ford Gravitt ordered Ms. Tisdale to stop filming a meeting of the Cumming City Council. As is fast becoming her trademark, she refused, a right protected by Georgia’s Open Meeting Act.

You may remember that Cummings City Council meeting of April 2012. She was already back attending those city council meetings by June 2012. Now the City of Cummings, according to the Attorney General,

Judge Adamson ordered the defendants to pay $12,000 in penalties, the highest amount possible under the law. Defendants have also been ordered to pay attorney’s fees in an amount to be determined at a later hearing.

Well, that turned out OK finally.

I sure wouldn’t want to be the owners of that private venue from a few days ago.

-jsq

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