First Amendment found damaged in storm cleanup


From the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Last Thursday, one of our reporters, Kate Harrison, was following
volunteers cleaning up debris in the heavily damaged Apison area when
she was confronted by three veteran, high-ranking public officials who
ordered her to stop taking photographs. The officials — Hamilton County
Sheriff Jim Hammond, Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd and Hamilton
County’s director of emergency services, Don Allen — clearly should have
known that Harrison’s work was constitutionally protected. That they
could occupy such high positions and not know, or care about, or respect
the nation’s First Amendment rights boggles the mind.

You’d like to this was an anonmaly, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s not. The Chattanooga paper’s incidents involve law enforcement and public officials in two states.

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