Landowner Johnny Burt’s excuse for having Nydia Tisdale ejected
from an event advertised as a public campaign rally:

“She promptly sat down on the front row on the end where she would
be right in their face and was making everybody uncomfortable.”

Shades of Ashley Paulk’s excuse for wanting that
illegal bill of attainder
against LAKE that the Lowndes County Commission continues to selectively enforce.
He told me it was because I was “in his face” of someone speaking in
Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, even though I was sitting quietly
twenty feet away, saying nothing.
If the front row, though.
And apparently that’s Nydia Tisdale’s real “crime”: being seen to be videoing.
I ask: if those candidates and their host had nothing to hide
in their advertised public campaign rally,
why did they eject someone who was videoing it?

Michele Hester wrote for Dawson News 26 August 2014,

Woman arrested at rally,

Johnny Burt and his wife Kathy, who own the popular tourist
attraction on Hwy. 52 in northeastern Dawson, played host to the
event, which initially was billed as a meet-and-greet with Gov.
Nathan Deal and U.S. Senate candidate David Perdue.

By the weekend, the rally had grown to include District 9 U.S. Rep.
Doug Collins, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, State School
Superintendent hopeful Richard Woods and the heads of the state
agriculture, insurance and labor departments, among others.

Sheriff’s Capt. Tony Wooten, who was at the event in his official
capacity, made the arrest.

“[Organizers] had requested that we have an officer presence there
at the event for security and that’s what he was there for,”
Carlisle said.

When Tisdale refused to stop recording and leave the farm, Wooten
attempted to escort her off the property, according to the sheriff.

“That’s when she kicked him in the shin and elbowed him in the
mouth,” Carlisle said. “From that point on, she was charged with
criminal trespass and felony obstruction.”

Tisdale maintains she had told Kathy Burt when she got to the farm
of her intention to record the speakers. The Burts deny that
contention.

“What she did is she came in and told my wife and daughter that she
was there with the governor to record him, so we thought she was
part of their party,” Johnny Burt said Tuesday. “She misled my
daughter and my wife.

Um, having followed Nydia Tisdale’s videoing career for a couple of
years now, and having heard her much longer version of what she
told Kathy Burt in the
sound interview with her by
Brian K. Pritchard, I would bet Tisdale talked about previously
videoing most of the candidates and Kathy Burt misunderstood
that Tisdale was with the governor’s campaign.
A bit of due diligence by the landowner, or the governor’s campaign,
would have prevented this whole incident.
Or a policy announced at the start of the event.

Ah, someone else, in addition to Attorney General Sam Olens and Jason Carter, has spoken up:

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.”

The local party was not involved in organizing the event.

“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.”

Instead, the public is left to wonder what did the candidates
or their host have to hide at this publicly announced campaign rally?
What were they doing that made them unconfortable about being videoed?
Many of these candidates are the very same people who are currently
running the state of Georgia.
What are they doing in their official capacities they might be
uncomfortable about having videoed?

We used to have this issue at our local Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,
where

Meredith Ellis spoke up 6 January 2011, saying
“I really know that it’s uncomfortable for you sometimes”.
To their credit, the now-renamed Development Authority
has a new executive director since then,
a new focus on cultivating local industry as well as bringing in
companies from outside,
and it actively welcomes videoing now.

Maybe candidates running for state office should likewise realize
they need citizens to see what they’re saying.
Maybe if they’re uncomfortable with that, they might consider
going into some other line of work.

-jsq