Rep. John Deberry Jr. channels MLK and states that the “protests” are not peaceful but are self-destructive to the black Americans in particular and America in general.
“If we don’t start standing for something don’t you know that the people that are looking at what’s happening in Washington, in Detroit, in Portland, in Seattle, they’re getting emboldened because we act like a bunch of punks. Too frightened to stand up and protect our own stuff. You tell me that somebody has the right to tear down property that Tennessee taxpayers paid for? That American taxpayers paid for? And somebody has the right to destroy it, deface it, and tear it down? What kind of people have we become?”
“Peaceful protests ends peacefully, anarchy ends in chaos. What we see happening right now, any of us with any common sense, any common sense whatsoever, know that what we see is not peaceful. So we can continue to fool ourselves and mix with words and use rhetoric and public relations in order to frost this stuff over and put a nice picture on what we see that is frightening.”
Well said, sir. Well said.
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In May of 2020, the Tennessee Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee voted to remove DeBerry from the Democratic primary ballot after 26 years in office, because according to one committee member who voted to remove him DeBerry wasn’t “exemplifying the basic Democratic principles.
Said Berry: “I was kind of blindsided because I have run as a Democrat since 1995 and I have won 13 elections as a Democrat,” DeBerry said. “… My views have always been conservative. The people in my district know this. And even though I’ve had opponents who have hammered me over and over about my stance on abortion, about my stance on the family and my stance on education, [voters] have overwhelmingly elected me 13 times.”
Berry will be running as an independent.