Justin Jones is one of the two Tennessee state lawmakers who were dismissed over their role in the anti-gun, post-Covenant School shooting protest inside the Tennessee Capitol. He was quickly reinstated by the Nashville Metropolitan Council.
However, Jones is under the microscope again because it appears he got violent during the “mostly peaceful” protests that occurred during the summer of 2020. Jones, for his part, attacked those allegations as absurd, saying, in 2021 (the thread has been condensed into paragraph form):
Over a year after our racial justice protests last summer, D.A. Glenn Funk has gone to the Grand Jury in a secret process to indict me on two additional charges. All my charges remain and I will now face a total of 14 charges. This is why the court date kept getting pushed.
Today, I will go with my lawyer to turn myself into the jail to be booked knowing that truth is on our side; knowing that the real criminals are those who abuse their power. I have nothing to hide. Their retaliation serves as a dramatic and sure confirmation that our struggle is effective. The troopers (directed by Gov. Bill Lee) are colluding with prosecutors to weaponize the law as a form of punishment for the mere fact that we chose to stand up. This is bigger than me. I’m meant to be a cautionary tale to make others afraid to stand up and speak out.
This will not work. We are not afraid, because perfect love casts out all fear. This is about our right to be engaged citizens in our system of government. This is about our to right to challenge an entrenched white power structure in its variety of forms from the State Capitol to the District Attorney’s Office.
They will try to push a false narrative portraying me as “violent” as a way to deflect from their own actions. They will suggest that I am out of order. That is their strategy. However, I’m hopeful for the chance to present our evidence in a transparent manner. Justice requires transparency. I’m leaning on my faith and the strength of community as I seek justice together with others. The District Attorney’s Office has sought to isolate me, but I know I am not alone.
Well, unearthed footage appears to show that it was not, in fact, a “false narrative.” Rather, it looks like Jones stopped cars and assaulted the drivers of them. Watch that here:
A local blog, Scoop Nashville, featured the violent footage in 2021 and wrote about it, saying:
“In June of 2020, Justin Bautista-Jones, better known as ‘Brother Jones’ locally, was one of the publicly visible (often by design) protestors at the State Capitol. He received a lot of pushback from his own community after it was discovered he was often only making appearances when he knew there would be media coverage, and eventually had a falling out with one of the other most visible female members of the group.
“Throughout the entire time, he has faced over a dozen charges but always denied that he was violent – despite multiple assaults, assault on an officer, and reckless endangerment charges. In the newly obtained video, one of his assaults was captured, and presented to the Grand Jury – and he was indicted on two counts of reckless endangerment.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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