VIDEO: Democrat TN State Rep. John DeBerry Delivers Amazing Speech Slamming Antifa/BLM Riots
DeBerry calls out Democrat silence on the mob violence: “What kind of people have we become?”
Longtime Tennessee Democrat state representative John DeBerry, Jr. gave an impassioned speech earlier this month on the floor of the Tennessee Senate.
DeBerry, who recalls marching with his father and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., shared his experiences with peaceful Civil Rights-era protests and expressed his outrage that today’s violent riots are being hailed as a continuation of those carried out in the 60’s.
Appalled by the wide-spread violence being carried out in the name of “racial justice,” DeBerry slammed the looting, vandalism, arson, assaults, and rioting that have consumed Democrat-controlled cities across America for the past three months.
Tennessee State Representative John DeBerry Jr. delivered a powerful speech against the riots earlier this month in a house session, where the Democratic representative denounced the non-peaceful riots and expressed fear for the future.
DeBerry recounted the history of the civil rights movement and the peaceful civil rights protests he witnessed as a child, reminding the chamber of what made the protests and marches of the 1960s successful. “I saw it. I saw men and women stand with courage and integrity and class, and they changed the world,” he said.
“I am one of those individuals who walked in back doors because the law said I had to. I’m one of those individuals who rode on the back of the bus on the back seats that were not cushioned because the law said I had to,” he said.
DeBerry described what happened when protests of the 1960s turned violent, saying, “When the riots started and folks started burning stuff down, that’s when my father took my arm and we left. We left because that was not what we were there for. That was not what Dr. King was there for.”
DeBerry called out Democrats for trying to “frost over” the violence, to pretend it’s not happening, or to otherwise downplay it as Democrats had been doing prior to Kenosha and their panic over polling (DeBerry’s speech was given earlier this month, before Kenosha).
The Federalist continues with the following from DeBerry’s floor speech:
“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.”
Watch the whole thing:
DeBerry has served for 26 years in the Tennessee legislature as a Democrat, but the state Democratic Party removed him from the ballot for this year’s election, declaring for him, in DeBerry’s words, that he is “not a Democrat.”
After a House amendment essentially overruling the Tennessee Democratic Party was approved by the state’s Senate, DeBerry is running for his seat in November as an Independent. Republicans hold majorities in both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly.
DeBerry, 69, had been a conservative Democrat until Tennesse [sic] Democratic Party officials “blindsided” him earlier this year by removing him from the House District 90 primary ballot for his history of voting with Republicans on issues like abortion and school choice.
“I think that someone decided that the only way that they were going to get me out of office was to remove me from the ballot. So this was what a tribunal did,” DeBerry told Fox News, referring to the state party’s executive committee. “[They] decided my political future and made a declaration that I was not a Democrat.”
DeBerry has been in office for 26 years and will run for reelection as an independent, citing the “outrage” in his district over party bosses’ efforts to oust him.
“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.”
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Comments
Not every Tennessee Democrat is Eric Cantor.
Neither is Eric Cantor. He is/was a Virginian.
This Congressman almost restored my faith in humanity.
I say ‘almost’ because sadly he is a very rare exception within today’s Democratic party.
I never heard of him before, but I am bookmarking this video and sharing it with everyone I know.
Democrats removed him from the House District 90 primary ballot for not following the party line on abortion and school choice. So much for the “big tent” of allowing a variety of views. So much for letting the people decide in the primary who their candidate should be.
I am reminded of Obama’s first political campaign- the Democrat primary for a state legislative seat. Obama got all his opponents off the ballot and ran unopposed.
One more evidence that there are a lot of Democrat higher-ups who don’t believe in democracy.
Are you saying they silenced a black voice?
“So much for letting the people decide in the primary who their candidate should be.”
Well, the whole Kamala Harris thing was pretty much the smoking gun on that.
I think that is going to become more common as the Dems continue to move further left. Even now conservative/pro-life Democrats are becoming a rarer species in Congress and various state legislatures, and so it’s not surprising to me that they are now being drummed out via behind-the-scenes maneuvering instead of by the voters.
Up in Canuckistan when Trudeau became the leader of the federal Liberal party, the political lives of pro-life MPs got much more difficult as Trudeau made it clear he didn’t like their views on abortion and didn’t want them voting that way. Since then the pro-lifers have been weeded out of the Liberal caucus. As well, if someone who is pro-life in any way wants to be nominated for a federal seat as a Liberal, even if they fit the bill beliefs-wise in every other category, they shouldn’t bother trying because the party will make sure that person won’t be nominated.
By Trudeau I mean the current one, not Pierre.
I saw men and women stand with courage and integrity and class, and they changed the world,” he said.
They changed the world, all right . . . into a disaster zone where crimes like Portland are not only tolerated, but celebrated.(To be fair, Rep. DeBerry is obviously not celebrating it. But it’s happening anyway.)
“I am one of those individuals who walked in back doors because the law said I had to. I’m one of those individuals who rode on the back of the bus on the back seats that were not cushioned because the law said I had to,” he said.
Well, you can sit in the back of the bus, or you can try to dodge the flames as your town burns. Everybody acts like they’re sure there’s a middle road, even though it hasn’t been found and, so far as we can see today, may not exist.
https://www.history.com/news/slavery-american-colonization-society-liberia
In the early 1800s there was a vigorous discussion regarding sending, as in forcing all former slaves to return to africa. Until recently,I was ambivalent about this, now I am wondering if they made a horrible mistake.
It seems to me that at some point they stopped assimilating, even regressed. Black culture has regressed since the sixties.
With lots of help from the “Great Society,” corrupt politicians, & corrupt public (government worker) unions.
“Top Down, Bottom Up, Inside Out” – Van Jones
I can just imagine those white democrats in TN looking at him and saying… DeBerry? That old guy just doesn’t “get” it.
Welcome to the republican party! Take a look around you may enjoy it.
Nah he’s running as Independent for re-election. He has to since the Party removed him from the Demo Primary.
He might just win now.
FWIW, I think it’s a bit disingenuous to say we are “too frightened to stand up and protect our own stuff”. I understand politicians have to be measured, but many are more than willing to stand up and protect their stuff. They are more afraid of an oppressive government that will throw the book at them for daring to exercise their 2nd amendment rights in the vicinity of a criminal.
Everyone in that picture is standing behind what looks like bullet-proof glass. Is that a Wuhan flu precaution or is standing on the floor of the TN state legislature that dangerous?
WuFlu precaution.
Also, it’s plexiglass.
Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are just stupid “punks”
Brilliant. Too bad that those who most need to hear that speech never will…
More’s the pity that…
Someone else whom the Dmoncrats left behind.