A Tennessee Democratic state senator called for riots over the weekend after the Republican-controlled state Senate passed legislation preventing cities from restricting their police forces from making certain traffic stops.
State Sen. Charlane Oliver said the Republicans’ pro-police legislation is “rooted in racism,” and will force those in her district to “fight like hell.”
“It is a slap in the face and you might as well stomp on the grave of Tyre Nichols,” Oliver said after the state Senate passed the bill by a vote of 26-6. “Yes, we are emotionally charged. Why? Because it’s personal for us. Taylor made this personal the minute he introduced this legislation to target one family and one life that was lost.”
The bill was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor after Memphis passed an ordinance that banned traffic stops for light offenses as expired registrations, a single inoperable headlight or brake light, and loose bumpers.
“So yeah, we gonna fight,” Oliver continued. “Dr. King said that riots are the language of the unheard. You ain’t seen nothing yet. If you keep silencing us like this, what do you think our district is going to do? We have had it up here. Gloves are off. Like, we gonna fight like hell. You don’t expect us to respond when you gaslight us every single day with these bills?”
“It is rooted in racism,” she continued. “This is a Jim Crow bill that [Sen. Brent] Taylor brought and all his Confederates voted for it.”
Oliver has been in office since 2022 and co-founded the Equity Alliance, a non-profit organization that focuses on “education, housing and environmental justice, jobs and economic opportunity, criminal justice and public safety, politics and democracy, and healthcare – as well as reparations.”
