admin / February 18, 2020

This past Saturday in Nashville Tennessee, the Tennessee Activist Coalition held a protest at Legislative Plaza in front of Gov. Bill Lee’s office. The TAC used this opportunity to express their anger over the new bill Governor Lee signed into law which allows adoption agencies to refuse to participate in child placement if doing so would violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies. The LGBT community took this bill personally since faith based adoption don’t have to violate their deeply held religious beliefs and convictions. About 100 people showed up to sing, chant and holler at Governor Lee’s office (demonstrating why they shouldn’t even be given children), which was empty since Lee does not occupy his office on Saturday’s.

In 2015, Pastor Dale Walker; President of The Tennessee Pastors Network organized a religious freedom rally in Legislative Square, which he was required to obtain a permit, private security and liability insurance. A State of TN General Services representative confirmed that TAC did not have a permit to assemble an no proof that insurance was obtained was present, however the Tennessee Activist Coalition did have a neon vest squad and Antifa present acting as their “Safety Team”.

Within minutes of the street preachers arriving at Legislative Plaza they were approached by Sarah “Gert Comfrey” Grove and Edward Kehoe who identified themselves as the events “safety” team. Grover, who is a licensed therapist asked that the preachers gave their event space and called their preaching “psychological violence”. The preachers kept their distance and set up more then 50 feet away from where the crowd gathered, but instead of the safety team tending to their event they stationed themselves right on top of the preachers (a tactic knows as mobbing).

Instantly the preachers were swarmed by individuals that wearing head coverings, face masks and/or sunglasses in an attempt to hide their identity.

Among these individuals was Trevor Adamson, whose hobbies consist of yapping on a trivial podcast about politics, running for US Congress District 6 as well as assaulting Christians. Adamson was accompanied to the event by his fiance Samantha Myers. In this photo “Mina Shedd” is watching on as the violence erupts. The man that Adamson is assaulting is Timothy Brown, a man who is nearly 20 years older then 33 year old Adamson.

 

This wasn’t the first assault of the day from Adamson that was captured on video. The live footage that was taken from 5 different cameras and 5 different points of view all show the attack from a man who stood over a foot taller than the preacher he kept assaulting. In this second photo Adamson was attempting to throw Brown to the ground. During this particular assault was when Brown actually sustained visible injury to his bicep even though he was wearing a thick sweater. Swelling, bruising and broken skin still remain on the left side of Browns body.

 

 Another in attendance acting as part of the “Safety Team” was Mary “Cassie” Cassandra Norton, an 8th grade public school teacher in Nashville and her boyfriend, 26 year old Edward Kehoe. Kehoe, was also caught on camera assaulting several other preachers. In this photo below you can see Sherman Kellow from Tennessee Street Preachers, fully embraced by Kehoe, who was actually attempting to lift and toss Kellow over the railing. It wasn’t until another preacher, Eric Painter, approached Kehoe while yelling at him, that Kehoe finally let go of Kellow. Even Fox 17 News caught this attempted assault on film, 29 minutes into the video which was aired to their Facebook page. In additional footage also captured you can see Kehoe using his body to shove and restrict the movement of  Warriors For Christ-Rich Penkoski, who Kehoe was stationed in front of for a good portion of the event.

One of the equally aggressive “tough guys” was 27 year old Noah Rish, who brought his dog and wife Regan Rish to the event. Rish is no stranger to conducting himself in the disorderly manner in which he was behaving. He was just recently in court earlier this month answering for charges of Disorderly Conduct and Criminal Trespassing. More often then not, on Saturday Rish could be seen shoving, pushing, blocking and even punching Tim Brown, in the ribs. Rish can be seen a countless amount of times jumping in front of Brown and several other preachers in an attempt to detain them in one location. When any of the preachers would attempt to get away from the violent assailants, they would chase the preachers down to assault and detain them again. Below is a small compilation of videos that show these multiple assaults from Adamson, Kehoe and Rish. This is one photo of the injury sustained by Tim Brown from Trevor Adamson.

 

 This is Noah Rish, blocking the movements of Brown as he was trying to get away from those assaulting him in a public space. This is just a small example of what Rish was doing to the preachers throughout the day.

        https://youtu.be/ABm7CpP-SwI?autoplay=0&rel=0

Here is Rish, leaning back and putting his weight against Brown in an attempt to keep him close to the street, like he was doing throughout the entire event. When Brown tried to get Rish off of him- Rish turns around and punched Brown in the ribs. Notice how Norton tells Penkoski that Rish is not being violent, as he is being violent.

Here in this video below you can first see Adamson pushing Brown. As the video goes on you see Adamson grab Brown by the arm, press his forearm into Brown’s neck and then attempt to throw Brown to the ground. Shortly after the video cuts to Kehoe and Rish physically preventing Penkoski from being able to freely move about the public sidewalk. The last clip in this video shows Michael Straight holding a banner, at which point a female (whose name will not be mentioned in this article), grabs a hold of the pole and tried to tare it from Straights hands. When Straight did not give up possession of the sign, the female lost her grip causing herself to be hit between the legs with the pole in the direction that she was yanking the pole towards herself in.

 

This is the video where Edward Kehoe, the boyfriend of the John Trotwood Moore Middle School teacher, tried to lift Kellow and toss him over the railing. Rish can be seen assisting Kehoe by using his body weight to lean against Kellow in an attempt to get Kellow over the waist high railing. Neither Kehoe nor Rish continued to carry out the act when they realized fellow street preacher Eric Painter was filming the attack.