Danville Tea Party Leaders ask Attorney General to Investigate Intimidation Tactics by Congressman Perriello

The Danville Tea Party Group has been experiencing what they believe to be intimidation tactics while trying to voice their concerns surrounding the Nationalized Health Care Plan that President Obama is trying to push through to fulfill one of his campaign promises.

Picture of Michael and Bobby at "Town Hall"

Many questions have been raised over law enforcement being used to squelch concerned citizens who attended a wrongly titled “Town Hall” function located near Ringgold, Virginia on a farm owned by Buddy Mayhew. In attendance of this “Town Hall” function were Obama Administration Secretaries Chu, Vilsack, and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA).

Below you will find details taken directly from a letter written to Virginia Attorney General, William Mims by Nigel Coleman. In his letter Nigel asks William Mims for an inquiry by his office into the motivations of state police members and local law enforcement with the goal of intimidating and silencing concerned citizens.

Here are the sequence of events as listed in Coleman:

• On Saturday, July 18, 2009, members of the Danville Tea Party attended a public function for Congressman Perriello and Obama Administration Secretaries Chu and Vilsack. Our plan was to ask some very direct questions related to the current healthcare reform bill being debated in Congress.

• Danville Tea Party vice-chairman Bobby Conner and I rode together and met Patricia Evans and some other members and stood close to the front so we could get a chance to ask a question.

• After a few minutes, what we believe to have been two Secret Service agents were standing next to us. There was also a uniformed police officer behind us. It seemed to a couple of us  that they were all staring at us.

• Realizing we would not be allowed to ask a question of our Congressman at a supposedly “town hall” meeting, we decided to go to our cars and get signs which we intended to hold up at the exit from the farm. But as soon as we got the signs, a county sheriff’s deputy pulled up in a white SUV and another deputy on foot told us that the owner of the property, Buddy Mayhew, wanted us to leave immediately and that we were not welcome.

• We complied with the officer’s instructions without a word of protest. We left and everyone met up at a restaurant nearby to discuss what happened during the day and decide what to do next. As we were leaving to go home, Bobby was the first to notice an unmarked police car and and officer calling our license plate numbers in over his phone.

• That was unsettling enough. However, on Monday morning the police action escalated when Virginia State Police showed up unannounced on
  

  The Back of the Envelope Seen by Officials Containing Notes

  Bobby’s doorstep and proceeded to question him regarding our presence at Saturday’s event, specifically something about a note one of our group passed to another asking him to take his picture with Rep. Perriello if the opportunity presented itself.

Also in the same letter Nigel writes:

Taken as a series of actions coming , as they do, so closely together and targeted so specifically at the citizen leadership of opposition to Rep. Perriello’s position on healthcare, we cannot help but conclude that some type of coordination with the local and state police has occurred.

If such coordination between the police and Rep. Perriello’s office did in fact take place, we believe it is compelling to learn under whose direction and instigation. If you find that it was instigated by Rep. Perriello and/or a member of his staff, we believe the line has been crossed and legal action is required.

Other news worth noting. There was also another peaceful Tea Party gathering in a parking lot immediately outside Congressman Tom Perriello’s Charlottesville office on Friday, July 17, 2009. Approximately 40 minutes into the event, Charlottesville police were called o the parking lot. Unconfirmed reports from the scene tie at least one complaining phone call as coming directly from Tom Perriello’s office staff. The attending police officers politely and professionally requested the concerned crowd to disperse. Although, unhappy about their own Congressman’s office terminating their first amendment rights of a peaceful free speech protest.

The latest news on the incident in Ringgold is that Tom Perriello has requested that Bobby Conner and Nigel Coleman meet with him on August 6th to discuss some issues. We will be anxious to hear some of the details that come from this meeting.

Other stories of interest:

1. Congressman Brian Baird of Washington Confronted at Town Hall Meeting
2. Tea Party Patriots hold a Funeral Procession for Proposed Health Care Reform
3. Orlando Tea Party “Mob” Out Organizes DNC’s “Organizing for America”
4. Claire McCaskill’s Office Holds Town Hall on Health Care Bill
5. Iowa Congressman Steve King Receives Defender of Economic Freedom Award