Preaching the word, pepper spraying police don't mix

I shouldn't admit this, but I smiled when I learned Sunday that Glynis Bethel had been arrested in downtown Nashville, charged with two counts of assault and one count of resisting an officer. Bethel, you may recall, is half of the "fire and brimstone preaching" couple who with their three teenage children have held Brentwood and now Metro Nashville hostage in recent weeks.

For the record, I'm one of many – and I mean many – people here who have been listed in lawsuits the Bethels have tried to file with the U.S. District Attorney's office. Judge Todd Campbell (proclaimed a "wicked bastard" by Glynis on her Twitter site) has denied their petition of poverty which would allow the suits to be filed without paying a mandated $300 fee.

What put Glynis in jail? She allegedly pepper sprayed two people, a young woman and a Metro Nashville police officer. Her bond was set at $10,000. According to MNPD spokesman Don Aaron Wednesday morning, she has posted bond and been released.

Lord only knows what will happen this week with the CMA Music Fest happening downtown.

With the exception of their first appearances in Brentwood when they repeated a scenario they had played out in public schools across several states – trying to enroll their children under the guise of being homeless – and a subsequent altercation with a Brentwood High parent at one of the demonstrations the Bethels held outside of the school in April, BHP along with most local media outfits have not covered the family's antics because they are not news. They instead are a self-made spectacle that thrives on attention.

But the family has cost local governments, school districts and now every citizen in Brentwood a lot, in the way of money, time, manpower and added regulations not to mention aggravation.

The recent additions to the Brentwood Library's conduct policy? You can call it the Bethel Code. The family from Loxley, Ala. forced the Brentwood Library Board and City Commission to take action that had not been considered or needed here earlier, though other libraries, such as the Downtown Nashville one have had to implement similar policies in recent years.

The Bethels are bullies. Until the recent arrest, they've been trying to play everyone like pawns and they are good at it. They've had years of practice.

I've been proud to observe how Brentwood and Williamson County have responded to them publicly – with stiff backs and quiet reserve. But as every Brentwood school child who has completed bullying training knows, it takes someone to finally stand up to a bully to stop the abuse.

Nashville Police did, and it appears they had true cause.

On June 4, shortly before 1:20 a.m., Kiara Cannon was walking with friends on Broadway near Second Avenue in downtown Nashville when they saw a group of people arguing. A few of her friends began to debate with "a group of people who were wearing bright yellow shirts that stated 'GOD HATES GAYS' and 'GOD HATES WHORES,'" Cannon stated in a police report. She stepped in to separate a friend from the argument. "When I turned back around, Ms Bethel sprayed me in the face with pepper spray. Sgt Blackburn was nearby in plainclothes and caught the incident on tape," she reported.

Since the Bethels often record their own interactions with people to use as evidence against those they feel are persecuting them, it seems fitting that someone else did the same to them.

After a disorderly person call was put out, Officer Bob Haught was among the Metro officers who responded. He reported that as officers were gathering information on the incident, Glynis tried to leave. "As I was walking toward her to stop her, she sprayed me in the face with pepper spray," the police report states.

It wasn't the first time in recent weeks one of the Bethels has allegedly pepper sprayed someone downtown. It was the first time charges were pressed.

I love our country and our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, even when at times those freedoms cause me to cringe when I see how some choose to use them.

This time the issue wasn't constitutional, it was criminal. I'll be surprised if Glynis can chant her way out of this one.

I do hope, but don't expect, it will quiet her.

Originally posted in the Brentwood Home Page.