A south Alabama woman who took part in a No Kings rally in Fairhope last October has been found not guilty following an scuffle with police. A jubilant Renea Gamble emerged from the court room, raising her arms in victory and with a message for her supporters.
“As Alabamians, we dare defend our rights. And this fight is not over,” she said.
Fairhope police arrested Gamble at a No Kings Rally last year where the 62-year-old grandmother wore an inflatable penis costume and carried a sign. She faced four charges including disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. During the trial the arresting officer said he approached Gamble because her costume was a dangerous distraction. Gamble and her attorney maintain her costume and sign were political statements protected by first amendment speech. Video of Gamble’s arrest made national headlines. Gamble’s attorney David Gespass says her costume was a political statement protected by free speech.
“Try as much as the city did to say it had nothing to do with her costume and what she was wearing, I think the body cam and dashcam videos tell a very different story,” he said.
Gespass says future litigation hasn’t been ruled out.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Tuscaloosa on that same October day as part of the national No Kings demonstration against Donald Trump and his policies. Events were also planned in Montgomery, Mobile, Birmingham, and Florence as the Federal budget shutdown shows no end in sight. University of Alabama Student Giselle Hernandez wore a t-shirt with the slogan Hey Gringo, I’m legal. She says she joined the protest over what’s going in her hometown near Chicago.
“I have seen them in my own neighborhood. I'm telling you, the grocery store I see the grocery store I usually go every day,” Hernandez said. “I've seen them in my town. Take my neighbors, take workers that I've talked to every day, you know?”
Motorists along twenty first street in Tuscaloosa saw participants dressed as Uncle Sam, dinosaurs, and the public television character “Bluey.” Protesters chanted and carried signs with slogans like “End ICE,” and “release the Epstein Files.” Leslie Poss of Tuscaloosa chose her words carefully on why she took part.
“I want my voice to be heard,” she said “I want my voice to be counted. I want elections to continue and to be to be free and fair and for everybody who has the right to vote to be able to vote.”
Demonstrators packed places like New York City's Times Square, the historic Boston Commons, Chicago's Grant Park, and Washington, D.C.
