Trouble for Security Team in Nashville Arrest [2 videos]

Scientology and rent-a-cops Offer Bologna, but may Eat Crow

WSMV News4 Part 1: A protest at the Church of Scientology in Nashville led to pushing, shoving, an arrest and the whole thing was caught on tape. The tape, protesters said, proves they were assaulted and bullied by security guards for no reason.

As the group walked up Eighth Avenue looking for a place to set up a protest, they were approached by a group of off-duty Spring Hill security guards. "As we start turning around, I feel somebody, you know, grabbed me," said the student. "Then, all I remember is I'm on the ground, you know, and I've got, like, three people piled on top of me. Luckily, we had cameras rolling".

"But basically I got tackled from behind while I was trying to leave." The student added, " it was the three off-duty security guards who assaulted him on public property, 400 yards from church property on the other side of the street". Watch part1 below:



WSMV News4: Part 2: There are problems with how security for a Nashville Scientology event was handled, and laws appear to have been broken.

• Public Works pulled all of the permits taken out for the Scientology event. The permits -- all of them for sidewalk closing and lane blocking -- are for the wrong day. They're for the day before the event and expire before the scuffle occurred.

• Three of the five security guards were off-duty Spring Hill police officers working in Nashville, which can only be done if local police are notified and officers are wearing uniforms clearly identifying them as off-duty police officers.

"The armed people from the other county are not identified police officers," said John M. L. Brown. "You're looking for a problem." Brown, a Fraternal Order of Police attorney, has been defending police officers for 32 years. He said he finds the officers' actions hard to defend. He also added. "Nashville's a capital city, and there are protests in Nashville with some frequency, I don't think that mentioning a bologna sandwich is a recognized law enforcement tactic." Watch Part2 below:



And now let the finger-pointing commence.
• The Church of Scientology said it told security these were dangerous people and to do what they needed to do.
• The assistant police chief of the Spring Hill Police Department, Jon Roberts, said from the video it looked like to him that the protesters were looking for trouble. Roberts said he feels that the officers did not do anything wrong, and the home video does not tell the whole story.
• The security firm hired by the Church of Scientology was Hayes Security on Gallatin Road. A representative of the firm said that the matter is being turned over to its attorneys.
Looks like all this isn't going to get settled before lunch, who brought the sandwiches?