“I’m serious as a heart attack,” he tells Gamble when the audio begins to play on the 14-minute body camera video. “I’m not gonna sit here and argue with you.”

He demands to know how she could possibly justify such an obscene display: “I would like to hear how you would explain to my children what you’re supposed to be.”

Talking to a colleague over his two-way radio after the encounter, Babb described what happened. Gamble was dressed “like a freakin’ weiner,” he says on the tape, so he ordered her to remove the costume. She refused, invoking her First Amendment rights.

“Am I being detained?” Gamble repeatedly asks Babb, who ignores the question and continues to scold her. “If I’m not being detained, I’m gonna go ahead and leave.”

When she turns to walk away, Babb steps forward and grabs her costume from behind, throwing her on her back. Angry protesters shout at Babb as he forces her to turn over. Two more cops help him pin Gamble on the grass and handcuff her.

“By the time I got there, the cops were stuffing an inflatable penis in the back of their car,” Rae said.

It was, on one hand, hilarious — a slapstick comedy bit brought to life. In the body camera footage, Babb tries and fails to fit Gamble into his own backseat, then hands her off to another officer, who escorts her to a different vehicle. Police wrestle with the oversized costume, ultimately failing to fit the unwieldy polyester penis into the car.

It was also disturbing. Gamble screams in pain in the video as the cops try to push her into the backseat, the handcuffs digging into her wrists. Babb asks where the zipper is and, as he peels off the penis suit, asks Gamble for her name.

She replies, “Aunt Tifa.”

  • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    “Protests should remain peaceful and free of profanity and obscene displays.” Mayor Sherry Sullivan told reporters.

    City Council President Jack Burrell said the costume violated “community standards.”

    Fairhope was founded as a utopian experiment in the late 1800s… by independent thinkers [and] has imbued Fairhope with an enduring sense of civic pride.

    Sounds like Aunt Tifa should run for mayor and be rid of someone that’s forgotten why the town even exists.

      • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Perhaps those that take offense haven’t found themselves on the unwelcome end of a suddenly displayed phallus before. Might be quite the shock to take one’s own medicine like that.

    • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Hey Champ, you keep this up and a person might take offense.

      It’s been a month and you’re still bothering to downvote whenever you happen across a comment of mine?

      Hope you can move past my utensil choices at some point. I’m not big on subletting a room in your head, even if it’s provided free of charge.

      Context

      My parent comment in this post:

      Last exchange from a month ago:

      Pretty sad @SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world. Curious decision to habitually downvote rather than block seeing as my existing so annoys you. Self inflicted annoyance if I’ve ever seen it.