Democracy in Action Stages Protest on Ringgold Road

Dozens of protesters waved protest signs Wednesday afternoon at the intersection of Ringgold Road and South Moore Road.

The protest organized in part by a group called Democracy in Action, was an effort to call attention to the the Federal government’s actions by ICE agents in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Officials with East Ridge Police said the department was aware of the protest in advance and didn’t expect any issues. Officials said the group had previously protested in the area of South Terrace and South Moore in recent months, and were considered “docile.”

When asked if the group needed a permit to protest, a police department official said via text that he would think not. “Standing on the sidewalk isn’t illegal.”

Other protests by the organization took place on Wednesday on Signal Mountain and at the Hamilton County Courthouse.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.