A group of 10 people protested Thursday morning outside the home of Republican St. Joseph County Council Member Amy Drake. They were led by Trina Robinson, president of the NAACP’s South Bend chapter, who says Drake’s positions on public health will harm minorities and the poor.
For example, Drake recently traveled to the Indiana statehouse to testify against a bill that will offer counties millions of new dollars to tackle a host of public health problems. Drake fears the money will come with strings that will take away local government control.
Drake issued a press release Wednesday saying her family was so fearful of the planned protest that she had spent the past few days “putting safety protocols in place to protect my home and my family.”
But one of the protesters, Cheryl Nix, said Drake’s family was in no danger.
“To be very clear, there was no chanting,” Nix said. “We were simply holding signs as Ms. Trina Robinson, president of NAACP, made a statement to the press. So it was more of a press conference than a protest. We made that change because there was concern, so we decided that we would stand in silent vigil as she spoke.”
Nix said the average age of the protesters was 62. She said some people had expressed concern about demonstrating in front of an elected official’s home, but the group felt it was the best way to have an impact.
“Some of our signs said ‘Lead testing protects children, Save Portage Manor, We care about the homeless, those types of signs, so there was nothing vulgar or abusive.”
Around the nation’s capital, people have protested outside of the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh. Locally over the past few years, the NAACP and Blacks Lives Matter have protested outside the homes of South Bend Mayor James Mueller and South Bend Common Council President Tim Scott, both Democrats. Scott resigned from office shortly after that protest.
Steve Sanders is an Indiana University law professor who specializes in constitutional law. He said he wasn’t sure whether people are protesting outside government officials’ homes, or whether those officials are simply complaining about it more.
Either way, Sanders said it’s fully within protesters’ First Amendment rights, as long as the protesters stay off private property, don’t block access or travel, and don’t threaten violence.
“And if there’s an elected official who says that’s domestic terrorism, I think the voters should be very concerned about the quality of officials that they’ve elected, because they apparently have no respect whatsoever for freedom speech. You’d have to be sort of a snowflake to think that just words of protest constitute terror.”
