A resurfaced video shows Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones of Tennessee hitting a driver with a traffic cone during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots and protests.
Jones, who was recently expelled for his participation in what elected officials called an “insurrection” at the state capitol before being reinstated this week, has said that people had pushed a “false narrative portraying me as ‘violent’” during protests, according to a 2021 post on Twitter. Jones was referring to charges he had received after a video surfaced showing him aggressively confronting and throwing a traffic cone at a driver in an intersection, according to the Post Millennial. (RELATED: Nashville Council Unanimously Votes To Reinstate Expelled State House Dem Member)
“They will try to push a false narrative portraying me as ‘violent’ as a way to deflect from their own actions,” Jones wrote. “They will suggest that I am out of order. That is their strategy. However, I’m hopeful for the chance to present our evidence in a transparent manner.”
After public pressure, this is the short video clip the DA’s Office is sending to media and politicians trying to justify my new charges. Show all the videos. Show how the man was yelling racial slurs and pushing his car into protesters. Explain the troopers standing right
— Rep. Justin Jones (@brotherjones_) June 24, 2021
The video shows Jones and several other protesters approaching a truck in the middle of a street, before leaning inside the open window. When the driver tries to drive away, Jones grabs a traffic cone and starts pushing it at the driver before eventually throwing it at him as the truck breaks free of the protesters.
Police charged Jones with two counts of reckless endangerment, while Jones claimed that the driver was “yelling racial slurs and pushing his car into protesters,” according to a post on his Twitter account. A grand jury indicted Jones in 2021 before the case was closed a year later, according to court records.
Jones was booted out of his spot in the Tennessee House of Representatives last week for joining protesters who swarmed the state capitol calling for gun control after the Covenant School shooting that killed six. House leaders argued that Jones had knowingly disrupted a legislative session, but despite this, Nashville city council reinstated Jones only days later.
Jones did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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