The leader of the Chattanooga NAACP said its members are up in arms over remarks made Tuesday night by district attorney candidate Coty Wamp to a Republican women's club.
Ann Jones Pierre said a tape of a portion of the speech has been circulating and "people are upset. They are very upset."
She said, "I was late getting to my meeting this morning. I kept getting calls."
In the speech to the Tennessee Valley Republican Women at Wally's Restaurant in East Ridge, Ms. Wamp said she could not stand behind the NAACP now because of their stance toward law enforcement.
At the same time as the GOP speech, the two other DA candidates, Neal Pinkston and John Brooks, were appearing at a forum sponsored by the NAACP. Ms. Jones put out a statement that Ms. Wamp had "declined" to appear before the group, but told her they could contact her "after the primary."
Ms. Wamp said she had committed to the GOP event in December. Ms. Jones said she offered to change the date of the NAACP forum, but Ms. Wamp was not interested.
Ms. Wamp's full remarks were:
"So you all know, there was an NAACP forum tonight for my race between the three candidates. There is a Democrat running against us.
"There was a forum and I had committed to this in December. I was happy to be able to come here.
"But listen, the NAACP has accomplished some good things in the last hundred years, but one of them is NOT the way they've treated law enforcement. And I just can't stand behind it right now.
"And until on their website they talk about, they have the statistics about how many African Americans are shot by police every year, but they don't have the statistics about how many African Americans are shot by African Americans OR how many police officers are shot by anybody. . ."
Ms. Pierre called it "a completely inaccurate portrayal of what the NAACP stands for. It's very troubling and it shows some immaturity on her part."
She said the NAACP speaks out against police brutality and for civil rights, but is supportive "of the good things that police officers do." She said the group hands out annual awards to officers demonstrating good works in the community, including the Ralph Cothran Award named for a former black Chattanooga police chief.
Ms. Pierre said, "This leaves an impression about the NAACP that is completely untrue."
She said she met Thursday morning with a ministers group on the issue.
Ms. Pierre said the NAACP has a policy of not supporting specific political candidates, but she said the group will likely issue a press release on the matter on Friday.
Click here for the audio.