For better or for worse, candidates must run on their records.
One candidate in next week's Chattanooga City Council District 8 runoff election has a record, though not one constituents should view as qualifying her to hold office.
Marie Mott's record, instead, is one of agitation, refusing to obey rules, inflammatory statements and even arrest. Even as she runs for office, she is facing charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing a highway, reckless burning and vandalism in Criminal Court, charges which are to be heard in December.
She is not the caliber of candidate District 8 residents deserve to have representing them. We urge on Thursday the election of Marvene Noel to the council. She has been capably representing the district since she was appointed to temporarily fill the seat of Anthony Byrd, who was appointed city court clerk.
But lest anyone think we're castigating Mott without reason, we offer a sampling of her words and deeds, from Times Free Press archives:
– 9/26/2018: Mott said then-Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and council members "don't know what the hell is going on. ... I just won't go away. ... I am a product of chattel slavery. Everything I do in this system is an insurrection and if I'm doing for the best interest of my people it's going to rub a lot of people the wrong way."
– 1/23/2019: If the community can't get justice in the council or the courts, Mott said, "we'll rise up and get justice in the streets."
– 4/28/2019: Byrd filed a police report against Mott for a Facebook Live video she made, which he said made him concerned for himself and his family. In the video, Mott said Byrd threatened his neighbor. Byrd denied the charge but said there had been an increase in traffic in front of his house since the video. Police placed the house on their watch list, but the then-district attorney's office did not pursue charges.
– 6/12/2019: "[A]n overwhelming amount of [the city budget] is going to our police department, which is corrupt," Mott said.
– 10/10/2019: Mott, who had previously been banned from speaking in city council meetings after exceeding her limit of comments, refused to leave the council meeting room after being asked to by the then-council chair, who then had to adjourn the meeting.
– 5/31/2020: "I'm not going to criticize if they get out of hand," Mott said of local protesters following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. "We are frustrated ... and we can't be expected not to show that in our actions. And property is not more important than our bodies -- than our lives."
– 6/1/2020: "Our first breath needs to be a cry out for divesting from the police ... Under [then Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy's] watch, we've been brutalized. We've been raped. We've been murdered."
– 6/17/2020: City Councilwoman Demitrus Coonrod said Mott threatened her at a meeting about calls to defund the police department. "My thing is, it's a line [she] crossed," Coonrod said. "You can say whatever you want to say ... but once you get in someone's face and start yelling and screaming, that's different."
– 7/11/2020: Mott admitted in a Facebook video she had removed the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office flag from in front of the downtown jail and burned it. She subsequently was charged with theft, vandalism, reckless burning and incitement to riot. In April 2021, the charges of theft and incitement to riot were dropped.
– 7/13/2020: An arrest warrant with charges of disorderly conduct and blocking a highway were taken out against Mott for blocking an emergency vehicle from getting to a motorcycle wreck with injuries.
– 8/4/2021: Mott was arrested on a harassment charge after her boyfriend called police and reported she threatened him. In November 2021, the harassment charges were dropped. Mott blamed the arrest on forces that wanted to "publicly vilify me. The police are not really there to assist, especially for people who are calling for accountability within the system. We are seen as targets."
– 6/8/2022: Mott blamed lack of police presence for violence on McCallie Avenue, which left three dead and 14 injured. "[M]ore police on the streets than most American cities can't ensure Black people are safe," she said.
– 9/9/2022: Mott defended comments she made in a recently resurfaced 2020 video about Jewish slave holders. "Yes, they owned slaves in the South," she said in the video. "Yes, they joined the Confederacy and took up arms against this nation with traitors to uphold the institution of slavery. ... When are we going to deal with it?"
Threatening council members, repeatedly blaming and defaming police, inciting violence and blocking an emergency vehicle are not qualifications for office.
City Councilman Ken Smith said at a recent Pachyderm Club he usually stays out of races but couldn't stay out of this one. He said Mott has kept the council from doing its job, led the local defund the police movement and led a demonstration in front of his home.
"I'm not interested in serving with people like that ...," he said. "I'm not a racist because I am a male, white and a Republican. That is a mistake that some people in the Black Lives Matter protests make."
Electing Mott should not be a mistake District 8 residents make. Choose Marvene Noel, instead.