Local Politician Up A Tree - Literally

It's not uncommon for traffic to be a bit congested on the corner of College Avenue and Dickson Street, especially in the afternoon. On Monday, however, traffic came to a complete stand still. The reason?


It all happened around 3:30 Monday afternoon when Abel Tomlinson, who ran for Congress in 2008 against John Boozman, drove his car into the middle of the Dickson/College intersection and left it there blocking traffic from all sides. Before anyone could react, Tomlinson was sitting atop a tree in front of Washington County Court House - causing a scene and of course drawing a crowd.


According to Tomlinson, his actions protested what he called an attack on his religious freedoms stemming from an incident back in January where he was arrested on 2 counts of delivering a controlled substance - in this case mushrooms, which is a class B felony.


But during his rant, religious freedom was just a small portion of what he shouted into the crowd. For example, "we're all our own gods" and "I'm not leaving until I see my daughter". He also spoke about never being loved while taunting police to kill him saying "my body is nothing more than a shell".


At one point, Tomlinson's mother even tried talking him down but it was no use.

After more than an hour, Tomlinson - who at this point was wearing nothing but pants - slipped and fell within reach of police who then pulled the former politician out of the tree and arrested him. Just like that, the whole thing was over.


As for Tomlinson's future, well, he's up tree.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Abel Tomlinson
• Congress
• Local Politician
• Politics
• Freedom of Speech
• College Avenue
• Dickson Street
• Arkansas
• Fayetteville
• John Boozman
• Car
• Up a Tree
• Protest
• JR Davis
• Fox 24
• jrdavisfox24
• reporter
• news

[TheAusternami]

@goobergel if you listen you would have heard that he ran for congress in 2008

[congruous]

Hmmm damn American cops are fat! How do they catch anyone?!! Just shoot 'em I guess. ..

[goobergel]

Former politician? He was a kid just out of college....He is an activist...you make him sound like he was some old vice president or something....

[BeefTankz]

Sigh....Abel....I don't think you helped your case unfortunately...good luck man....