Athens man tased, arrested after contentious rant, struggle with cop at commission meeting

A self-described messianic Jew rabbi, tased Tuesday night by a police officer while disrupting an Athens-Clarke County Commission meeting with comments that included a vile rant against Mayor Kelly Girtz, has been charged with felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor disorderly conduct, according to Athens-Clarke County Jail records.

Richard Camden Pace, a longtime Athens-Clarke County resident who introduced himself Tuesday as a rabbi, and as founder and director of YeshuaNation.org, was ordered out of the commission chamber by Mayor Pro-Tem Ovita Thornton after not relinquishing the microphone when his allotted three minutes expired during a public comment period at the end of the commission meeting.

Thornton repeatedly urged police to get Pace out of the commission chamber shortly after Pace called Girtz “a paid-off, Satan-worshipping communist child-trafficking Democrat.”

Girtz was not at Tuesday’s meeting, over which Thornton was presiding in his absence.

“I’m going to have to shut you down now,” Thornton told Pace as he continued speaking, extending a rant that targeted illegal aliens, local pro-Palestinian protesters of the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza, and local police.

“You can shut me down, because I got my words in, lady,” Pace shot back at Thornton.

Pace then told Thornton and the rest of the crowd in the commission chambers, “I’m going to push the envelope a little further,” as he ripped up a sign held by one member of a small group of pro-Palestinian meeting attendees. Local pro-Palestinian speakers have addressed commissioners at a number of previous meetings, urging them to draft a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing Hamas-Israel hostilities.

The pro-Palestinian group at Tuesday’s commission meeting had also apparently hoped to speak, but the session was adjourned hastily as a police officer struggled with Pace, tasing him before eventually leading him out of City Hall and into a waiting police car.

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During his time at the microphone, an agitated Camden complained that police had taken no action in connection with an attack on him while he was evangelizing last week on College Square in downtown Athens.

“I got attacked by five people,” Pace told commissioners. “Five people attacked me in broad daylight in front of Chick-fil-A. … (They) called me a (expletive) Jew, (said) ‘Why don’t I get gassed?’.

“This is an outrage, not only for the Jewish people, but for the people of Athens,” Pace said. “Shame on all of you who put up (with) and condone this.”

It was at that point that Pace ripped up the pro-Palestinian sign, and Thornton told the police officer on hand for the meeting – a routine practice – to “Walk him out. Walk him out. Walk him out.”

Pace resisted the police officer and a struggle ensued, during which Pace was tased as he was taken to the floor. Moments later, as stunned commissioners and citizens looked on, Pace was escorted to a police car. Outside City Hall, Pace apologized to the officer, who in turn told Pace that the commission strictly enforces its three-minute limit on public comment.

“When they tell you it’s over, it’s over,” the officer told Pace.

Last month, Pace spoke at a meeting of the Clarke County Republican Party, leading a prayer that included the words, “and I prophesy with hope, longing and belief that President Trump will be our next president in November. Under your good grace and guidance, in God we trust, amen.”

A quick internet check revealed YeshuaNation.org to be a bare-bones website touting the organization as “an army of believers in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ)” that works “to fight the demon spirit of Anti-Semitism (Anti-Christ) on the campuses of American colleges and universities.”

Six days before the council episode, the 55-year-old Pace filed a complaint with Athens-Clarke police that a woman assaulted him on College Avenue in downtown Athens.

Police said that about 1:35 p.m. March 28, Pace flagged down an officer who said that while preaching a woman began arguing with him.

"The female then grabbed him by the wrist and twisted. Mr. Pace was able to free himself. The female then grabbed his arm again," according to the report.

The woman left, but Pace then began making a video of her on his cellphone, but the video only shows her backside. She was not identified and the report does not say if Pace wanted to press charges.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: After rant targeting Athens mayor, man tased, arrested at commission meeting