'This is a family town': Body cam footage shows Fairhope woman in phallic inflatable costume's arrest

BY COLIN JAMES
GCM Staff Reporter
colin@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 11/21/25

Body cam footage of Fairhope police arresting a woman wearing a phallic costume during a No Kings protest last month has been released. On Oct. 18, a protester, later identified as Jeana Renea …

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'This is a family town': Body cam footage shows Fairhope woman in phallic inflatable costume's arrest

Posted

Body cam footage of Fairhope police arresting a woman wearing a phallic costume during a No Kings protest last month has been released.

On Oct. 18, a protester, later identified as Jeana Renea Gamble, a 61-year-old Fairhope resident, was arrested while participating in a No Kings, anti-Trump protest along Greeno Road in Fairhope, where she was seen wearing an inflatable costume shaped like male genitalia. Video of her arrest spread across social media and was even featured on a segment of Stephen Colbert’s late night show.

The footage was obtained by Gulf Coast Media through David Gespass, an attorney representing Gamble. It shows Fairhope police Col. Andrew Babb telling Gamble her costume isn't acceptable “in a town with values.”

“I’m not going to sit here and argue with you,” Babb can be heard saying in the video. “If my kids came by here to see this, how would I explain this?”

“Are you recording?” Gamble asks.

“How would you explain to my children what you are supposed to be?” Babb replies. “This is a family town. I’m not going to have someone out here dressed like this. It’s abusive.”

At one point, when Gamble is asked to provide her name, she responds by saying, “I’m antifa."

Gamble can be heard asking at least three times if she is being detained. With no answer from the police, she begins to walk away when Babb reached for the back of her costume and pulls her backward to the ground, with Babb, along with two other police officers, wrestling to put handcuffs on her as she is then taken to a police vehicle.

“This is a family town, and I’m not going to have somebody out here dressed like this,” Babb said.

The footage shows Gamble telling the police she was in pain, unable to see, saying that she is an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter and that her hands were “killing me” while handcuffed.

During the incident, protesters with Indivisible Baldwin County, who organized the local version of the nationally held protest, can be heard shouting “shame on you.”

“I’m an American. Who knew, I had rights. Who knew?” Gamble yelled out to the crowd after her costume was removed.

On his way to the station, Babb is heard on the footage telling someone the incident was "one dressed like a freaking weiner" and that "being dressed like that isn't going to be tolerated."

Following her arrest, Gamble was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors, and her costume was confiscated as evidence, according to Gamble.

Gamble’s legal team filed to dismiss the charges on Tuesday, Nov. 18. The filing, obtained by GCM, cites offensive showcases in public that were upheld by the Supreme Court via the First Amendment, such as Nazis marching through a town of Holocaust survivors and cross burnings held by the Klu Klux Klan.

“Can one deny that each of these actions would be more offensive to more people than a protester in an anatomically imprecise phallic costume?” her attorneys David Gespass and Kathleen Johnson wrote in the filing.

According to the filing, Gamble purchased the costume at a Spirit Halloween store in Foley, noting that it was the last one available. The filing also argues that the costume can be “easily accessed” by juveniles online.

“Until Babb arrived, no one present appeared so offended by Ms. Gamble’s costume as to be ready to fight over it,” the filing reads. “If anything, it was aimed at Donald Trump, who was in no position to begin fisticuffs as he was, by all accounts, nowhere near Fairhope.”

The filing questions why her costume could be considered obscene and criticizes Babb for telling Gamble about proper behavior for his children.

“Ms. Gamble’s costume, taken in conjunction with her ‘No dick-tator’ sign, is clearly and undeniably a political statement, not some sexually explicit attempt to appeal to prurient interests,” the filing states. “Political speech is at the very core of the First Amendment. No speech is entitled to greater protection. It need not be bland or vanilla. It can even be offensive to some.”

“(Babb) certainly could explain to his children that, in the United States, people’s freedom of speech is protected, even if others are offended or upset by it,” the filing says. “That, he could have said, is a core American value, embedded in our Constitution. It really would not be that difficult.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 19, municipal judge Haymes Snedeker denied the motion, calling it moot in his order. Gespass told GCM on Friday that he plans to file a motion for clarification.

Gamble has court date set for Jan. 6, 2026, at Fairhope Municipal Court.

Fairhope Police Department did not immediately answer a request for comment.