Fairness Campaign Director Chris Hartman was dragged away from the Kentucky Farm Bureau's annual ham breakfast and arrested Thursday morning during a protest at the state fair.

Hartman and other Fairness Campaign activists were protesting Kentucky Farm Bureau policies outside the breakfast hall, but state troopers confronted him when he tried to use his ticket to enter.

He was arrested just before 8 a.m. along with two other protesters and was taken to Louisville Metro Corrections downtown.

Hartman and the Fairness Campaign have long accused Kentucky Farm Bureau of anti-union and anti-LGBTQ discriminatory policies, including in a video published on Facebook this week with U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth and state Rep. Attica Scott, who boycotted the event.

The breakfast is usually attended by the state's top elected officials in addition to hundreds in the agricultural community.

Shortly after Hartman's arrest, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin urged attendees to vote based on their shared values with the Farm Bureau.

Farm Bureau President Mark Haney "mentioned in his comments about not being apologetic about the grassroots values of this organization," Bevin said. "Think about that. Why should you apologize?”

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The annual policy manual of the farm bureau has consistently stated opposition to same-sex marriage, LGBTQ rights, teacher strikes, an increase in the minimum wage and the unionization of farmers and farm laborers.

Stating that the values of America, the state and Farm Bureau have always shared a common theme of respect for God, law enforcement and the military, Bevin lamented that some Democrats — particularly presidential candidates — have now rejected those.

“If you look at what’s happening in this country on the national stage and the people who aspire to be president in 2020, that is not the case anymore," Bevin said. "There is a big divide, and those values are not represented by most of what you hear by the chattering side of the aisle.”

Before Hartman's arrest, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer told the Courier Journal that he has chosen to speak at the breakfast each year and to not join Yarmuth and Scott's boycott because he believes in tearing down the state's urban-rural divide.

“One of my messages here today is that we’ve got to reject this notion that there’s a great divide between the city areas and the rural areas, and obviously people use that for their political benefit," Fischer said. "I try to use this gathering to say you’ve got a friend in this city, and that’s why I chose to participate.”

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Asked who was using that divide for a political benefit, Fischer did not specify any groups, but said people should reject the notion that different kinds of people can't come together and talk.

Haney issued a statement Thursday morning that his organization's policies "are set by the grassroots membership of Kentucky Farm Bureau in a democratic process that begins at the county level and culminates in a state convention. We discriminate against no one and we follow the law. Any assertions to the contrary are false."

The Fairness Campaign has protested the breakfast for nearly a decade.

After a trooper repeatedly told Hartman to leave as he was trying to enter the breakfast with a large puppet used in the protest, Hartman objected, saying that the trooper had not given him a reason and that he had a ticket.

Eventually, the trooper told him to turn around and cuffed him, along with protesters Sonja De Vries and Carla Wallace. Hartman went limp and had to be dragged from the area.

Hartman recorded a Facebook Live video as a trooper was driving him from the event. Handcuffed in the back of a car, he said his wrist was nearly broken as he was being dragged out into the vehicle.

"Shame on the Kentucky Farm Bureau," Hartman said. "This is what a police state looks like. This is what violations of First Amendment rights look like. This is what discrimination, prejudice, hate and inappropriate use of police force looks like."

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Haney's statement said that his organization plays no part in law enforcement decisions at the fairgrounds, and that the bureau's policies are nondiscriminatory and follow the law.

Hartman was dragged away from the ham breakfast and arrested in 2015 as well, along with De Vries and Wallace. All three were charged with failure to disperse in that instance, with Hartman also facing a disorderly conduct charge. All of the charges were dropped later that year.

On Thursday, Wallace and De Vries were charged with menacing and second-degree disorderly conduct, while Hartman was charged with menacing, second-degree disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.

All three were still in the jail early Thursday evening, according to the jail website.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4059 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.