Friday, October 28, 2011
Law and Order Governor Warns of More Arrests Tonight Unless Occupy Nashville Backs Down
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 3:30 PM
The governor said he approved the decision early this morning to end the three-week occupation of Legislative Plaza to protect public safety and because of increasingly unsanitary conditions. Defending the action, he said state officials "don't really have the ability" to distinguish between law-abiding citizens exercising their First Amendment rights and street people who might have been causing trouble at the Plaza.
It was my understanding that we were going to enforce the curfew from the very beginning. In 14 hours, you should have time to decide whether you’re going to stay or not. Literally, the situation continued to deteriorate here. It’s a question of the conditions were getting worse. I keep using the word deteriorate. That was literally what was happening in this case. We don’t really have the ability to say, ‘Well, these are Occupy Nashville folks, and these are folks who have been homeless in Nashville.' We had an issue on Legislative Plaza that really did create an unsafe and unsanitary … condition.
Here's more of what Haslam said:
We were receiving increasing complaints from legislators and from citizens and from Metro Nashville as well. Our job is to protect the safety of folks. Our team at General Services, working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said we think the curfew is the best way to protect that.There have been numerous cases of robbery there. There have been just some other behavior that I don’t think people felt were appropriate for a public space. We had an issue on Legislative Plaza that really did create an unsafe and unsanitary condition. We want to be real clear. We’re not saying they can’t be there. We just set a curfew. We believe in and respect folks’ right to protest. … We also have to balance that with the need to protect safety.
Comments (69)
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Not only has our Governor had these protestors arrested but has pushed his agenda of suppressing the Constitutional Rights of Tennesseans throughout his brief tenure in office from shooting down Nashville's anti-discrimination laws to creating the bill banning the use of the word "gay" in public schools. He's railroading civil liberties to the extent of making it illegal to upload a "potentially offensive image" to the internet this year. I addressed our Governor's antics with a visual commentary of him and his wife on my artist's blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/07… Drop by and let me know how you feel about our rights being infringed upon.
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State officials don't have the ability to distinguish between law-abiding citizens vs bums causing trouble? If that's the case then we need new state officials because those are idiots. Or, just have no state officials at all and spend the tax money on something beneficial.
Wouldn't it be great if there were thousands of us Tennessee citizens down there tonight breaking this brand new "curfew"?
Just saying...
Tennesseans now have the best politicians that money can buy and the worst government we will tolerate. Occupy Nashville is just a canary in a coal mine;
our civil liberties are gone.
That's too bad, Haslam, because we the citizen-occupiers did a beautiful job of drawing the lines for your boys -- occupiers who were committed to following our code of conduct including sobriety and lawful, peaceful demonstration were wearing wristbands, camped within the organized occupation boundaries on the plaza, and those homeless people who were committed to violence and drugs were camped opposite, in an area steeped in their own excrement, drug paraphernalia, and garbage. Not to mention the fact that we called police officers to the scene numerous times to remove violent offenders threatening our safety, which they refused to do. We will not go silently. This is our first amendment right.
BOGUS governor.
The curfew didn't even pass muster for a lowly night court commissioner!
An open air public place does not have a closing hour. Haslam is a disappointment.
Haslam....guess you weren't planning on reelection? if you were, might as well throw those plans out
REALLY? I clearly passed a proposal that ALL OCCUPANT'S wear a wrist band that CLEARLY shows who is who!
IF the people currently occupying the Legislative Plaza were Tea Partiers, the State of Tennessee would NEVER suggest running them off with an ad-hoc, unconstitutional new "policy".
Can you imagine what would happen if anyone even suggested the idea of shutting down a Tea Party event?? They'd pull their loaded guns and threaten to start backing up their First Amendment rights (free speech, assembly, redress of grievances for those of you (Haslam) who forgot) with their Second Amendment rights.
These are peaceful (and likely unarmed) demonstrators exercising a cherished American right. Whether you agree with what they say or not, they have a right to be there. For free. 24-7.
"We don’t really have the ability to say, ‘Well, these are Occupy Nashville folks, and these are folks who have been homeless in Nashville. " Governor Haslam why was it not part of your agenda to take care of the homeless problem in Nashville PRIOR to the Occupy movement?
If you have rifles, shotguns and pistols (with any necessary licenses)...carry them, along with signs that reflect the hope that, ahem, 2nd Amendment remedies not ever become necessary.
Please share this. Email it to everyone you know. Talk about it to strangers. Irritate the hell outta people with it.
intrepid,
I was working for the State when the first anti-income tax protesters got into the Legislative Plaza. One window was broken and the media coverage made it sounds like the attack on the Bastille.
The point is that the Tea Party protesters were peaceful and didn't need to camp out to make their point. While the OWS protesters are camping out, the Tea Party people went home and got involved in local politics in order to make a real impact.
Wait until the OWS protesters start running candidate for office in Democratic primaries and then see how popular they are. Chip Forrester is a smart guy who knows that a variety of socialist-communist-anticapitalist-luddite candidates in November of 2012 will bury the Democrats. The Democrats want these people to become a force in the party like they want John J. Hooker to run for Governor in 2014.
Stella! Stella! {With apologies to Marlon Brando}
If you don't like the zeitgeist, wait an hour and it will change. There was no tear gas in Nashville.
But if I am wrong in any of my comments, please show me where.
And as a person who works downtown, I can tell you that the anti-income tax protesters were a helluva lot more disruptive than the Occupy Nashville folks ever thought about being. And yet, none of them were hauled off to jail and then told that they could not continue their protest at certain hours and places.
This is why we protest. You are a public servant not our boss you idiot!!! Guess who just made a huge mistake and wont ever get a vote again!!! These are the exact type of government official that we need to remove. What he did was so illegal a JUDGE wouldn't even sign off on it.
I'm curious to know, what would happen if while practicing your first amendment rights, you were fired upon and you chose to practice your second amendment rights and fired back in self defense.
Oh and Haslam, enjoy retirement.
The Occupy Nashville protest has reached a pivotal point—the point where state power is being actively employed to extinguish peaceful citizen protest. Administratively, “they” have imposed a curfew on the use of “public” property. It seems those in power believe that because Legislative Plaza belongs to the State, its use should be subject to the whims of the bureaucrats who wield state power. An imposition of a permit and insurance requirement smacks of “pay-to-play”.
The use of THP troopers to physically remove citizens in peaceful protest on state property is even more concerning. Those who issue such orders and the officers who carry them out should be circumspect. The violation of the constitutional rights of citizens will not be tolerated, and the mantle of state authority or ”following orders” is no defense against being held accountable.
If this protest has any real gas, the attempts to blunt it by state force will simply metastasize it. This may be your defining moment, Governor. You can support peaceful public dissent as part of a healthy democracy (whether you agree with the protestors’ point of view or not) or you can be a strongman protecting the interest of the powerful class who elected you and call out the dogs.
The homeless are a direct result of what they are protesting, we aren't going away any sooner than they are. All American citizens have the same rights, there isn't a "public access" time frame on the constitution.
I am referring to the rest of the country, where other OWS protests are taking place. You probably haven't heard. Clouds of tear gas this week in Oakland. Smelling the tear gas: It's a kind of metaphorical thing. Hard for a right-wing left-brainer, I know.
So he is planning a stripping of the rights again tonight?? Hold Strong Nashville, Knoxville Stands in Solidarity!! Our Governor has enjoyed his one term in office. We will stand to vote his silly ass right out of there soon enough. Sadly, he has forgotten that that protesters carry voters cards too!
Min,
The anti-income tax protesters didn't camp out so there was no issue of extra security or other related issues.
BurN,
I will take Governor Haslam and give you 5 % either way, meaning for me to win Governor Haslam has to get at least 55%, and bet you $100 that he wins.
Also I no longer work for the state so your use of 'idiot' seems overblown. Much like your self-image.
Chester,
If the person was not in uniform or identified himself or herself as a law officer, that is self-defense.
This is pure unadulterated ASTRO TURF! Why don't you people do some real reporting at the Nashville Scene, and published the list of the 29 people arrested. You will find that there are quite a few HIRED COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS--like Megan Riggs and Bill Howell of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation--an org. tied in with the Highlander Center's "Grass Roots Action for Global Change." That's right, you cub reporters are being PLAYED by the usual mob for hire types. DUH.
This is pure unadulterated ASTRO TURF! Why don't you people do some real reporting at the Nashville Scene, and published the list of the 29 people arrested. You will find that there are quite a few HIRED COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS--like Megan Riggs and Bill Howell of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation--an org. tied in with the Highlander Center's "Grass Roots Action for Global Change." That's right, you cub reporters are being PLAYED by the usual mob for hire types. DUH.
Stella,
I am well aware of the other protests. Anyone who sees Oakland as a metaphor for Nashville needs to call the Ghost Whisperer to confer with their zeitgeist.
I do not support the use of such measures against peaceful protesters. But that is Oakland. To paraphrase Haven Hamilton, "This is Nashville not Oakland."
Franklin,
More people are homeless thanks to leftist social policies than because of Wall Street.
Anti-tax protesters and tea partiers most likely would never camp out on a granite plaza. They don't have the conviction. It's real easy to run your mouth when you're fighting for the corporations and politicians already in power. Occupy is standing against the powers that be. Thanks, folks.
They are not "protesters", they are paid community organizers with a handful of kooks and a couple of useful idiots who tag along cause it's almost as good as being on reality TV (EVA...need I say more.) GET REAL! In a city of over 1 million, with tens of thousands of college students and union members, they got a pathetic 29 people arrested. And that has been theior goal all along--get arrested like the sixties, and give the media whores something to howl about. THE THP are such FASCIST BRUTS. WOOF. Seriously, want to win a Pulitzer--show how every single one of these jokers is connected to the Highlander Center and its various storefronts. That includes about half of the idiots who spew into your comment section.
Here you go! this pretty much sums up who is a sneaky asshole and is trying to use there power to silence the 99% http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8uxqQR4SDE
"The anti-income tax protesters didn't camp out so there was no issue of extra security or other related issues."
Au contraire, mon ami. Rocks were thrown, traffic hazards were created, and the noise was so loud that people who worked downtown and at the capitol could barely hear themselves speak. And all that occurred during the middle of the workday when it would cause the biggest possible disruption. It was a helluva lot more problematic for the citizenry than anything the Occupy Nashville folks have done.
And yet, none of them were hauled off to jail.
Stay strong Occupy Nashville, the world is behind you. These politicians seem to think evicting and arresting people is going to quell these protests, it only adds fuel to the fire. If I got arrested, I'd be right back where I was as soon as I got out.
With regard to: "Gov. Bill Haslam is warning that state troopers will enforce the Capitol's new curfew again tonight if Occupy Nashville protesters refuse to back down. “If we’re going to have laws, we have to enforce laws,” he said this afternoon in Knoxville where he went to a University of Tennessee trustees meeting.
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Well Governor, I say let's not pick and choose which laws we will enforce and to whom they will apply to. Start enforcing the laws and arrest, and charge the illegal activities and frauds that the banking community are perpetrating. Currently our government is making a mockery of the laws. Start at the top where thousands of these crimes are occurring per day affecting millions of people and work your way down. don't harass the people in near poverty attempting to exercise their rights. Start arresting the bankers and show the people that you care about the law even if it may affect the political corporate campaign contributions. Is the only thing that you people understand is the money -- does your state and the nation have to go on a general strike to get action?
I am Penny Anderson from Buffalo Valley, TN. I agree with Constance Bowers statement that the homeless problem should have been taken care of a long time ago. Although I have never been arrested in my life, I see some arrests in my future because I WILL NOT let this man, Governor or not, silence me! As the son of the man who started Pilot Oil Company and the Pilot truck stops, he has no clue what it means to go to bed hungry at night, what it means to drive all over town using gas that you don't have to spare because you're reduced to cashing in aluminum cans for gas money, begging for a $50 handout from churches to help pay your $200 electric bill. He never had to worry about how he was going to pay for college or how he was going to pay off his student loan debt from college. He does not know what it means to try to get a job along with hundreds of other applicants because he went to the best schools and has always had his family business to fall back on. He does not know what it means to have to choose between gas for your car, medicine, or groceries with the $20 you got paid from the recycling center for your aluminum cans. He does not know what it means to be without health insurance because your employer's priorities are donating to political campaigns and art charities, not to mention her own art collection, rather than insuring her employees. These practices have to stop!!! Businesses and employers get away with it because they can. "Well if so and so, and so and so, and so and so is not taking care of their employees, why should I?" Because it is the DECENT thing to do, it is the "Love thy brother as thyself" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" that you're in church every week listening to!!!! WE have to stand up and tell them "We are not going to take this anymore!" If we do not take a stand together and continue to let these immoral, unethical, and greedy people continue to run your county, your state, your nation, what legacy are we leaving our children and grandchildren?? If we don't do something NOW, it is not going to get any better in the future because these people clearly do not have a conscience guiding them and don't know what it feels like to be "ashamed." What are you going to tell your children? "I didn't have time," "They were all hippie pot-heads who didn't want to work," "I had a job," "I was afraid of losing my job," "Well that didn't affect us honey, just the poor people." What lame-assed excuse are you going to give them in the future if you don't stand up for them now when this may be the best chance we get in a long time to take our lives back from the people that just want us to conform, be docile, be happy with what we have "in this economy" bullshit, and consume, consume, consume, to try to fill that void that never gets filled because everyone has been spoon-fed the "You have to keep up with the Jones's so we can make even MORE money off you” bullshit??? I dare each and every one of you to think about your kids, your grandkids, or even better yet, look them in the eyes and think to yourself, "I don't give a damn about you, I don't care that you are not getting the education that you need and deserve because we have this "War on Drugs" and "War on Terrorists" to pay for, I don't care that I or your parents don't have health insurance and could face major expenses or even die if I or they became ill, I don't care that I am or your parents are so underwater in our/their house that there will never be any college fund or inheritance left for you, I don't care that you are going to face the same college student debt burden in your generation that is happening now, I don't care that when you grow up there may not be any job for you because most jobs were sent overseas during my generation, I don't care that you may not ever be able to afford to buy your own home because a lot of crooked banks made a lot of crooked loans and the government chose to bail them out during my generation, etc." Well that hurts doesn't it? To think by DOING NOTHING, that is exactly what you are telling your children and grandchildren. And if you really believe that the situation in this country does not affect you, you have a good job, insurance, retirement, etc., you are deluding yourself. If you and your family are part of the well-off today, if things are allowed to continue, do you really think it is going to be the same for your children and grandchildren??? So, just go on with your life, keep changing channels until you find something that is "dumbed-down" enough to take your mind off the important things that are going on, play Farmville, go shopping, have another drink or two, whatever it takes to get your mind off that "uneasiness" that you feel because you are not standing up for yourself, your children, or anyone that is less fortunate than what you think you are. I know, for me, I cannot sit on the sidelines anymore, and as the saying goes, "I can no longer remain silent" even at the risk of being arrested.
So far, Haslam has solidified the way some view Tennessee, and the south in general: backwards, regressive hicks. He's done exactly what those who voted him in office wanted him do by ridiculous measures as banning the word "gay." He certainly doesn't make me proud to call Nashville my home. The best we can do is to vote him out next term. I pray for that.
The Nashville government and police department should be ashamed of what they're doing; because they're tramping on the 1st amendment rights of these citizens. Martin Luther King Jr and many others fought for civil rights, they were needlessly arrested by police, and look what happened. They won. In the end the Nashville government will only look like the bad guys, much like with civil rights. Wasn't 8th Ave renamed Rosa Parks Ave?
To all the foolish people commenting on this claiming that the protesters are uninformed or misguided: How are you going to tell your children that this is the greatest country in the world or that capitalism works when we're in debt to china (a communist country). Did any of you get a bail out?
These people are out here protesting because the "leaders" in our government take their commands from the corporations that are paying them and it's time to end big government and stop this vicious cycle of debt and corruption. They're fighting for the same things that the tea party and other Americans are fighting for. You and I have no rights anymore.
Our founding fathers, my family, and everyone else didn't come here to fight countless wars, work hard, and build up a wonderful country just to watch it fail and hand it over to China.
We have invented and perfected most of the modern technology that has revolutionized and changed the world and you're telling me that we can land on the moon but we can't balance a checkbook?
It's not about left or right, it's about survival. We live like kings compared to people around the world. I'm aware of that, but we're Americans and if we want to survive and if we want to keep America this way then we're going to have to fight for it. Because this nice lifestyle that so many take for granted and feel entitled to... will end soon. Stop lying to yourself, the media is already lying to you. You're the foolish pig in a nice cozy barn not realizing you're about to head to the slaughter house.
The Governor needs to back down......he lets the homeless sleep all over Nashville, does nothing about it or the sanitary problems while they are on the streets...and then turns all those problems he refuses to handle back onto Occupy Nashville. I don't think so...
Best lame excuse award goes to Mark Rogers, who claims that the anti-tax protestors weren't a risk because they didn't sleep over. Yeah, right Mark.... and the death threats, traffic jams, etc., weren't the slightest threat to security, right?
It looks to me like this is an example of a right wing governor in a very conservative state simply using his gubernatorial power to suppress freedom of speech and assembly. That is clearly violation of the First Amendment. I don't know the Tennessee state Constitution, but I think the state constitutions all have similar or identical provisions as the First Amendment. I think it's time the Occupy Tennessee or Occupy Nashville movement (or whatever it is called there) along with the American Civil Liberties Union go to federal and state courts and challenge the governor. A challenge in state court might be difficult in such a conservative state, but you never know. Many conservative judges are strong First Amendment believers. Justice Antonin Scalia -- out of all people -- upheld the power of a protester (not in this movement) to burn the American flag is protected by the First Amendment. By the way, anticipating right wing smear, I don't advocate -- in fact I condemn the idea of burning the flag. But that is not the issue. The issue is do people have a First Amendment right to do so. I have always said it's easy to approve the First Amendment when you agree with the person or persons using it/them. The real test comes when you disagree with his/her speech, the cause they assembled, the way he/she worshiped or what he/she published. I am a retired reporter and a strong advocate of this amendment. It is key foundation in our democracy. Ray A. Cohn
Whine, whine, whine about those who make our country run and won't divvy everything up equally. If you want more, start your own business and quit whining because others won't share their success equally with you. What have you done to deserve it.
America is about opportunity and I personally know several people without education who worked smarter and harder and took advantage of that opportunity and are living well. Here is my own truism: The more people who can do your job the less money you will earn.
A guy needs a job badly and a company hires him, the guy draws a paycheck and then he wants to tell the company how run its business? That's ridiculous. And worse is a bunch of scroungy "occupiers" trying to turn the country into a hippy commune.
Senator Dodd and Rep. Frank enacted legislation that caused banks to restructure their sources of income and you want to blame the banks? You're being ridiculous to blame the banks - it's the politicians, you idiots.
The government gave the banks TARP money - forced some of them to take it. The banks paid contracted bonuses to their employees and then paid the TARP money back with interest. And that pisses you off? How do you feel about GM? We'll never get that TARP money back. The unions will make sure.
One other thing, there isn't one of the protestors or their sympathizers who wouldn't take a high paying corporate job and follow the company line to keep it. Freakin' hypocrites.
Our rights have been slowly taken away from us, the American citizens, in many different ways for years now! We are just seeing more of it come to light than ever before. The system sucks big time, but guess how it got there? The people that were trusted to be placed in an official position over us and over our country, that have betrayed the American people entirely! Look at the members of the Republican party in Congress and The House. Every bill that could potentially help the country and the people out of this mess, they have rejected, voted against or not voted at all. Our main and it is the main problem is with the Senator's as well as Governor's of our country. They aren't worried about what you got to say, or anybody else. They got in office, and that is what they wanted, now they have a high paying salary, high paying retirement, and the best of medical care, that will go with them out of office! They aren't worried whether you or I vote again for them or not! Our congressional system needs to be over hauled and big time pertaining to the elected officials serving office. They should go in office with a set fixed salary of no more than what a teacher would get for a years pay! They should have to retain their own medical insurance, they should have to pay for their own travel expenses, parties, political events, etc. No tax payer's money in any way being given them with the exception of their set yearly salary, and a term of no more than 2! If they don't do their job on behalf and for the people then they go out and they go out fast! Change the system at the top, and maybe things will brighten for the ones at the bottom! OWS really stands for that in many ways. Just take a deeper insight to what they are trying to accomplish, and I stand with them 100%. Just a side note: To the governor of the state of TN in which I was born and raised in, lived all my life mainly, you or no other official will ever be given the right to tell me what I can and cannot express either in writing on the internet or anywhere else! Go deal with that, and I didn't vote for your republican ass!
Gast, it is one thing to disagree with their message and it is another to forcibly suppress their right to peacefully assemble and express their message.
But the jack-booted thugs like you can rationalize anything. You, the Governor and the people like you are a threat to our freedom. You have no respect for the Constitution of the United States. This is simply atrocious, disgraceful and an affront to what America is supposed to stand for. Occupy Nashville has the same rights as the teabaggers, even if gast and other auhoritarian right-wingers don't like what they are saying.
@Perry Aubric: As usual you're reading things into my postings I didn't write or even imply. You add two and two and get five which is typical of frustrated lefties. You whine, whine and whine because of your greed and envy of those who have more. Got news for you, dude, they have more than I do, too, but that doesn't give me the right to demand the government deliver to me my fair share.
there is an obvious difference between the homeless and the occupy nashville protesters.
This is no longer about the occupy nashville protesters. It is NOW about having RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. I encourage everyone to take a hard look at the actual policy that Bill Haslams administration put into place. The expenses of "usage fees", "appropriate security", and a one million dollar liability insurance policy that must be acquired to protest even during the time constraints of 6am to 10pm is ridiculous. This not only restricts peoples freedom of speech, it is discrimination against the lower economic class. This policy will cause our state to be in years of legal battles arguing the first amendment rights. I am not talking about the battles with the "Occupy" protesters, but the battles with those of us who realize we just had our rights restricted. This policy can be recalled by the authorities who enacted it, and I recommend they do just that before hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars are flushed down the drain.
How long do they have to squat there before they own it? Does this work like with private property -- or an entire country?
