Sunday, October 30, 2011
Law and Order No Arrests at Occupy Nashville Despite Curfew; Troopers Stay Away
Posted by Jeff Woods on Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 6:10 AM
********
Occupy Nashville defied the governor's curfew for the third straight night at Legislative Plaza, but this time state troopers never arrived to make arrests. At 6 o’clock as the curfew lifted, a cheer went up and protesters declared victory—at least for one day—in their free-speech fight with the state.
“We won this battle and now we’re going to win the war,” organizer Mike Anger said.
Organizers said there were 75 protesters, including a 14-year-old boy, prepared to be taken into custody in acts of civil disobedience Saturday night—more than double the number for each of the first two nights of arrests. In a new tactic, six demonstrators chained themselves to a flagpole to await the troopers who never came. They carried little pictures of Gandhi.
The state’s first inaction since Thursday’s imposition of the curfew might indicate Gov. Bill Haslam is having second thoughts about his policy, with a Metro night court judge twice refusing to jail protesters and the ACLU preparing to sue on Monday to stop arrests. But state officials insisted throughout yesterday that the policy was unchanged.
The night took on a surreal air as the Tennessee Performing Arts Center held a gala, black-tie fundraiser on the portico of the War Memorial building overlooking the protesters. A peppy band on the portico played the Addam’s Family theme song, and departing arts patrons walked across the Plaza after the 10 o’clock curfew as if all were normal. They ignored the 99 percent and refused to talk to reporters. Later, Wicked ended at TPAC, and that crowd also crossed the Plaza. State officials have said that, unlike Occupy Nashville, theater-goers have special dispensation to break the curfew.
Protesters hopped around to stay warm, hunkered down under blankets and gave little speeches to each other to while away the hours. They held hands in a circle and chanted "oooohm, oooohm." Reporters were so cold and bored that even their tweeting slowed to a crawl. "I can't tweet with frozen fingers," one said.
Maybe that's Haslam's strategy: Lull the media to sleep, or bore them to death, then sweep in again when we least expect it. Or maybe the governor belatedly realizes his PR blunder. The occupation was largely ignored until the crackdown began, and the media will go away again when the arrests end.
“This is the War Memorial, right? These war heroes died for our rights. The least we can do is go to jail for them,” Anger told protesters.
"I’m not scared," said Zigh Rountree, the child among them. "I’m prepared for whatever comes. I trust everybody here. I trust them to keep me safe. I’m doing this because I think our First Amendment rights are being trampled on. Nobody even cares anymore."
His father, a Nashville musician named Michael Custer, was arrested the first two nights, and he said his son begged him to let him go to jail.
“I have some trepidations,” Custer said, “but it’s his future more than it’s mine.”
As dawn broke with the protesters still on the Plaza, Eva Watler, a massage therapist from Pegram, allowed herself to think about an Occupy Nashville peacefully assembling without the threat of jail.
"We can do poetry readings and meditation classes and mediation classes and have discussion groups and plan ways to take action against the one percent. This is a huge victory."
Comments (46)
Showing 1-46 of 46
Lets see.... there's a Gala scheduled for the Fat Cats.Two days before the event, our Gov. makes up some new Laws so he can make Legislative Plaza all pretty for them. Things do not go as planned. Gov. realizes he will need to enforce new laws on Fat Cats or risk showing his true motives. Or worse still, if he enforces new laws in front of these Fat Cats they may witness some ugly police brutality. Suddenly, New laws not so important after all........
like
dislike
It should be self-evident that the right-wing view (the First Amendment only applies to teabaggers, and if you don't like a "liberal" message, you can shout them down like you do on talk radio or even arrest them) won't fly with the courts, at least as long as we have responsible, honest judges.
Emptysuit Haslam fails his first test of leadership and integrity.
Occupy Nashville is not part of the left-right, false dichotamy. The message is not "liberal". The message is that the people have a right to have their voices heard and to peacefully assemble rather than acquiesce to those who say the proper way to seek regress is to hire a lobbyist in a corrupt system that drowns out the voice of the people.
Conservatives, republican activits, non-political types and everybody else are also welcome to join and show their support for the First Amendment so long as they commit to peacefully excercising their rights.
Yes G, and I've been surprised and heartened by the comments on here from right-wing Republicans who support the ON protesters' constitutional rights.
Excellent and caring comments above. How do those of us who are not actually occupying demonstrate our genuine support for our US and TN constitution 1st amendment rights?
Yay for the Nashville Scene! Protecting the civil rights of Eva the "message" therapist, Michael Custer the dishwasher/musician, his kid "Zigh", Michael Vampire Rain, and all the rest of the freaks, ex-cons, and sex offenders who have never had so much attention in their poor pathetic drug addled lives. Bravo! That's all we need--let them camp out in the heart of our Central Business District indefinately. yeah, that's the ticket! We 99% are behind you all the way!!!!
@greycelt:
Show your support by helping the demonstrators! Food and warm clothing and blankets are always in demand. Monetary donations can be made on occupynashville.org
If you can, attend rallies and General Assemblies (weekdays at 7pm, and weekends at 1pm - they are happening EVERY DAY).
Otherwise, use social media such as twitter, facebook, and the streaming video chatroom on occupynashville.org to spread the word and offer your words of encouragement!
I should also mention, this whole movement is no longer just about the inequities on Wall Street. If you support this movement, you support the First Amendment!
I don't think the Nashville Scene people ever read Bre'r Rabbit when they were kids. But it looks like Haslam did. Now you people and the Occupy Nashville kooks are joined at the hip, and Haslam, it appears, is going to let it ride.
So from from now on, every nut ball "spirit" fingers move they make is a reflection on you. The Adams Family indeed.
And as far as that security from the TPH. Well, good luck with that as the noble "Homeless" steal the pillows from under your heads.
Note to Ingleweird--the only people who support the "movement" are a handful of East Nashville crunchies, dopers, losers, ex-cons, sex offenders, and professional community organizers, and democrats who are so desperate they'll try anything. Trust me on this, you are not the 99%.
I hope that from now on Haslam will just leave you alone and watch you self-destruct. We could all use a little comic relief.
@GODBLESSTHETHP, you've never been downtown, have you, based on your "camp out in the heart of our Central Business District" comment?
However, that said, even "East Nashville crunchies, dopers, losers, ex-cons, sex offenders, and professional community organizers" are entitled to their First Amendment rights. It isn't there to protect speech everybody likes; it is to protect speech that the government deplores.
More to the point, why do we let the likes of Goldman Sacks and BofA camp out in our central business districts?
AnglRdr:
You are absolutely correct. Don't argue with GODBLESS... Reason is useless against absolute cynicism. I take it that people like him don't see a problem with veterans (who risk life and limb to protect our freedoms) having their skulls cracked by poorly trained law enforcement. I do. The law is on our side. A lack of empathy and ad hominem attacks will only embolden our resolve, not disintegrate it. They can laugh all they want. Laughter is healthy.
"It isn't there to protect speech everybody likes; it is to protect speech that the government deplores."
Yeah, and in three weeks of camping out and living off mooched food, while relieving themselves who knows where at night being as there are no facilities on Legislative Plaza, all those drooling idiots could come up with is "rich people suck, get money out of politics!"
Now that's real fabulous when it come at us from a pre-printed moveon.org sign--paid for by George Soros et al. (That, by the way, is an indisputable fact jack...)
They are a joke. It is in Haslam's best interest to keep them there at this point.
And it is going to be sooo funny watching them freeze to death as the homeless steal their last blanket. After the way they've acted, if I were the THP, it would take me a long long time to answer any calls from Legislative Plaza. I wouldn't want the ACLU getting after me or anything like that.
GODBLESSTHETHP, the takeaway I am getting from your posts is that you are opposed to people exercising their First Amendment rights.
AnglRdr:
The takeaway I am getting from GBTTHP, is that he is opposed to humanity, compassion, and people excercising their brains.
God forbid he ever loses his job, home, or health insurance, and is left to fend for himself, only to be taunted online by some soulless anonymous sub-human prick. Bless their hearts.
I see that Gov Haslam has provoked the anger of First Amendment advocates before, who have been outspoken in both verbal responses and images, from fellowshipofminds to thevillagehealthen....readers of the Scene might want to explore these.
"GODBLESSTHETHP, the takeaway I am getting from your posts is that you are opposed to people exercising their First Amendment rights."
Oh for heaven's sake--where did you get that impression? No I absolutely support the human microphone and the wigglie fingers, and the neo-marxist group think, and the pre-printed posters with "sponsered by" moveon.org, and the(fill in the blank) union on them. I also like all the talk about how all are welcome--even tea baggers, who should be there with you, because YOU represent the 99%!
Oh please, PLEASE keep talking. Because, as the polls bear out, the more the public gets to hear, the less they like you. You're nothing but the SOS (as in anti--globalist, anti-war, anti-proliferation blah blah blah) from the marxist/socialist/progressive wing of the democrat party, who have been able to attract a few new cult members from the dregs of various college campuses and half-way houses.
We've been there, done that.
And I'll try not to laugh when I read the piece in the Scene when you get the ACLU to sue the THP for not providing you with security when those 20 dollar bribes to the homeless don't work any more.
All the families where both parents use their own money to care for their 2.3 kids, those are the 99 percent. The occupiers do not represent them no matter what they claim. Instead the occupiers represent and promote the dumbest idea ever to be protested in America, but they do have that right.
Since this isn't my first rodeo, just a few tips to all you earnest youth who living out your sixties wet dreams right about now.
Before too long, your leaderless movement's real leaders are going to get a phone call from their backers,telling them that they've looked at the polls, and it's time to roll up the carpets and let the caravan moveon.org.
At that point, ole Custer will be making his last stand, with Eva and a couple of the others who don't look like they have a life and truly think what they're doing is important. They are going to look really silly with that droopy Tennessee State Flag all alone in the cold and dark--without even the Nashville Scene to comment on their hardships and lack of security.
GODBLESSTHETHP, did you know the opposite of love isn't hate or disparagement; it's indifference.
So why are you paying them so much attention if you find them so unimportant?
Nothing new here, the fat cats have always been given a pass by the politicians and the police...
http://whentennesseepigsfly.wordpress.com/
The fact that Occupy Nashville has managed to flush the authoritarians out of the bushes is a pretty nifty accomplishment. That these craven pricks actually seem to think that their halfwitted pseudonyms are enough to conceal their identities is just a bonus.
"The fact that Occupy Nashville has managed to flush the authoritarians out of the bushes is a pretty nifty accomplishment. That these craven pricks actually seem to think that their halfwitted pseudonyms are enough to conceal their identities is just a bonus"
So the NKVD is out in force! WOOF!~
Ben,
If you want to flush out authoritarians, you might start with all the socialist/communist protesters who want to give government control of the economy to weaken the underpinnings of democracy.
"If you want to flush out authoritarians, you might start with all the socialist/communist protesters who want to give government control of the economy to weaken the underpinnings of democracy."
Great point.
You know, I hope the Nashville Scene is proud of their "progressive" freedom-loving readership. They profess love for the 1st Ammendment, yet have no problem cursing and threatening people who are simply exercising their own right to free speech and opinion. Gee. The irony! Such a pity that they are too leaden to know what irony is.
I also wonder how the Nashville Scene feels about thinly veiled threats in their comments section towards those who are exercising their right to post an opinion (namely that the Nashville Occupiers are pitiable tools...) and are abiding by the community rules?
I wonder how the Metro Police, the TBI, the THP and the Tennesse Department of Homeland Security would feel about it? Criminal harrassment and all that. Considering the criminal records of some of those people arrested in the Plaza--public information freely available on the net--that kind of stuff would be taken seriously I would gather.
It's not a threat: I just recognize your writing style as being the same person who dumps cynicism and mockery on people you regard as your political opponents. I don't care what your name is, but it's hard to take you seriously when you've been doing this for years. You do get some funny lines in, I'll give you that.
Like it or not, those misfits you sneer at managed to focus worldwide attention (BBC World Service for one) on a hamfisted crackdown on freedom of assembly and expression. That seemed to really get under your skin.
Mark, I reject your claim that a given economic policy necessarily implies adherence to democracy. Corporate money is buying ballot disenfranchisement.
And your red baiting is an anachronism. You're a smart guy: no need to resort to Mcarthyism when you're perfectly capable of intelligent debate. And the socialist/communist card has been played so many times that it doesn't have much value any more.
Ben,
I don't have any idea what you are talking about. I do not comment anonymously. Never have. Never will. Ask around.
To the extent that I am cynical at times, that is often the most useful way to get people to realize the contradictions or absurdities of their positions. Sometimes the pretensions of people to presume that they are the only people who have the intellect or the moral supremacy to decide how things should be can only be dealt with by cynicism.
As for world attention, that is part of my problem. This is not Selma Alabama. If you want to fight for a fundamental freedom in Nashville, I suggest you go and join the Christian groups facing abolition by Vanderbilt because they refuse to adopt rules that would allow atheists to take control of their organizations.
Now there you have a clear and present danger to free association and free speech. And it is just one more example of a college or university imposing greater restrictions on unpopular ideas on their campus. You want to fight real suppression of rights, Vandy is far more abusive than the state.
Sorry, Mark: that was intended to refer to the other commenter. My apologies for being sloppy.
Also, I don't think you're cynical.
I have to think some more about I think freedom of association implies freedom to exclude. It's a good question.
The broader question about the prerogative of private entities to constrain natural rights such as freedom of speech is something else I will think about. I'm not a lawyer, and my opinions don't have any importance to anyone but me and whoever is within shouting distance, but I don't like the fact that someone who would hand out tracts in the Home Depot parking lot can do so only with the permission of the property owner. Vanderbilt is obviously in a different category than a retail store, as the supposedly specialize in ideas, but the argument against is essentially the same.
It seems to me that restrictions on assembly and expression by private entities highlight the importance of public spaces like the plaza. Anyhow, thanks for bringing it up.
Ben,
No problem. I can be cynical for the reasons I mentioned. My late great friend Avon Williams III always chided me because he thought cynicism unbecoming a Christian. I would always tell him that if God had not meant us to be cynical at times, he would not have made us so flawed.
As I have said, I am an ardent defender of free speech. I fail to see how denying the Plaza to anyone for overnight protests actually threatens free speech. I think if one asked the Governor or his staff whether the Administration would object to protesters gathering on the Plaza overnight to protest an impending execution, they would not object at all.
The differences being that the protest is specific and temporary. And remember that no one is objecting to the protesters being on the Plaza during the day. All in all, tempest and teapot. There are bigger fish to fry.
"Like it or not, those misfits you sneer at managed to focus worldwide attention (BBC World Service for one) on a hamfisted crackdown on freedom of assembly and expression. That seemed to really get under your skin."
You are really clueless buster if you don't see this "Wag the Dog" theater production for what it really is.
I disagree with your characterization, but never mind me-- the media doesn't present it that way either.
"I disagree with your characterization, but never mind me-- the media doesn't present it that way either."
Dear God. There really are people who were hatched from an egg and raised in a pumpkin patch.
Gosbless' basic attitude seems to be that people he doesn't like are not entitled to First Amendment protections. He and people like him are a threat to our freedom. They are despicable, unAmerican authoritarians.
blah blah blah, protests organized for the consumption of the media, getting them excited with the message they want to hear but the majority does not. The same three dozen people who will protest any thing, even if it does not have an actual target except "greed" excitedly egged on by "journalists" of similar bent.
Oh great Republican majority, please ease our pain and rid Nashville of its congressional delegate. It is obvious that we will just choose a fruit loop who no doubt thinks camping out in a public park is a valid act of political commentary. Thank you Republicans for finally turning things around in this backwards state just in time for reapportionment. Now all we have to do is watch the cute liberal arts dropouts camping in the cold and know they are about to post a big fat zero on the election totals board in November.
Knowledge comes about with the age these kids are short on. Let them protest as long as they like. It will just make the disillusionment of November hurt even more (these are the Cubs fans of the political world). Eventually their benefactors will have to take those funds and use them for elections and they will have to leave anyway. Let them "protest", get the reporters all wet and excited but turning off the real 99%.
Eventually a pretty blond girl will dissapear or an natural disaster will devastate a poor country with a great music scene or a Kardasian will have a wardrobe malfunction and the media will forget about them and the cameras will dissapear.
"...And as far as that security from the TPH. Well, good luck with that as the noble "Homeless" steal the pillows from under your heads.
Posted by GODBLESSTHETHP on October 30, 2011 at 1:43 PM"
If Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons reduces or eliminates THP patrols of the Tennessee Legislative Plaza he would, and his subodinates within such an action, be denying the Occupy Nashville protesters "equal protection of the laws" (Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution).
"protests organized for the consumption of the media"
Unlike the teabaggers' hate-fests? Hypocrite.
teabagger, fleabagger, its all good. Let them both "protest". The only hate I heard came from Perry.
Perry, you should probably get in contact with the massage therapist regarding her plain for meditation classes. You are too tense about this teabagger thing. In a little over 12 months you are going to have an aneurism when the people you hate further their hold on their government. Unless you honestly believe camping out on the plaza will erase Obama's 35 point deficit in Tennessee or 10 point deficit in the whole country.
I was at the protest Friday night and found it very inspiring. I generally find it inspiring when people are willing to get up off their asses and engage in non-violent public activism. I feel much the same way about the Tea Party. I don't agree with them and think much of what they profess to support is inconsistent with the way they act, but I'm thrilled to see individuals who actually believe in the power of protest and who are willing to leave their big screen TVs and fantasy football leagues and all you can eat buffets to get out in the public space and engage in public speech. We could use a helluva lot more of it in this country.
Let me put this in language that "the movement" will understand.
I know I KNOW that the seminar people THAT THE SEMINAR PEOPLE told you TOLD YOU to be nice TO BE NICE to the tea bagger..er party people TO THE TEABAGGER..ER PARTY PEOPLE but don't bother BUT DON'T BOTHER. Everybody EVERYBODY can see through CAN SEE THROUGH that bovine THAT BOVINE excrement EXCREMENT. (wiggle fingers!!!!)
Re: GODBLESSTHETHP... You're one VILE SOB castigating the lot of this movement's protesters as "druggies", etc. I've never done a drug in my life, and I can proudly stand with other VETERANS out there drawing our 'line in the sand' against the repressive likes of you!
Gee Paxromana GEE PAXROMANA. I guess you're right I GUESS YOU'RE RIGHT. From the looks of it FROM THE LOOKS OF IT Nobody in that crowd NOBODY IN THAT CROWD would know a crack rock WOULD KNOW A CRACK ROCK from a tick tack FROM A TICK TACK (wiggle fingers!!!)
