Friday, February 8, 2013
Politics / Law and Order Assistant Attorney General Contradicts Haslam's Public Statements on Occupy Arrests
Posted by Steven Hale on Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 10:12 AM
Days after state troopers arrested over 50 Occupy Nashville protesters on War Memorial Plaza over two nights in October 2011, Gov. Bill Haslam told reporters that he spoke with the Attorney General's office, among others, before giving the green light. (You'll remember that then-Scene reporter Jonathan Meador ended up in cuffs too. We assume arresting journalists wasn't a part of the governor's conversations with other state officials.)
But yesterday, as the state tried to keep Haslam from being deposed as part of a lawsuit filed by Occupy Nashville, Assistant Attorney General Dawn Jordan told U.S. District Court Judge Joe B. Brown Haslam's statement — about whom he had spoken to before going ahead with the arrests — was incorrect.
From The City Paper's Pierce Greenberg:
“We had conversations last week that involved General Services, Safety and the Attorney General’s Office was part of the conversations,” Haslam told media on Nov. 4, 2011. “... all those folks were part of the conversations.”Jordan said that quote was not true — and used the mishap to illustrate how Haslam didn’t have “unique personal knowledge” of the conversations surrounding the implementation of a policy that resulted in the arrests at Legislative Plaza.
When asked for comment, the Governor’s Office told The City Paper it would be inappropriate to comment on Haslam’s interaction with the Attorney General’s Office due to the active lawsuit.
Indeed, it would seem inappropriate to comment on the Haslam's interaction with the Attorney General's office. Particularly if that interaction didn't occur.
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