Are we just supposed to be grateful that - so far - no one has been injured in Nashville? Are we supposed to be grateful the right to free speech is only being discarded for just a few people?
A roundup of the events from Mike Silence at the KNS.
Excerpts:
R. Neal: After declaring a curfew at Legislative Plaza last night, Gov. Haslam has sent THP state troopers with a SWAT team to clear the area. An Occupy Nashville livestream report from the scene says approx. 100 officers began arresting a small group of peaceful demonstrators at around 4AM (3AM Nashville time).
Betsy Phillips: Setting time limits and monetary requirements on when people are allowed to gather on taxpayer-funded state property to exercise their first amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances is unconstitutional.
Also from Betsy:
But please, notice that the Governor is afraid of fifty people. Other Occupies have hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people. And our governor has to sneak up on fifty people in the dead of night.
But what’s worse than sneaking up on fifty people in the middle of the night is stripping everyone in the state of their constitutional right to peaceably assemble.
That hurts everyone.
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/potentially-offensive-portrait-governor.html Drop by and let me know how you feel about our rights being infringed upon.
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