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Occupy Nashville protesters’ arrests catch legal flak
RICHMOND, TN (Tennessean) – Implementing the new rules amid an ongoing protest may have violated the group’s rights of speech, assembly and petition under the First Amendment, some observers say.
“This is sort of a basic, core right to protest,” said Hedy Weinberg, state director for the ACLU. “The state cannot change the rules in the middle of the game, which is what’s happening, and the state knows that they cannot change the policy and selectively apply it.”
Haslam has said protesters were given advance notice of the curfew and chose not to clear the plaza.
State troopers arrested 26 people, including one journalist, on Legislative Plaza beginning just after midnight Friday. Police had previously arrested 29 people when they broke up Occupy Nashville’s encampment shortly after 3 a.m. Friday. Six were arrested on both nights.
Early Saturday, Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could “find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza.” Later in the day, protesters marched down to Public Square to show their thanks to Nelson. They collected signatures on a thank-you card for him.
Haslam said his administration decided to act after lawmakers and members of the public complained the Occupy Nashville protest had become a source of lewd behavior, robbery and assaults.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
