Anti-Protest Law Or Protecting the Nation?

            Many people are quite familiar with Occupy Nashville campaign that has been going on for some time now. Occupy Nashville, according to their website  occupynashville.org, “is a citizen-led movement defending Democracy from corporate money and corruption. Our goals are: 1) Remove money from politics. 2)  End corporate personhood. 3) Support the Occupy Wall Street movement.”

            Occupy Nashville is receiving local and national news coverage in every form of that media. The sight of people living in tents at Legislative Plaza has been a common sight for those that pass by there on a daily basis. While some show their support for what Occupy Nashville is about, there are others looking to end the occupation as soon as possible.

            As reported by Tom Carter at 2012indyinfo.com, the US House of Representatives and the Senate passed a bill that would make it a felony to participate in such protests as Occupy Nashville. The bill called H.R. 347 or the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011” is vaguely worded as to make it a criminal offense to remain or enter in an area designated as restricted.

          While such a bill might seem like common sense as to not enter a restricted area, this bill has been used as a means to try and clear out the protestors that were peacefully camping out at Legislative Plaza. Currently, Governor Bill Haslam has been trying to prevent this law from being a warrant to arrest everyone that is camping out for Occupy Nashville.

              A press release from the Occupy Nashville site documents the eviction. According to the press release: “At approximately 3:50 am, March 12, approximately 30 Tennessee Highway Patrol officers moved onto Legislative Plaza and evicted the last tent remaining of the Occupy Nashville encampment, ending one of the longest standing 24/7 occupy camps in the country.”

           Now, while this bill has passed preventing Occupy Nashville from physically living in tents at Legislative Plaza, the people of Occupy Nashville have all ready recovered some of the property taken by the police and have re-set up an information table there at Legislative Plaza. The site continues to state that general assemblies will still be held in the plaza Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7 p.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

            For more information about Occupy Nashville, their website is OccupyNashville.org and for information on the H.R. 347 bill it can be found at 2012IndyNews.com under the General News tab.