Occupy Nashville is doing GREAT! There are 30-40 camping, usually over 100 for General Assemblies. The camp is very neat and clean, though the governor disagrees, using the word "unsanitary" every time he opens his mouth.
The City seems to support us. Metro has been friendly when encountered, and the city judges are on the side of the First Amendment.
The governor is not happy. SO not happy that he created legislature just for us. Installed a curfew for the War Memorial (aka Legislative) Plaza.
For two nights, there were arrests. Both of those nights, the night judge on duty declared that it was unconstitutional to arrest peaceful protesters and that the new "curfew" was unconstitutional as well.
Another judge agreed when we took the State to court. We have a TRO against the State. They cannot harrass or arrest us. However, they have taken that to mean that they do not have to protect anyone in the area, either, so there have been injuries due mostly to homeless people fighting each other.
The media is very good to us. One reporter from the Nashville Scene was arrested, even though he declared he was press and I believe he was on the sidewalk. Videos of this are on youtube, of course, and I think he and/or the paper is suing.
Kind of hilarious thing recently: the Tennessean and the Scene used FOI (or something similar) to get the emails regarding Occupy Nashville. Wowwww, talk about keystone cops. Much talk about infiltrating, orgies (remember it's winter here in Nashville and the campers are camping on MARBLE), defecation and urination. They had some problems logging into our website. It seems it's very difficult to get into a livestream chat room. hee.
Anyway, now that we've got a reprieve and can actually exercise our First Amendment rights, we're busy doing other things like ohh, shutting down BoA with only 10-15 protesters, creating GED classes, helping to keep a homeless clinic up, networking with other occupy movements for a state-wide General Assembly soon, giving "teach-ins" about everything from the Citizens United stuff to how to get arrested nonviolently.
The judge in the federal court has given us and the state until November 21st to settle it between ourselves. She has let it be known that she is firmly of the opnion that the curfew is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, all charges (citations) were dropped against the protesters who were arrested.
The most interesting thing about this to me is that most of the occupy movements are having to first fight for their first amendment rights before getting down to doing anything constructive. I've followed many of the protests via livestream. From city to city, the difference is astounding. In LA, the government has said, "come, express your right to assemble peacefully, here is a place to do it, bring your tents, stay as long as you wish," while in Atlanta, 100s of police in riot gear and mounties showed up to boot three people (THREE) out of the park after a curfew was established. And of course there are the students at Berkeley who got the **** beat out of them for assembling peacefully.
Wild times, and very exciting. The word "evolution" is a very descriptive word to apply to this movement, in my opinion. I've watched it go from 'wtf are they doing?' to 'ohhhh, yeah, for REAL!' in just a few weeks. And it's just a baby. Nashville has a "vow" with other OWS camps to camp until Nov 2012. At least.
I'm thankful to those on the streets who keep on keeping on. They've yanked me up out of my apathy chair.
And, by the way, the "cause" is whatever you want it to be, but "officially" the goal is to get corp money out of the government, and give the country back to the people. Lofty goal? Sure. The same has been said about most revolutions.
The City seems to support us. Metro has been friendly when encountered, and the city judges are on the side of the First Amendment.
The governor is not happy. SO not happy that he created legislature just for us. Installed a curfew for the War Memorial (aka Legislative) Plaza.
For two nights, there were arrests. Both of those nights, the night judge on duty declared that it was unconstitutional to arrest peaceful protesters and that the new "curfew" was unconstitutional as well.
Another judge agreed when we took the State to court. We have a TRO against the State. They cannot harrass or arrest us. However, they have taken that to mean that they do not have to protect anyone in the area, either, so there have been injuries due mostly to homeless people fighting each other.
The media is very good to us. One reporter from the Nashville Scene was arrested, even though he declared he was press and I believe he was on the sidewalk. Videos of this are on youtube, of course, and I think he and/or the paper is suing.
Kind of hilarious thing recently: the Tennessean and the Scene used FOI (or something similar) to get the emails regarding Occupy Nashville. Wowwww, talk about keystone cops. Much talk about infiltrating, orgies (remember it's winter here in Nashville and the campers are camping on MARBLE), defecation and urination. They had some problems logging into our website. It seems it's very difficult to get into a livestream chat room. hee.
Anyway, now that we've got a reprieve and can actually exercise our First Amendment rights, we're busy doing other things like ohh, shutting down BoA with only 10-15 protesters, creating GED classes, helping to keep a homeless clinic up, networking with other occupy movements for a state-wide General Assembly soon, giving "teach-ins" about everything from the Citizens United stuff to how to get arrested nonviolently.
The judge in the federal court has given us and the state until November 21st to settle it between ourselves. She has let it be known that she is firmly of the opnion that the curfew is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, all charges (citations) were dropped against the protesters who were arrested.
The most interesting thing about this to me is that most of the occupy movements are having to first fight for their first amendment rights before getting down to doing anything constructive. I've followed many of the protests via livestream. From city to city, the difference is astounding. In LA, the government has said, "come, express your right to assemble peacefully, here is a place to do it, bring your tents, stay as long as you wish," while in Atlanta, 100s of police in riot gear and mounties showed up to boot three people (THREE) out of the park after a curfew was established. And of course there are the students at Berkeley who got the **** beat out of them for assembling peacefully.
Wild times, and very exciting. The word "evolution" is a very descriptive word to apply to this movement, in my opinion. I've watched it go from 'wtf are they doing?' to 'ohhhh, yeah, for REAL!' in just a few weeks. And it's just a baby. Nashville has a "vow" with other OWS camps to camp until Nov 2012. At least.
I'm thankful to those on the streets who keep on keeping on. They've yanked me up out of my apathy chair.
And, by the way, the "cause" is whatever you want it to be, but "officially" the goal is to get corp money out of the government, and give the country back to the people. Lofty goal? Sure. The same has been said about most revolutions.
