Tennessee House Bill 668

[Foolmewunz]

Reasonable care would be to not block traffic by standing in a roadway in the first place. Reasonable care should be practiced by those breaking the law and putting themselves and motorists in danger.

Not everyone is in a hurry to go home and watch TV. Some may have doctor appointments, job interviews, or some kind of emergency.

If I needed to get through and a mob started surrounding and banging on my car as I slowly tried to pass, I might feel very threatened. I saw a video recently of a driver doing just that - pushing slowly through. Nobody was injured, but if they were, whose fault is it? The driver was scared.

People need to take reponsibility for their own stupidity.

Hilited: Not in Tennessee, evidently. The state legislature is doing it for them. If they're stupid enough to think that a sensible reaction to peaceful protesters blocking an intersection is to plow through them, the State now says, like Donald, "We got you covered."

 

[Foolmewunz]

Actually, this law is a front door attempt at making protest more safe by encouraging protestors to not block public right of way knowing their legal protections are limited there.

Just as giving up your seat to a white person was "fer your own good"? Or using separate entrances and washing up facilities? Fencing protesters at the conventions in? Yeah, I can see the philanthropic motives at work.

 

[fuelair]

It doesn't matter why someone is in the street, you still have to try not to run them down. Sorry for the inconvenience.


Most of those things wouldn't even get you out of a speeding ticket.


That would depend on how they got injured and whether the driver was exercising due care. If "I was scared" isn't a good enough excuse for injuring someone outside a protest I don't see why it should be good enough for injuring a protestor.


What you choose to do with your car is your responsibility, no matter how stupid someone else is.

Remember though that in an SYG state..........you just need to be in fear for your life.

 

[fuelair]

Just as giving up your seat to a white person was "fer your own good"? Or using separate entrances and washing up facilities? Fencing protesters at the conventions in? Yeah, I can see the philanthropic motives at work.

I do not agree with the items noted above, just with blocking free movement of other people. It really does not help your cause.

 

[Foolmewunz]

I do not agree with the items noted above, just with blocking free movement of other people. It really does not help your cause.

Oh, I think it may be ultimately unproductive but I yet don't find that it should be license for Sparky and Dub to run ya down wit' they 4x4. Just as a lot of miscreants reinterpreted SYG to mean you could do anything you want*, there are people who are going to only hear the headlines here and say, "The Governor said it's okay. Go ahead, Dub! Floor it, dude!"

*Randy Cassingham cited a case this week, where a guy pleading SYG didn't quite understand why shooting a guy who was running away didn't quite qualify. It's pretty hard to claim you were afraid for your life when the guy is fleeing and you plugged him in the back.

 

[Norman Alexander]

I guess the drivers who decide to simply run through protester groups like they weren't there were completely unable to turn off, turn back, or find any other way to avoid hitting them. After all, their car is FAR more important than protesters' lives, liberty and happiness.

Also, it will all end suddenly the first time someone plows through a school marching band, or a Tea Party rally. Although I suspect no-one will cry much if it was a neo-Nazi rally that got squished.

 

[Darat]

What is the actual problem this bill seeks to address? Have we examples of why current laws aren't adequate?

 

[Aepervius]

Actually, this law is a front door attempt at making protest more safe by encouraging protestors to not block public right of way knowing their legal protections are limited there.

Suuuuuure.

And the US has big walking pedestrian boulevard every where , where protestor can go, as opposed to many city where only big street are there with not much on the sidewalk.

Pull the other one.

 

[Pterodactyl]

I wish they had made it simpler and just set a speed limit for driving through a crowd of protestors.

 

[fuelair]

I guess the drivers who decide to simply run through protester groups like they weren't there were completely unable to turn off, turn back, or find any other way to avoid hitting them. After all, their car is FAR more important than protesters' lives, liberty and happiness.

Also, it will all end suddenly the first time someone plows through a school marching band, or a Tea Party rally. Although I suspect no-one will cry much if it was a neo-Nazi rally that got squished.

Very true that last or a trumpf rally. The moral equivalent!!!!!

 

[BStrong]

Indeed. Why introduce a new bill when existing laws cover the situation? And why only 'protestors'? Sounds like an attempt to get around the First Amendment.


???

When the "peaceful" protester rides his bike next to the SUV and begins beating on the drivers door w/o warning or reason and immediately breaks contact when the driver's side window rolls down to reveal a big, black male individual holding up their badge, that rider wasn't there for the purpose of protesting.

I was sitting in the back seat (discrimination!) but enjoyed the show.

When it happened to me while driving I simply started listening to Led Zeppelin live at MSG, 1973 and waited for the festivities to move on. Ladies in SUV's got the treatment, old white folks likewise. My car, having tinted windows that don't really allow easy visibility, somehow got completely ignored.

I'm sure that folks go on CM to protest or as a lark, or to meet attractive folks etc, but there are definitely people on CM that are looking for a bit of the old ultraviolence.

Should someone involved with that demographic get a bit bent out of shape during the festivities, Too Bad.

 

[The Big Dog]

I know that recently a woman was hit while her a her protesters were crossing a major freeway, at night, while the traffic was whizzing by at 55 mph.

She and her pals were not up on physics and stopping distance.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

...rides his bike next to the SUV and begins beating on the drivers door... that rider wasn't there for the purpose of protesting

So your definition of "protester" is someone who isn't protesting?

OK, I get it now. "not every violent non-protester is a peaceful protester".

 

[bonzombiekitty]

When the "peaceful" protester rides his bike next to the SUV and begins beating on the drivers door w/o warning or reason and immediately breaks contact when the driver's side window rolls down to reveal a big, black male individual holding up their badge, that rider wasn't there for the purpose of protesting.

I was sitting in the back seat (discrimination!) but enjoyed the show.

When it happened to me while driving I simply started listening to Led Zeppelin live at MSG, 1973 and waited for the festivities to move on. Ladies in SUV's got the treatment, old white folks likewise. My car, having tinted windows that don't really allow easy visibility, somehow got completely ignored.

I'm sure that folks go on CM to protest or as a lark, or to meet attractive folks etc, but there are definitely people on CM that are looking for a bit of the old ultraviolence.

Should someone involved with that demographic get a bit bent out of shape during the festivities, Too Bad.

Ugh... I'm all for making our roads more bike-able. I cycle myself, support taking away certain car lanes and turning them into cycling lanes, etc. Generally a big proponent of cycling, especially in a city.

I hate critical mass.

 

[bruto]

Ugh... I'm all for making our roads more bike-able. I cycle myself, support taking away certain car lanes and turning them into cycling lanes, etc. Generally a big proponent of cycling, especially in a city.

I hate critical mass.

With you on that. I was an avid cyclist and can no longer ride on the road because I was creamed by a car and I still hate critical mass.

 

[Solitaire]

Here Comes The Police State: New Laws Aim for Brutal Crackdown On Protest by Sarah Lazare

The rise of right-wing populism in the United States—from the White House
to state legislatures—has been met with public resistance on a stunning scale.
Millions have taken to the streets, staged direct actions and flooded airports to
resist a flurry of presidential decrees targeting undocumented, black, refugee,
LGBTQ and poor communities. And long before Trump took the White House,
the Black Lives Matter movement and indigenous water protectors at Standing
Rock were leading the way with sustained mobilizations in the face of staggering
repression.

Now, under cover of the Trump administration’s “law and order” platform,
Republican lawmakers at the state level—often with the backing of police
unions—are advancing a spate of bills aimed at crushing this groundswell.
The proposed legislation would impose draconian penalties on protest organizers
and participants, expanding local powers to put demonstrators in jail, seize their
assets and further criminalize property destruction.

Okay, this thread's narrow focus is now defunct.
It's really part of a broader police state thread.
Should've guessed.

 

[fuelair]

Oh, I think it may be ultimately unproductive but I yet don't find that it should be license for Sparky and Dub to run ya down wit' they 4x4. Just as a lot of miscreants reinterpreted SYG to mean you could do anything you want*, there are people who are going to only hear the headlines here and say, "The Governor said it's okay. Go ahead, Dub! Floor it, dude!"

*Randy Cassingham cited a case this week, where a guy pleading SYG didn't quite understand why shooting a guy who was running away didn't quite qualify. It's pretty hard to claim you were afraid for your life when the guy is fleeing and you plugged him in the back.

Very true and really stupid to do!!!!!!!

 

[ponderingturtle]

I guess I'm disappointed that the modern protest movement has its head so far up its own butt that it actually needs this formally explained to them in a specific law.

It's like all those safety stickers you see on a ladder at the hardware store. Each one of them is there because some jackass did something obviously stupid and wrong, and now the ladder manufacturers have to put these intelligence-insulting stickers on their ladders to forestall jackass lawsuits.

Yes we now know the police in the march on selma were the good guys, the protesters like John Lewis got what they had coming to them.

 

[ponderingturtle]

For blocking real roads that people could need to be using for hospitals/school problems related I am hard pressed to be against the bill - even if I support the cause. Do not block other people - it never helps your cause with the one's you block!!!!!!! Moreso if some real harm comes to a person who badly needed to get through. And, if it causes a child to be harmed the person who caused it may soon see me or someone like me.

So would you have shot John Lewis on the Selma March then or figure the beating was enough of a deterrent for blocking the road?

We need to start realizing how heroic the cops were in fighting these uncivilized protesters back then.

 

[ponderingturtle]

In Florida I can blow them away if I am afraid for my life. That is another point the people who think their problem is bad enough to play in traffic should be thinking about much harder. I am not a British soldier surrounded by Irish and afraid to shoot - and they should have shot. If I had been there would have been a dead Irish person for every round in my magazine - note, however the same would have applied to British under other circumstances. I have an equal opportunity rule.

So you also support the british troops in the boston massacre as well. They really could have used repeating rifles.