A new law in Tennessee was recently signed by the gov and it essentially brings a variety of new restrictions and punishments to those who might be engaged in political protest in the region.

For example, the new rules reportedly bring felony charges for anyone caught camping out overnight on state property as a part of any protest. For those who are caught it could mean turning them into a criminal and giving them as much as 6 years behind bars, for the non-violent act of sleeping in a public space.

They might even lose their right to vote because of their non-violent political protest actions.

Recently, there have been issues with political protest in TN as in other regions and it meant that some individuals were camped out in public spaces.

To respond to that, political overlords in the region have moved to push forward with this power grab that brings more punishment for people speaking out in ways that might cause too much inconvenience for others that don't want to hear or see it.

In a country that already has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, looking to toss more protesters behind bars for years, for sleeping on a sidewalk, isn't going to help the problem. Of course, as is tradition with the government, whenever they move for a power grab like this one they always color it with 'public safety' being their motivation.

Legislation already exists covering much of the behaviors they were looking to newly restrict.

With the legislation they just passed recently, which arguably cuts back on what should be constitutionally-protected peaceful protest in the TN region, they are introducing rules for behaviors that were for the most part arguably already restricted.

This is why civil liberties advocates have harshly questioned the need for this new law that was signed in, SB 8005, and they urged the gov to veto it, suggesting that it was more about cracking down on non-violent political dissent. The veto didn't' happen and it has now been signed into law.

Once again we learn that if you want to "change things from the inside" and fix any of the corruption, overspending, unnecessary government infringement upon daily life etc, then you just need to try and do it in such a way that the state approves of so that you don't further degrade your quality of living and end up behind bars. We learn repeatedly that constitutionally protected rights mean nothing when they can continually be eroded and stomped on.

Pics:
pixabay