Councilwoman Sharon Hurt, an at-large member of the council, made the suggestion on August 5 during a meeting with the committees for Public Safety, Beer and Regulated Beverages and Health, Hospital and Social Services, the latter of which she is also the chairman. During this meeting, Hurt said:
“My question goes back to legislation. I don't know if Mike Jameson could be the one to answer the question, but my concern is – you know I work for an organization, that if they [transmit HIV to another person], they are tried for murder or attempted murder, if they [did not tell the person about their condition] … and this person who may very well pass this virus that's out in the air because they're not wearing a mask is basically doing the same thing to someone ho contracts it and dies from it.”
“It seems to me that we have been more reactive, as opposed to proactive, and a little too late, too little. So, my thing is, maybe there should be legislation, stronger legislation … to say that if you do not wear a mask and you subject exposure of this virus to someone else then there will be some stronger penalty as it is in other viruses that are exposed.”
The person she is referring to during her statement, Mike Jameson, is a former councilman, the current director of legislative affairs for the mayor's office and a special adviser to the mayor. Jameson responded by telling Hurt that the city council does not have the authority to do what she is proposing.
https://twitter.com/PolitiKurd/status/1292174867220107265
“This is a state creature,” he said, reminding the councilwoman that the authority to create a new class of criminal offenses falls to the state legislature. Hurt was disappointed when she learned that she cannot treat people who violate mask mandates similar to murderers.
Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how people who do not want to be suffocated by mask mandates can skirt around these regulations by using the logic employed by the liberal mob.
Nashville and the rest of Davidson County have had a mask mandate for a while now, and the metro area's enforcement of these strict regulations has gotten worse in the past few days. (Related: Knoxville, Tenn., tried to impose antichrist restrictions on churches as part of reopening “phases,” no more signing, communion or Bibles.)
According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD), they have given out over 400 verbal warnings and 16 Metro civil citations to people who did not comply with the Metro Public Health Department's mask policy since Friday, August 7.
In response to the rampant violations, they have increased their presence in the Lower Broadway area, especially during the weekends, given the neighborhood's popularity as an entertainment district filled with shops, restaurants and tourist attractions. The MNPD will also be out in force looking for "transpotainment" vehicles such as party buses, which have currently been banned from the city due to fears that they may be hubs for the transmission of COVID-19.
The MNPD has assigned approximately 30 officers – 24 on foot and the remaining six in patrol ATVs – to continue enforcing the city's mask mandate.
It appears that this escalation has worked, because on Thursday evening, August 13, the MNPD arrested a 49-year-old man on Broadway for refusing to wear a mask.
According to police reports, officers approached the man and informed him that he needed to wear a mask because he was unable to maintain his distance from other passing pedestrians. The man tried to ignore the officers, but when the officers continued he became “verbally aggressive” and started shouting at the officers, causing a disturbance and making several groups of people in the immediate area disperse.
During his arrest, the man told the officers that he “only had six to seven drinks.” He was charged with violating the mask mandate, along with disorderly conduct and public intoxication.
This is the sixth known arrest for violating Nashville's mask mandate. Without any significant changes, it's likely that the MNPD will continue arresting people for asserting their individual liberties.
Local and state governments are trying to push back against President Donald Trump's reluctance to issue a federal mask order by placing their own mandates. Learn about the latest developments at Pandemic.news.
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