Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson shared some unusual anger in a statement issued last August, where he was furious over protesters at the CoreCivic facility, who had chained themselves together inside concrete barrels. Anderson said, in a statement, “These actions, by a few, go far beyond any need to or right to express a point of view. At any future sentencing for these illegal acts, there should be corresponding and commensurate consequences.”
We’ve tracked the twenty-two defendants with cases related to the arrests since August of 2018. About half of the cases were dismissed early on, mostly the out-of-town cases. The remainder, for various reasons, were continued until last month, at when time they were ‘nolled’, which means the DA’s office decided to not prosecute them. When it was all said and done, none of the protesters would face any real consequences in the eyes of the law, or on their record, courtesy of the District Attorney’s Office, despite Police Chief Steve Anderson’s demand that at “any future sentencing for these illegal acts, there should be corresponding and commensurate consequences.”
MNPD issues a full statement in July, that explained why Chief Anderson was so upset, describing the conditions of the day:
“Dozens of protesters arrived at the location at 6:15 a.m. In response, more than 70 officers and 18 supervisors were pulled from their regular duties protecting Nashville’s neighborhoods. Officers made repeated announcements that trespassers needed to leave the property. After these numerous warnings were ignored, officers arrested nine persons who refused to leave or reentered the property. Officers then spent four hours in extreme heat, 95 degrees with a heat index of 102, meticulously and methodically removing the remaining ten, who had encased their chains in steel and concrete.”
Despite the Police Chief’s wishes, and demands for consequences, every single protester – even those charged with resisting arrest – can have these charged expunged from their record, just as if it never happened, thanks to the office of District Attorney Glenn Funk.
An email to the DA’s office regarding these cases has went unanswered since October 18th, 2018.
