Tennessee is building a militarized police facility

December 2023 News from the Green Party of Tennessee

Tennessee has already broken ground on a (militarized) police training facility akin to the Cop City facility in Atlanta. If you are not familiar with modern-day fascism associated with Georgia’s Cop City, playing out right in front of the “asleep at the wheel” Biden Administration, then please watch this excellent report from Democracy Now.

Here is another excellent report on Cop City from NBC News.

Please note from these reports how

the clear cutting of wooded forests amounted to an environmental rape of the ecosystem north of congested & polluted Atlanta;
peaceful citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to protest and seek redress for state government action were met by police brutality akin to state police treatment of Civil Rights protesters in the 1960s;
Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán, a 26-year-old forest defender, was shot 57 times and killed by state police in a pristine example of militarized police and the kind of abuse we associate with Third World dictatorships. The autoposy performed on Manuel showed bullet wounds in BOTH hands as if they were raised in a gesture of submission and pleading not to shoot him;
The god-forsaken (Oh my, is that too strong a word? No!) Republican state attorney general and Republican state legislature is using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO), a statute normally reserved for mafia and organized crime prosecutions, in an outrageous and flagrantly fascistic prosection of peaceful activists who don't want a militarizing police facility constructed in the Atlanta area;
Joe Biden and his administration, in general, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in particular, are perfectly aware of what is happening to the peaceful protesters and peace activists and doing nothing to support them and protect their U.S. Constitutional rights.

WHAT ARE THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR AND REPUBLICAN SUPERMAJORITY IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE DOING

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 | 02:04pm

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Today, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee celebrated the groundbreaking on a Multi-Agency Law Enforcement Training Academy (MALETA) at Cockrill Bend in Nashville. The $415 million campus will include training facilities for state and local law enforcement, housing and dining for cadets and in-service staff, and a new administrative headquarters building for the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security. The vast majority of law enforcement officers across the state will receive training at MALETA.

https://www.tn.gov/governor/news/2023/9/27/gov--lee-champions-multi-agency-law-enforcement-training-academy-.html

This is not a pie-in-the-sky plan for Tennessee to build its own militarized Copy City like Georgia, the Republicans have actually broken ground on the construction site:

https://www.tiktok.com/@thetnholler/video/7283710944721571115

TAKE ACTION

1. Forward this email to at least one friend who shares your concern (multiple friends would be even better) about fascistic, militarized police tactics and encourage them to get worked up about Georgia's Cop City and Tennessee's prospective Cop City / MALETA / Cockrill Bend facility.

2. Call your state representative and state senator and voice your opposition to using taxpayer funds on this militarized police facility. If you type in an address (your residence, your business address, your doctor's address, an address where you vacationed in Tennessee) the following website will tell you who are the state representative and state senator for that address along with their email addresses:

https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/LegislatorInfo/directory.aspx?chamber=H

If you prefer to do things by phone, you can find your state rep and senator above and then use the general number for the legislature. All legislators may be reached at 1-800-449-8366. That number will get you connected to both your state representative and state senator's office. If no one is in the office, you can leave a voice message.

Out-of-state friends of the TN Green Party who subscribe to this list to stay in touch can contact our legislators and tell them you were thinking about vacationing in Tennessee, but you don't want to travel to a place with militarized, fascistic police. All Tennessee license plates on passenger cars contain "TNvacations.com" at the bottom -- so the state legislators really care about tourism and getting all those tourist dollars spent in Tennessee!

3. Reply to this message and tell us whether you feel strongly about police brutality and fascism on display in these news stories. The Green Party of Tennessee Organizing Committee does not have a monopoly on good ideas. If you have any other strategies or suggestions for what we can do to stop or reshape the intent of the Tennesse MALETA facility, type us a reply message.

I hate to leave you on a dark and foreboding note. Therefore, I would like to share a musical gift with you. I just recently came across the singer-songwriter Laura Nyro who wrote such classics from the 1960s as "Eli's Coming," "Stoney End," "Stone Soul Picnic," "And When I Die," and "Wedding Bell Blues / Marry Me Bill." Here is a link to one of her live TV performances and the song SAVE THE COUNTRY

We could build the dream with love
And I got fury in my soul
Fury's gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind I can't study war no more
Save the people! Save the children! Save the country!
Save the country! Save the country! Save the country!

Finally, the Green Party of Tennessee incurs a cost of about $36/month to maintain a current list of members and a web site powered by NationBuilder. New members and visitors frequently ask why the TN Green Party is not sponsoring local candidates for city council, state representative, state senator, etc. We have our first local candidate to consider endorsing in January, and I would like us to endorse a broad slate covering most of Tennessee's 95 counties in such local elections as county commissioners and judges. Please click on the donate button below if you place any value on having the TN Green Party find progressive candidates and endorse them and bring you the Green Party's presidential nominee on your 2024 general election ballot in Tennessee.

If you're interested in working with the GPTN, please sign up as a volunteer. We need volunteers to help vet the many candidates.

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In Solidarity,
Michael Guth, State Party Co-Chair 2023-2025
Green Party of Tennessee Coordinating Committee
https://www.tngreens.org/