'Actions have consequences': Lawmakers advance bill that makes unauthorized street protests a felony

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee House Criminal Justice Subcommittee advanced a bill Tuesday that would make unauthorized street protests a felony in Tennessee. Under current state law, the action is already illegal, but the penalty is only a misdemeanor.

Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, wants to make it a Class D felony.

"Actions have consequences, and when you’re so selfish as to put everyone else around you at risk of injury, both pecuniary and physical injury, there have to be consequences for that," said Rep. Barrett to the committee Tuesday.

Tennessee has seen several of these types of protests. Most recently, there was a pro-Palestinian march in Memphis that shut down the Desoto Bridge that connects Tennessee and Arkansas through Interstate 40. Demonstrators blocked access on the bridge for hours.

In 2014, a protest over police brutality shut down I-24 for two 30-minute intervals. In both situations, lawmakers argue it could block access to vital destinations like hospitals.

"When we start to do things that disrupt other people’s right to get to a hospital, we should question that," said Rep. Monty Fritts, a Republican from Kingston.

But Democrats pointed out that such a law would have prevented Rep. John Lewis and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

When pressed on this, Rep. Barrett replied, "I don’t know the answer to that question because I don’t know the exact details and what the intent was of the individuals at that time. But again, this is a public safety bill and what this bill is trying to do is protect people that are bystanders."

Rep. Joe Towns, a Democrat from Memphis, also argued that a felony charge for mostly young adults is just too severe. "Rewind in your mind just how impulsive we were, how we thought we knew everything, how we thought the old folk were all old fashioned and washed up and didn’t have any sense and were behind the times," said Rep. Towns.

Despite Democratic opposition, the bill passed out of the subcommittee along a party-line voice vote. It will appear next week in the full House Criminal Justice Committee.

The bill has several more steps in the Tennessee Senate as well.

As the bill is written, if a protest has the proper permits to close the road, criminal charges wouldn't apply.