Free Republic

On Christmas day, two of the protesters at the Occupy Nashville encampment started arguing with each other; one of them was three-months pregnant. Harsh words led to hair pulling and punching, and both of them landed on the ground. A local news journalist on the scene felt threatened enough to call the police.

Tennessee officials agreed Monday to stop enforcing a new curfew used to dislodge Occupy Nashville protesters from the grounds around the Capitol. The protesters went to federal court seeking a temporary restraining order against Gov. Bill Haslam, arguing the curfew and arrests of dozens of supporters violated their rights to free speech and freedom of assembly. State Attorney General's Office Senior Counsel Bill Marett announced at the beginning of a hearing before Judge Aleta Trauger that the state would not fight efforts to halt the policy. The judge said she had already decided to grant the restraining order because the...

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The heavy Tennessee Highway Patrol presence and curfew enforcement on Legislative Plaza came to a sudden and unexpected stop Saturday night, and by Sunday morning, Occupy Nashville protesters declared it a victory on The Hill. "At 4:30 in the morning, I walked around congratulating everybody that we took The Hill, said Clay Wright who proudly waved his Occupy Nashville flag on the steps of Legislative Plaza. "The people, the people own Legislative Plaza, and that's the way it needs to be recognized," said Wright. But a sign with a curfew enforcement states otherwise. Enforced since Thursday, it's put...

State troopers for the second straight night arrested anti-Wall Street protesters for defying a new nighttime curfew imposed by the Republican governor, in an effort to disband an encampment near the state Capitol in Nashville. And also, for a second time, a Nashville night judge dismissed the arrest warrants. The Tennessean newspaper reported early Saturday morning that Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could "find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza." Occupy Nashville protesters - including many of the 29 arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Friday...

NEW YORK (AP) — While more U.S. cities are resorting to force to break up the Wall Street protests, many others — Philadelphia, New York, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., among them — are content to let the demonstrations go on for now.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for example, said Friday that the several hundred protesters sleeping in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September, can stay as long as they obey the law."I can't talk about other cities," he said. "Our responsibilities are protect your rights and your safety. And I think we're trying to...