Newly minted “Boss Karen” and Nashville Council Member Sharon Hurt said last week during a meeting of the Joint Public Safety and Health Committee that current legislation for those not wearing masks is too weak and doesn’t go far enough.
She suggested stronger legislation must be mounted in the form of charging anyone not wearing a mask with murder or attempted murder. According to transcripts provided by the Washington Examiner:
But my concern is — you know I work for an organization, that if they pass a virus, then they are tried for murder or attempted murder, if they are not told… 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 who 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, I don’t know if Mike Jameson is…can speak to it, but maybe there needs to be 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.”
After being told that the city council doesn’t have the authority to create criminal legislation that would warrant the death penalty if violated, Hurt responds sadly and dejectedly:
I was afraid that was going to be the answer…I guess that’s the whole point of asking for something to be done as early as the Council was pushing. It seems it was not taken as seriously as it should have been and thus we are in the situation we are in right now.
While her suggestion was ridiculous on the face of it, it does highlight some of the exasperation being felt by a society cracking down on dissenting opposition. Nashville is enforcing a mask-mandate in public, with the city having recently hired more law enforcement to patrol the streets looking for violators, as well as enforcing any businesses not wearing masks or not enforcing masks policies.
Nashville Churches, however, are still exempt from the law, enabling them to gather unemcumbered to worship and have servivces as they see fit, with only suggested guidliness being issued. This is due to Tennesse having some of the nation’s more permissive guidelines for churches, thanks to Republican Governor Bill Lee, a professing Christian.
But with a new poll from Pew Research Center showing that “80% U.S. adults overwhelmingly say houses of worship should be required to follow the same rules about social distancing and large gatherings as other organizations or businesses in their local area.” it is unknown how much longer the admittted double standard will last – whether Nashville will become more lax on businesses, or become more stringent on churches.
