A proposal to ban Metro Nashville police officers from joining hate groups has been introduced in the Metro Council and quickly raised questions about its intent. Members have agreed to postpone voting to allow time for input from city departments.
Councilmember Jeff Preptit put forth the legislation, which would create a new policy for the department, banning any of their officers from associating with “criminal hate groups or paramilitary gangs.”
He addressed his reasoning at Tuesday’s council meeting:
“I want to be 100% clear. The overwhelming majority of our officers serve our community with honor, integrity, and with respect for the oath that they take to serve and protect,” Preptit said. “However, what we know is that these criminal groups specifically seek to recruit within law enforcement … This profound degradation truly impedes the ability of our law enforcement agencies to fully execute their mission.”
Last week, when asked to comment on the bill, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell expressed some concern over its legality, particularly regarding First Amendment rights and the definition of a hate group.
“I will be interested to see what the legal analysis of that bill is,” O’Connell said. “I think that’s the hardest part when we come back to that conversation about, you know, how do you define hate groups? It’s not like there is one consistent list to look at.”
Currently, the bill does offer definitions for both hate groups and paramilitary gangs.
The former is defined as “any person or group that advocates, incites, or supports criminal acts or criminal conspiracies or that promote violence, hatred, or discrimination toward racial, religious, ethnic, sexual, gender, or other groups or classes of individuals,” while paramilitary gangs are outlined as a “person or group that advocates the overthrow of the U.S. Government or any state, municipality, tribal, or other government by force or violence or any unlawful means including as defined under Tennessee Code Ann. § 39-17-314.”
The Nashville Fraternal Order of Police has spoken out against the bill, questioning its constitutionality, why it zeroes in on MNPD and not all Metro departments, and the implication that hate and discriminatory activity are not already prohibited. In a statement, the law enforcement organization urged the council to vote “no.”
Preptit said he would like input from Metro Legal and MNPD before moving forward. He requested a three-meeting deferral, which was approved by the council unanimously.
Hate group attends council meeting
The bill comes as white nationalist groups have descended on Nashville in recent weeks, including having a group of Neo-Nazis who appeared at Tuesday’s meeting. The group, wearing matching shirts, signed up to speak during the public comment period. As the meeting began, they stood up, yelled and moved about the gallery.
At-large Councilmember Zulfat Suara addressed them and other hate groups:
“You’re not welcome here. The people in Nashville are very welcoming. It is a city where a Muslim council person is friends with a Jewish council person and a LGBTQ council person,” Suara said. “It is a city that welcomes immigrants and it is a city that preaches love for all of us. So you have the right to march but there’s no room for hate here.”
Eventually, Suara called for police officers to clear the entire gallery for the remainder of the announcement period.
O’Connell also spoke out against their presence, posting an Elie Wiesel quote and condemning Nazis.
“We are a city that must always orient toward love and a welcoming spirit because we understand the lessons of the past and despite our ghosts,” O’Connell wrote. “We enjoy freedoms that allow hatred to exist among us, but it cannot be allowed to come between us.”
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