Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacob’s Weekly Update.

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacob’s Weekly Update.
TRANSCRIPT:
“It’s Friday! Time for another weekly update.
The State of Tennessee recently passed a bill that extends the prohibition on unauthorized camping on state property to all public property across the state, carrying with it a potential felony penalty. Now, opponents of this bill have characterized it as criminalizing homelessness. As is so often the case in politics, that’s not exactly correct.
In fact, it’s not at all correct. First, we should remember that, in Knox County at least, our parks, greenways, and other public facilities are not there as temporary housing for anyone. There are there for the use and enjoyment of the public at large, especially for the folks who paid to purchase, build, and maintain them-Knox County taxpayers.
Unfortunately, we have seen a rise in vandalism and other criminal activity in our parks. Obviously, we can attribute much of the problem to the increase in people using our public spaces as temporary housing. Look, I’m not going to allow Knox County to become a place where joggers are afraid to run on our greenways, where families don’t want to have picnics in our parks because of discarded hypodermic needles, or where you have to step over bodily waste in our playgrounds.
Bottom line, Knox Countians deserve clean, safe public spaces, and because we had no enforcement mechanism to deal with this issue ourselves, we were about to propose an ordinance similar to what the state did anyway.
According to Tennessee state law, camping means putting up structures such as tents and tarps. So no, no one is going to be run out of a park for solely being in the park. It has been established that everyone has a constitutional right to the use of public property and this bill does not change that. It simply means that you can’t put up tents and so forth without permission.
Second, police still have discretion about whether to charge someone and the District Attorney still has discretion about whether to prosecute. The legislative intent of this bill is to give us a legal basis to move people from where they are a nuisance, and in some cases, a danger to the public at large and remember, we’re talking about facilities that you pay for and now don’t feel safe using, to somewhere they can be connected with services to help them. The intent is not to throw people in jail.
In fact, in the 10 years that the state has been enforcing a similar law, it is my understanding that no citizen has been charged with a felony. Part of the intent is also to help the homeless and folks with mental health and addiction issues connect with the services they need. Allowing them to camp in our public spaces isn’t helping them, it’s enabling them.
I was honored to welcome the Wall That Heals to Knoxville. The Wall is open 24/7 until this Sunday, April 24th at 2pm. If you plan on visiting, which I highly encourage, please park at the Food City at Broadway and Adair and look for the CAC shuttle busses which will be running from 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
Until next Friday, I hope everyone has a great week.”

[@miran1560]

Happy birthday kane

[@robertpascale6966]

I'm not going to say I'm surprised. The man is a legend

[@phillykev3_]

Please run for President in 2024 we want Kane!

[@khaledsaifullahbukhari3336]

he will definately win🤣

[@djthebest0613]

Mayor kane 🔥

[@KingGamerSiam]

Happy Birthday my favourite WWE Superstar!!!!, I hope you have an awesome time with your family and friends. Love you Kane!! ❤️

[@cottonballable]

Glenn Jacobs for President 2024. Let us make it happen.Much better than Biden or Trump!

[@KJSCalderon]

THAT'S GOTTA BE KANE!!!

[@alicarsi2568]

Just here for the BIG RED MAYOR

[@shahriar1490]

Happy Birthday Kane❤️🎂

[@mrrustynuts9775]

The big red mayor Kane

[@reaper-vx9ju]

it's a big problem in brazoria county Texas too

[@goodday2760]

Please post a tribute to the now deceased oldest person in the world, Kane Tanaka.

[@Pukemnukem]

How do you get fines out of homeless people?

[@billywashere6965]

Good question.

[@M1General]

Chokeslam from hell

[@zucchinidude1695]

Huh?

[@stinkfinga4918]

@@zucchinidude1695 people are saying it's criminalizing homelessness by fining them but if they're homeless they don't have any money anyway. So, just more Democrat shit-throwing.

[@louisborselio8608]

Where did he say homeless people would get fined?