“If at first you don’t succeed,Try, try, try again”

William Edward Hickson

That is exactly what the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) is doing, since their first attempt failed. In June of 2013, in a small city called Manchester TN, away from ears and eyes in Nashville, AMAC leaders invited then U.S Attorney Bill Killian and FBI agent Ken Moore to speak to a what they thought would be a small town meeting. The purpose of their meeting was to inform residents that any speech considered to be offensive may ultimately be considered a hate crime. What AMAC wasn’t prepared for was over 1000 Tennesseans showing up to defend their freedom of speech.

Fast forward to almost 4 years later…

This time, Bob Mendes,  an at large  Nashville Tennessee Metro Council member, and a lawyer with Waypoint Law, PLLC, better be ready to explain how freedom of speech will be monitored and deemed hate if offensive to certain groups. So again, just who will be determining hate? Mendes, a supporter of a new initiative called Respect Nashville, launched by community members who have no respect, is urging reports be made for whatever they consider hate. 

According to the website, Respect Nashville, the FBI’s definition of hate is  “criminal offenses motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” This definition is used nationwide for the purpose of recognizing, reporting, and tracking hate crimes.

Already the website is using disinformation as they omitted the beginning of the FBI’s definition which states:

“A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties

“We encourage all Nashvillians to report acts of hate, bias, harassment, and intimidation to our hotline or online reporting form” 

Will this include the hateful rhetoric of those Muslims that have filed fake hate crime reports and then acknowledged  they lied? One of many reports filed in December 2016 was from a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette  as she fabricated a story that she was attacked and had her hijab ripped off by two white males. She later acknowledged she lied and police closed the case. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/10/women-in-hijabs-on-2-campuses-say-they-were-attacked-by-men-invoking-donald-trump/?utm_term=.13278e3a5d06)

How about the blatant bias by the American Civil Liberties Union  ACLU) Tennessee leader Hedy Weinberg who filed a lawsuit in 2011 against the Sumner County school district because of alleged Christian-centric activities. Part of the settlement agreement prohibited the Sumner County schools from taking field trips to religious sites. Except Weinberg didn’t object when Sumner County violated the settlement agreementa year later by taking students to a Hindu temple and a mosque where they received free Qurans.

But while their first stated goal is to compile acts of hate, bias, harassment and intimidation, they then refer to them as “stories”. 

“Collecting these stories will make Nashville stronger because our free speech has the power to defeat hate”.

Then the silliness and true lack of productivity comes to light when one clicks on the big yellow button

Patterns of behavior?  What happened to hate, bias, harassment and intimidation?

Craft responses?  For Whom?

After going through the questionnaire, which anyone can complete without any identifying information, it is clear this is a lame effort to collect any information on any incident, whether it happened or not, to further allow members of select communities to be victims. Since hate itself is not a crime,  this information will undoubtedly  be turned over to the programs sponsors.. the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) whose goal is to eliminate free speech.

Remember it was AMAC, in 2013 that brought then U.S Attorney Bill Killian and FBI Agent Ken Moore to Manchester TN to attempt to scare everyone that they could be charged with a hate crime. They failed. Miserably. 

 It makes one wonder if Bob Mendes was aware AMAC has tried this before.  Maybe instead of promoting a campaign that allows anyone to report literally anything, for any reason, Mr. Mendes should investigate the organizations and its members, CAIR and AMAC.