Coming up this month, Middle Tennessee has Blazefest, JazzFest, a Thai food fest and Renaissance Fest, a Redneck Rumble, bluegrass brunches and square dance rehearsals, strawberry pickin’ and guitar pickin’, baseball and waterfalls.
Alright! Get your assignments done so you can get out and do something fun.
The live music fans are looking forward to this year’s Bonnaroo, just around the corner. There are not many bands that I am more familiar with than Pearl Jam and the Dead, two of this year’s primary Bonnaroo acts (other than Tool . . . wouldn’t that be nice). And the Sunday afternoon bluegrass tent has become an annual Bonnaroo favorite for the Mayos.
Look at the following pages for a chance to win some Renaissance Fest passes, and tickets to the upcoming Cage the Elephant concert.
Nice. Look for more ticket giveaways from the Pulse soon.
The Murfreesboro Police Department made news last month after showing up at a Murfreesboro elementary school and arresting a group of kids, some as young as 6 years old, for an incident that took place elsewhere.
Some say “you do the crime, you do the time;” others raise the point that unless there is a dead body or an extremely violent and strong youngun’ ready to deploy a weapon of mass destruction, placing a 6-year-old in handcuffs is unnecessary and un-American .
Some of the kids were charged with “criminal responsibility for the conduct of another,” which, despite what some observers conjectured, was not made up by the officers and is indeed a rarely enforced piece within the volumes and volumes of Tennessee code.
The arrested children allegedly committed no violence against another, they simply did not intervene in an incident between two other kids.
Rather than take a stand against his department bullying and terrorizing young children, new MPD Chief Karl Durr issued a vague apology that referenced an “internal review” and a look at MPD “policy,” leading many to question whether he is indeed capable of running a police force after just a couple of weeks on the job.
Others suggest expanding his policy of “internal review” to all criminal suspects. The police department investigates its own alleged wrongdoing and policy violations, so some theorize others charged with crimes be given the opportunity to investigate their own offense. “You have been charged with a crime,” the officer or judge states. “Would you like to place yourself on probation? No. Oh, very well then, you are free to go.”
What do you think?—in some areas an independent panel of private citizens reviews serious accusations of misconduct in local law enforcement.
Some Murfreesboro residents say this type of an oversight body is needed and long overdue in our town.
It would not be there to attack the police; it would not be there to protect the police. It would exist to take honest, objective looks at some of the area’s serious law enforcement matters that may need some thoughtful consideration.
Peace,
Bracken Mayo
Publisher/Editor in Chief
