A councilwoman from Nashville, Tennessee has recommended attempted murder charges for those who don’t wear a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Washington Examiner, “Sharon Hurt, an at-large councilwoman of the Nashville Metro Council, joined an Aug. 5 meeting between Public Safety, Beer & Regulated Beverages and Health, Hospitals, & Social Services committees.”
During the meeting, Hurt said: “My question goes back to legislation. 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,” she added.
Metro Nashville’s Director of Legislative Affairs Mike Jameson, who was also at the meeting, reminded Hurt that “the council does not have the opportunity on its own to create criminal legislation.”
“In terms of creating a new code or class of criminal offenses, that is a creature of state law,” he said.
Hurt responded by expressing her disappointment, saying: “I was afraid that was going to be the answer.”
