Emotions Mixed as State Plans to Drop Charges Against Occupiers

The state now wants the trespassing charges against anti-Wall Street protesters dropped. A spokesman for Governor Bill Haslam has announced he will ask the District Attorney to dismiss the misdemeanor citations.

Mike Anger, who turned 30 while living at War Memorial Plaza, was arrested twice for violating curfew.

There’s some relief among the nearly 50 Occupy Nashville protesters that they won’t have to go through the hassle of clearing their names. But Mike Anger, who was arrested twice, says he also wanted to make his case.

“In a way I was kind of robbed too because I was looking forward to that day, to say, this is what your state did to us. That would have been one heck of a day for everyone showing up at court.”

Protesters were arrested under a curfew that a federal judge has since suspended, saying the state couldn’t enforce the new overnight restrictions on the Capitol grounds. A spokesman for Governor Haslam says the decision to drop charges was made in light of that ruling.

While the governor’s office has backed off trespassing charges, a spokesman reminds Occupiers that troopers still have the authority to enforce existing laws at War Memorial Plaza “designed to preserve public safety and health.”