{"id":177804,"date":"2019-06-05T18:58:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T23:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/06\/05\/any-of-my-readers-in-tennessee-please-file-a-complaint-with-a-state-bar\/"},"modified":"2019-06-05T18:58:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T23:58:00","slug":"any-of-my-readers-in-tennessee-please-file-a-complaint-with-a-state-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/06\/05\/any-of-my-readers-in-tennessee-please-file-a-complaint-with-a-state-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"Any of My Reader(s) in Tennessee, Please File a Complaint with a State Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"
Craig Northcott, the Coffee County, TN District Attorney, has announced that he will not enforce domestic violence laws for same-sex couples<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Not enforcing the law of the land because you are a bigot is evil.<\/p>\n

Publicly announcing it is literally criminally stupid.<\/p>\n

This guy needs his law license pulled, and some jail time would be nice:<\/p>\n

Prosecutorial discretion is one of the greatest tools in a prosecutor\u2019s toolbox. But the chief prosecutor in Tennessee used that power to impose his moral and religious views onto the people his office was tasked with protecting, according to a video released by Nashville television station News Channel 5<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Craig Northcott, the district attorney general of Coffee County, was recorded telling participants at a 2018 Bible conference what happens when voters elect a \u201cgood Christian man as DA.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cY\u2019all need to know who your DA is,\u201d he reminded the crowd. \u201cYou give us a lot of authority. .\u2009.\u2009. We can choose to prosecute anything. We can choose not to prosecute anything.\u201d <\/p>\n

Using what he termed \u201cprosecutorial discretion,\u201d Northcott said, \u201cthe social engineers on the Supreme Court now decided we have homosexual marriage. I disagree with them.\u201d <\/p>\n

In his jurisdiction, which includes the area that hosts the summer music festival Bonnaroo, Northcott ensured that same-sex partners would not be afforded the protections of domestic violence laws. <\/p>\n

In Tennessee, a domestic assault conviction carries enhanced punishments, like permanently forfeiting the right to own a firearm. The prosecutor\u2019s interpretation of the statute was that the sanctions were created to \u201crecognize and protect the sanctity of marriage.\u201d <\/p>\n

When reached by phone, Northcott said, \u201cThere\u2019s no marriage to protect with homosexual relationships, so I don\u2019t prosecute them as domestic,\u201d and refused to comment further. <\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

A group of 200 attorneys permitted to practice in Tennessee wrote the state\u2019s Board of Professional Responsibility on Wednesday, reporting Northcott and calling his \u201cunacceptable\u201d and \u201cunethical\u201d conduct the \u201chighest level of prosecutorial misconduct and abuse of discretion.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Northcott is no stranger to controversy.<\/p>\n

Less than two months ago, he was severely criticized for saying that Muslims have \u201cno constitutional rights.” <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This guy should not be allowed to practice law, much less be a DA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig Northcott, the Coffee County, TN District Attorney, has announced that he will not enforce domestic violence laws for same-sex couples. Not enforcing the law of the land because you are a bigot is evil. Publicly announcing it is literally criminally stupid. This guy needs his law license pulled, and some jail time would be …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[506,368,364,407,436,374,380],"class_list":["post-177804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-bigotry","tag-corruption","tag-evil","tag-justice","tag-lgbtq","tag-politics","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}