SB8005/HB8005 is not the bill Tennessee needs as our state faces the COVID-19 pandemic and as the public debates issues of racism. 

State government should be constructively engaging the issues and concerns represented in the protests rather than looking for ways to increase criminal penalties. 

The bill has a fiscal note of over half a million dollars, which is money we could be spending on personal protective equipment for our schools.

In addition, the bill interferes with the duties of our thirty-one elected district attorneys and places some of those duties in the hands of an unelected Attorney General. 

The focus, cost, and interference all speak against this legislation. The complexity of these issues should not be rushed into one week of rapid votes in the Legislature.

Thank you for considering my views.