Nashville’s Democratic Mayor John Cooper and his staff allegedly lied about positive news relating to virus numbers to justify another shutdown. By late June of 2020, Nashville went from “Phase 2” to “Phase 3” of reopening. This meant that bars and restaurants had the green light to reopen. But the city abruptly reverted back to Phase 2 just a couple of days before the 4th of July weekend.
The explanation for the “phase” reversal from the Mayor’s office was a high number of virus infections coming from bars and restaurants. Evidence for bars and restaurants being the source of new virus infections came from “contact tracing” data. But the problem here is that email exchanges between the Mayor’s office leaked to the media paint a much different story than the one told to the general public.
There was never a high number of virus cases tracked through “contact tracing” emanating from bars and restaurants. The actual number from leaked emails was 22. Twenty-two cases out of twenty thousand total virus cases in Davidson County, Tennessee. The number of contact-tracing cases from restaurants was so small that it was not worth mentioning, let alone shutting down bars and restaurants over.
Leaked emails between the Mayor’s Office staff show a clear attempt at covering the contact tracing data up. One person asked “is this data for public consumption?” Another email shows a staffer asking for ideas on how to spin the data if it leaked to the media. But now that the data has leaked, there is no opportunity to spin. There is only damage control. But that ship has long since sailed due to the damage that has already happened to residents of Nashville.
Locking the city down after giving the green light to reopen was devastating. And the timing of it all couldn’t have been worse. Bars and restaurants were suffering in Nashville which is a city largely built on tourism. When Phase 3 of reopening was announced, any place that served food and/or alcohol stocked up on those items to prepare for the 4th of July weekend. When the city reverted back to Phase 2 right before the weekend, it crushed the already downtrodden business. All of the money they spent on preparation completely went to waste.
While all of the shady dealings were happening at the Mayor’s office, they had the nerve to raise taxes in Davidson County (Nashville) by 34%. Nashville also had a natural disaster in the form of a series of tornadoes. Unnecessary virus shut down plus an exorbitant tax hike plus natural disasters equal a terrible period of time in just one year.
Mayor John Cooper is not the first Nashville leader in recent history to have crippling controversy. Former Megan Christine Barry had an affair with Nashville Police Sergeant Robert Forrest Jr. who was the head of her security detail. He billed tons of overtime hours to work as her security detail but in reality, that time was spent having the affair. A federal theft case arose from that and she was forced to resign. John Cooper may face the same fate but on a more serious matter. Megan Barry ruined a couple of marriages while John Cooper ruined thousands of lives due to job and/or money loss… allegedly.
SOURCES:
COVID-19 emails from Nashville mayor’s office show disturbing revelation | WZTV
Nashville approves budget with 34% tax hike; schools, police increases
Democrat Mayor Hides Virus Cases Because They’re Too Low
How an affair with her bodyguard brought down Nashville’s mayor – CNN
