The pattern of harassment that concerned citizens and members of the media have experienced from TVA is unacceptable and has gone on for far too long.

Videos of TVA police harassment
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And this is only a SMALL portion of all the video footage of harassment by the TVA police.

Matt,

It seems you fulfill every point in this quote from TVA CEO Tom Kilgore ((link...)), also discussed elsewhere on RoaneViews:

"We're creating a culture of accountability, so that every individual, not out of fear but out of a sense of proactive duty, takes responsibility individually so the organization can be responsible collectively."

Thank you for helping "creat(e) a culture of accountability" and for having "a sense of proactive duty" and for "tak(ing) responsibility individually" in order to help TVA and the rest of us "be responsible collectively."

If Mr. Kilgore truly means what he says, perhaps TVA should be issuing you commendations instead of arrests.

-- OneTahiti

I hope that Matt sues TVA for what they have done to him. I was there in person when the police harassed him in front of a trailer behind the plant in a trailer park March of 2009. Matt was trying to put up an instrument to take air samples. Why can't the public take air samples along with TVA. Are they hiding something? Of course they are!

If I were on a jury for Matt's case. TVA would definitely not win! TVA has wronged their neighbors badly and the nation is listening.

stay out of those places.

Matt Landon has apparently worn out his welcome with TVA. I agree that TVA needs to be held accountable for their actions, but pushing TVA security and local law enforcement is not the way to make sure TVA is doing what they are supposed to do. These antics are not going to help the residents of Swan Pond or the citizens of Roane County. I don’t think Matt is going to reach the status of Erin Brockovich either.

I recommend Matt step back and let some of the other people do the field work. I agree that reporters need access I am sure someone local (Rick, Randy, or others) can help them get to the areas they need to access. I think our community action group can facilitate interviews and tours as necessary.

I guess I need to add the disclaimer that I am not a fan of UMD and I don’t believe we need their “help”.

So let me ask you this, Mike: Was TVA right in ordering the arrest of those two young women simply because Matt Landon Jones was riding in their car?

No, the women should not have been arrested because of their company. If they were trespassing or committing some other crime then yes the arrest was justified beause of who they were with.

Regardless of where you are (TVA, Roane County, NYC), you are judged by the company you keep. You or I might have received a warning or maybe a citation, but they were arrested. I think the police can arrest a person for any offense for which they write citations (at least that was the threat I received when I was acting like a jackass during a traffic stop).

If they did trespass (innocent until proven guilty), were they right to violate the law because they are trying to "help" the community or write a story?

Matt is perceived to be a trouble maker by the local police (TVA or whomever). If the UMD is really interested in helping maybe he should work from the home office and let someone else work in the field. Maybe UMD should back down let local people do the monitoring and sampling.

No, TVA police were not right in arresting the two young women simply because Matt Landon Jones was riding in their car. But, they were justified in arresting all three of them for breaking the rules/laws. Saying "I didn't see the sign" is BS. When you go onto property like TVA you know to look for signs like that. Anyone does with common sense. I'm sure that Matt knows where every sign is on the TVA reservation that marks areas as off limits to the public.

I feel that the young women were taken advantage of by Matt so he could get what he wants, notoriety as being the hero that took on TVA. He used these young women the same way he did the older lady the last time he got arrested. There is no doubt in my mind that he lead those two young women into a situation they never expected to be in. He got the attention he wanted and they had to suffer the consequences. If he wants to be the hero that took on TVA that is good, but he needs to stop using people as pawns to do it.

I have nothing against Matt. I think his intentions are good but his tactics are wrong. He should step back and rethink his approach to fighting TVA and come up with a plan that does not pull innocent people, like those two young women, unknowingly into the fight.

If Matt wants to bring a truck load of activist down to TVA and protest, block the roads, or anything else like that, it is fine with me as long as they know what they are getting themselves into. I have been known to willingly participate in activities like that in my younger days because I thought it was the right thing to do. However, allowing people to unknowingly get into those situations is plain wrong in my opinion.

I have a few journalist friends, and I can tell you that if those two journalists who got arrested with Matt Landon are real journalists, they knew what they were getting themselves into. It is their job to have a story told by as many points of view as possible. It is part of a journalist's ethics to have many sides of a story to be as neutral writing their story as possible. Observing and being witness to the behavior of TVA police with activists like Landon is part of their job as journalists. They may be young women to you, but they consider themselves journalists first and foremost. And if we didn't have people like Matt Landon and dedicated investigative journalists in this world, it would be a very sorry place indeed!

"We see it differently"

You consider yourself plural?

"they should have not broken the law to do it"

I thought that in the US of A, land of the free and the brave, people were innocent until proven guilty. You seem to have made up your mind already. Are you a witness of what happened?

No harm was intended, they stated they did not see the sign, and would have definitely left if they had been allowed.

In Tennessee, the law assumes that the person knew they didn't have the owner's consent if the owner or someone with the authority to act on behalf of the owner personally communicates this fact to her, or if there's a fence around the property, or if there's a sign or other posting on the property that's likely to be seen by intruders.
You may have a defense against criminal trespass if the property was open to the public, or your conduct didn't substantially interfere with the owner's use of the property, or you immediately left the premises when requested.