Last week, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for Mount Carmel, Tennessee approved on first reading a new ordinance requiring background checks for anyone wishing to do psychic business in town.
According to Jeff Bobo of TimesNews.net, the new ordinance specifically focuses on “clairvoyants, hypnotists, spiritualists, palmists, phrenologists and handwriting analysts for the purpose of fortune-telling.”
In order to open a psychic business, the new rules require an applicant and their employees to first undergo a fingerprinting background check.
No one who is presently charged with, or has been convicted in the last ten years, of “felonies or misdemeanors involving assault, theft, extortion, fraud, bribery, false personage, perjury or gambling” will be eligible for a fortune-teller permit.
I understand that the people of Mount Carmel want to protect themselves from frauds, etc., but I wonder what prompted Karen Combs, the Kingsport principal planner who proposed the new rules, to take such a strong proactive stand against ‘fortune-tellers’ in particular.
Do they pose such a singular threat?
If the town needs to beef up their anti-assault, theft, extortion, fraud, bribery, false personage, perjury or gambling laws in general, they should. But focusing specifically on psychic readers seems odd, especially since there are none presently working in Mount Carmel, a town of about 5,500 people.
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen will consider the second and final reading of this ordinance at the end of June.