Face it, citizen: judges have some sort of magical power that allows them to control men and women who carry weapons.  Through a flick of the wrist and a wave of a pen one of these mythical creatures can command these men and women to violently drag you away and throw you in a cage for the simple act of not showing them your undying respect by standing when they enter a room.  The men and women using violence as directed will never question what they’re being told to do.

Understanding and embracing the magical power these gifted people possess naturally leads to understanding the necessity of enacting a change to a New Hampshire law, RSA 502-A:23.  It presently reads:

502-A:23 Judicial Robes. – The justice of a district court shall wear an appropriate black judicial robe whenever his court is convened in criminal or civil session. Such robes shall be paid for by the state.

Our friend and OTN star Luthor has suggested the law be amended to read as follows:

502-A:23 Judicial Robes. – The justice of a district court shall wear a unicorn costume whenever his court is convened in criminal or civil session. Such costume shall be paid for by the state.

Who can really argue that a unicorn costume is not a more fitting for someone who is able to entrance men and women carrying weapons into doing violent things like they do?

Be it done!

(Above: Edward models the proposed judicial wardrobe change. Credit for the photo.)

The Keene Sentinel is running the following article today regarding the open container protest that happened at the Keene City Council last Thursday night:

By Dave Eisenstadter
Sentinel Staff Published: Sunday, August 08, 2010

A drinking game at a Keene City Council meeting designed to open up dialog regarding the city’s open-alcohol-container ordinance may have set it back instead.

City Councilor Cynthia C. Georgina said Saturday she had been considering writing a letter to the City Council questioning section 6-29 of the city’s code of ordinances, which prohibits open containers.

Following Thursday’s meeting however, she will not bother.

“I just wanted to send it in and, if nothing else, make sure it was what people still wanted,” Georgina said. “Now I wouldn’t do it on a bet.”

Ian Bernard, 30, of Keene, who goes by the name Ian Freeman, and Sam Miller, 34, of Keene, who goes by Sam Dodson, were arrested during a recess of the meeting Thursday and charged with disorderly conduct.

Bernard, who was on bail on an earlier case, was further charged with common law criminal contempt of court.

Both men were drinking from containers labeled “not a beer” as a part of a drinking game announced at the website www.freekeene.com.

The rules of the game included drinking whenever there was a call to order, whenever everyone stood and whenever a vote was unanimous.

Georgina said those men were the last people she would want to see with alcohol in public.

“This is the governing body of the city and I just think it (the game) was very disrespectful and disruptive,” Georgina said.

Mayor Philip Dale Pregent, who called for a recess of the meeting after asking several participants in the game to put away their bottles or leave the meeting, handled the matter properly, Georgina said.

Nicholas J. Ryder, a blogger for www.freekeene.com who recently ran for City Council, disagreed.

Ryder did not participate in the game, but was present at the meeting, sitting on the other side of the room.

He said the four participants in the drinking game were not making noise or causing a distraction, and the mayor decided to address the situation anyway.

Recessing the meeting, clearing the room and arresting some of the game’s participants was “overstepping,” according to Ryder.

“I would not be against clearing the room for causing a disruption like playing loud music, but they were drinking drinks; the meeting didn’t stop until the mayor stopped it,” Ryder said.

Previously, protestors have been allowed to bring signs to City Council meetings protesting city ordinances, and Ryder said drinking drinks was no more disruptive than that.

Pregent said Friday the situation was properly handled.

“You can’t have people sitting in the audience and when a word is given they tip up beer bottles,” Pregent said. “It creates an interruption of city business.”

While the containers may not have contained beer, there was no way of telling, Pregent said. The participants did not remove their bottles after he asked them to, so he called for a recess.

When the meeting was recessed, City Clerk Patricia A. Little shut off the feed to the room’s audio system, which is also used by local public access cable channel Cheshire TV. This is normal protocol for a meeting recess, according to City Manager John A. MacLean.

S. Lee Perkins, director of Cheshire TV, said Friday he understood that what happened was standard operating procedure for the city’s sound system. Perkins hopes to purchase a new video and sound system the station would control rather than city officials, he said.

Bernard was released on $500 bail with a court date of Aug. 9. Miller was released on $1,500 personal recognizance with a court date of Oct. 4.

Monica Granger, 27, another participant in the game, was arrested after the meeting and charged with disorderly conduct.

She was also released on $1,500 personal recognizance with a court date of Oct. 4.

Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1432, or deisenstadter@keenesentinel.com

I have some thoughts about this article that I would like to share.

“Both men were drinking from containers labeled “not a beer” as a part of a drinking game announced at the website www.freekeene.com.”

A peaceful protest that did not involve the violation of any laws.  This type of activity allegedly is protected by the Constitution.

“Georgina said those men were the last people she would want to see with alcohol in public.“

Well Cynthia you really don’t have to worry about that…  considering these two guys rarely drink any alcohol whatsoever.

“This is the governing body of the city and I just think it (the game) was very disrespectful and disruptive,” Georgina said.”

Yes, “disrespectful.”  If only you could charge Ian and Sam with being “disrespectful” things would be a lot easier.  Since you can’t legally do that you’ve charged them with being “disruptive.”  I’m anxious to see how the Keene Police will make a case of their disruptiveness.  Even the complaint they served Ian and Sam doesn’t specify their precise conduct which was “disruptive.”  Why wasn’t Heika charged with being disruptive?  Oh, right…  she consented to a search of her bottle she was drinking from.

Ian and Sam surely were disruptive by asserting their right to privacy.

“Mayor Philip Dale Pregent, who called for a recess of the meeting after asking several participants in the game to put away their bottles or leave the meeting, handled the matter properly, Georgina said.“

It is not illegal to drink water out of a beer bottle quietly in front of the Keene City Council in peaceful protest of a law.

“Nicholas J. Ryder, a blogger for www.freekeene.com who recently ran for City Council, disagreed.  Ryder did not participate in the game, but was present at the meeting, sitting on the other side of the room.  He said the four participants in the drinking game were not making noise or causing a distraction, and the mayor decided to address the situation anyway.“

Looks like the police are going to have quite an uphill battle proving a “disruption” when there is a witness who will testify that they were doing nothing other than engaging in their peaceful protest.  Come to think of it, the following people will have to testify that Ian and Sam were not actually causing any disruption: the mayor, the city manager, the police chief, the whole darn city council.

This will be a court case you’ll not want to miss!

“I would not be against clearing the room for causing a disruption like playing loud music, but they were drinking drinks; the meeting didn’t stop until the mayor stopped it,” Ryder said.“

So they MAYOR is the one who disrupted the meeting.

“Previously, protestors have been allowed to bring signs to City Council meetings protesting city ordinances, and Ryder said drinking drinks was no more disruptive than that.“

Excellent point Nick.  Not only is it no more disruptive than holding signs…  symbolically it is the same damn thing: people appearing at a public meeting to express displeasure with a government policy.

““You can’t have people sitting in the audience and when a word is given they tip up beer bottles,” Pregent said. “It creates an interruption of city business.”“

Other than your ego being bruised…  please explain to me how drinking water out of a beer bottle creates an interruption of city business?  Does it create an interruption because you know the protesters have decided to drink every time the Council decides to vote to use violence against someone?

Those kids who quietly wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam conflict really created a disturbance, didn’t they?

(The Court found that the actions of the Tinkers in wearing armbands did not cause disruption and held that their activity represented constitutionally protected symbolic speech.)

“While the containers may not have contained beer, there was no way of telling, Pregent said. The participants did not remove their bottles after he asked them to, so he called for a recess.”

So because the government is unable to determine if someone is breaking a law…  they should be preemptively booted out of a public meeting that they have a constitutional right to attend?  I thought the state had to have evidence before taking an adverse action against someone?

I look forward to seeing the Keene Sentinel’s article titled “Charges Against Protesters Backfire”

In the online world, there has been much discussion of a “schism” between the activists. The original perception was that the divide was between activists favoring civil disobedience and noncooperation vs in-the-system political activists. In real life, the so-called schism was barely visible. Most people in the liberty movement are friendly and helpful toward one another, and there is no firm dividing line in activist approaches. Many choose differing levels of those two categories of activism and also plenty of other things one can do for liberty such as outreach, education, media creation, internet work, software programming, and more. Sure, there are a few people who are intolerant of certain activist approaches, but that will always be the case with a spectrum of interest. The politicos who are generally intolerant toward those doing civil disobedience and noncooperation are known for their very public complaining about “poisoning the well”.

I finally understand what they mean.

These political activists frequently chastise (as do the bureaucrats and politicians) civdis/noncoops for not “working within the system”. Today I had a conversation on facebook that was quite enlightening. I’d like to share that here. Keep in mind as you read that Seth and I get along fine in the real world, but here we are clearly at loggerheads. He will appear in bold and I will add commentary between the block quotes:

Ian: Apparently working in the system means doing everything the government people demand of you. If they put up a hoop and you don’t jump through it, you’re poisoning the well!

Seth Cohn: Ian, this is quite disingenuous. You decided to hold a ‘drinking game’ at the meeting. You posted openly about it, and then get upset when they stop you from doing it in the first place. Stop being petulantly obtuse that somehow you ‘tried to get involved in the system’, it’s just not true.

Ian: Seth – we handed out fliers to all the councilors and media in advance alerting them that they could repeal the ordinance and citing the ordinances. We WERE working in the system. You just don’t like the method we used to get people excited about going to a BORING city council meeting.

FACT: At the start of that meeting, there were 15 people in the audience section of the council chamber. Eight liberty activists and seven others, at least two of which were city employees I recognized. Put another way, after years of mostly never attending city council meetings, the city council drinking game brought out more liberty lovers than anything I can recall from the past. It’s likely that the police crackdown on people with brown bottles will bring even more people to the next meeting, but only time will tell. This approach has clearly gotten people involved in-the-system, but the complaining political activists are still not happy. Why? Read on.

Seth Cohn: Ian, one of the very first things I learned here in NH politics, at the Don Gorman school of politics (and remember, YOU chose to work in the system, so you have to play by the rules of the system, or else you aren’t really working in the s…ystem, no matter what you want to pretend), is that decorum is what makes the entire thing work. If you don’t show the respect for the system, it grinds to a halt. If you don’t show respect for your opposition, despite that they are wrong on this issue, because they might be allies on the next issue, it grinds to a halt. If you don’t show proper decorum, dressing appropriately, using correct titles, etc, it grinds to a halt. Guess what: it ground to a halt, because you refused to respect the system you claimed to want to work within.

Make up your freak(stater)ing mind: if you are going to try working within the system, do it, or don’t do it, but don’t claim to be doing it when you refuse to respect it.

See, some politician told Seth how it is, so that must be how it’s done! Even if you understand that government is nothing but men and women using violence and threats to feed off of peaceful people, or the violent monopoly, you should pipe down, put on a suit, and RESPECT those criminals. Wouldn’t want such *important* people to think poorly of you, now would you?

Clearly, a major divide is between those who pander to the system (unless they aren’t pandering and actually like it, in which case, they are probably power-seekers) and those who laugh at the system. It’s those who take the government people and their “system” seriously vs those who don’t.

Ian: You’re right. I don’t respect their system. Their system is institutionalized violence. So now it’s not “use the system”, it’s “use and RESPECT the system”? FUCK THAT.

I’m a quaker. I don’t use “titles”. They are men and women and their shit stinks too. I’ll respect them as individuals who have the potential to do the right thing and change, but never their precious system.

Seth Cohn: Then despite all of your protests to the contrary, NO, you are not ‘working within the system’ and I will continue to call you a liar if you continue to claim you are. Rule #1 of working in the system is accepting the inherent rules of the system, like decorum. If you insist on playing basketball when everyone else is playing baseball, you can and will be thrown off the playing field when you dribble. And complaining that you were playing too is nonsense.

Ian: Seth, I’m not playing by your rules (or Don’s, rather) for the system. It’s working within the system when you test and exceed its limits.

You can call me whatever makes you feel good!

People get respect from me by default just for being fellow human beings and more respect they earn. They will lose my respect for aggressing against or supporting aggression against others. I have some respect for a number of bureaucrats on a personal level, those I have gotten to know. However, I cannot respect a system (which is just a set of ideas and their adherents) that doesn’t respect peaceful humans. Perhaps someday the political activists putting up some front of “decor” will see that the laughter is a powerful tool for dismantling the idea of “the state”. If the government people aren’t taken seriously, it is a major hit to their legitimacy – something they grasp dearly to maintain as they only rule by threats, force, and brainwashing. Naturally, they want to obscure that coercion as much as possible, else people start to catch on and get fed up with it all.

Seth Cohn: Since you insist on redefining things, it’s not possible to have a meaningful discussion.
The rules aren’t mine, or Don’s, they are what make up the system itself. If you want to pretend otherwise, it’s your neck at risk. They have guns. …As you are so fond of pointing out.

Ian: I’d be a failure without risk.

Another divide here. Risk-takers vs safety-seekers. I don’t blame Seth or anyone else for being afraid. Fear is something I think we all deal with. They ARE scary. They can take your home and put you in a cage. Jail isn’t a great place to be, but disobedience and noncooperation are extra powerful BECAUSE they are risky. Once you accept the idea of being caged, there’s little they can do to you in your mind. Once others come together who feel the same way, who are willing to risk, amazing things become possible. Witness the mass arrests and buzz surrounding the Keene movement. The political establishment in Keene is flailing desperately: Hate in the newspaper comments, embarrassing arrests, loads of court trials coming up, and more new movers arriving all the time!

The critics in the liberty movement want to believe the vitriolic (and conveniently anonymous) comments on the Keene Sentinel stories are some indicator of what “the community” thinks of liberty activists in Keene. Sorry, there’s just no meaningful evidence to support their assertions. Seems to me that Keene is like most other places in that lots of people do whatever they can to avoid the government and it’s awful processes. Want proof? As I said, the city council meeting was barren of attendees excluding some city bureaucrats and their family members. Regular people are working or enjoying their time off rather than torture themselves by attending one of the government people’s horribly dull meetings. People go along to get along, pay the gang, and do their best to ignore the government people. Many wish they were left alone, but the government people just keep coming back for more taxes and fines and regulations. Eventually, the person or someone they love is attacked by the government parasites and the victims of the sociopaths are more likely to find and even seek out liberty activists. Eventually, they’ll be even more likely to find us as court outreach expands in Keene.

Again, more activists makes all kinds of projects possible. So, if you’ve read this far, when are you moving to Keene? If you are already here, come out of the closet and get involved. If you are a supporter of the violent monopoly, seek help or maybe it’s time to consider moving somewhere where the violent monopoly you love so much actually has a future. NH’s monopoly days are numbered.

The Keene City Council has a whole code of ordinances that it utilizes to govern authorize violence against its subjects.  Whether it is prohibiting someone from peacefully drinking an alcoholic beverage on public property or making it illegal for its own employees to remove snow from the roadways in the winter…  the Keene City Council carefully crafts its “master plan.”

Yes, you read me correctly.  A Free Keene forum reader found an ordinance enacted by the Keene City Council making it illegal for anyone to plow snow off of its roadways in the winter.  No exceptions are made for government employees and it looks like you can get slammed with a $1000 fine for doing it!

Sec. 82-67.  Placement of snow and ice.

No person shall shovel, plow, put or place or cause to be shoveled, plowed, put or placed,within the traveled portion of any sidewalk, street, lane, alley, or highway, any snow or ice. However, snow and ice may be banked on the sides of public roadways incident to the cleaning thereof or banked on the sides of sidewalks incident to the cleaning thereof. The penalty for violation of this section shall be as provided in section 1-15 et seq.

Now that surely is a creative way for a municipal government entity to generate more revenue: hire people to plow the road in the winter and then fine them for doing it. 

Libertarianism is a political philosophy based on the idea that no person or group of people has the right to aggress against the Life, Liberty, Property or Pursuit of Happiness of another, either by force or by fraud. Libertarians  know and accept that aggression cannot be eliminated from the world, and our philosophy does allow for the use of force in defense of self or others. The question which, for us, settles the issue of who is right or wrong in and violent conflict is a very simple one, probably familiar to readers from childhood: “Who started it?” The person who ‘initiated force’ is the person who is wrong, every time.

Simplicity is one of the great strengths of Libertarianism. It allows a person to understand the legal consequences of his actions without consulting high priced lawyers or studying huge tomes filled with their ever changing statutes. This is probably the reason that there are so few Libertarian lawyers. Simplicity is the enemy of any privileged class.

Some people believe that they should, in some cases, be permitted to do violence against people who do things they don’t like, even though these people are harming only themselves. They argue that a person who takes drugs, for example, might possibly someday do some sort of harm to someone else, so he should be punished before he has the chance. Of course, this belief is absurd. Punishing someone because they might someday aggress would require, if applied consistently, the punishment of every person, since any human might someday commit an act of aggression. The law, however, should punish only criminals, not potential criminals.

Still other people believe that a sufficiently large majority should be permitted to do violence against a sufficiently small minority, in the democratic tradition. The belief that numerical “might makes right” is the ‘moral’ basis of democracy. The idea that the majority is always right can be easily dispelled with a simple thought experiment. Imagine a true democracy which consists of 9 men and 1 woman on an island. The men vote that the woman must have sex with all of them. According to the democratic ideal, this is perfectly acceptable, since the men outnumber the poor girl, and should she refuse their demands, then she  is a criminal. This is why Benjamin Franklin described democracy as “Two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner,” and why America was founded as a Democratic Republic, not a democracy. Sadly, modern America is closer to the democratic than the republican ideal. (Note: Please do not confuse these words with the political parties similarly named. The connections are lost in the mists of time.)

Libertarianism is, in my humble opinion, the only truly moral political philosophy. Whether it is expressed through a minimal State–like that specified by our Constitution–or through anarchy–private arrangements in the absence of any State–it is the only political philosophy which can bring peace and harmony to our society. If you would like to learn more about this philosophy, please check out the short youtube video “The Philosophy of Liberty,” the Free State Project, the Libertarian Party, or meet some real live Libertarians and the 4:20 rally which occurs every afternoon on the Keene Common, or the Night Cap which occurs every night around 11:00pm in the same place. You may also write to me at the address below:

Rich “420 Guy” Paul
C/O Cheshire County Jail
Cell Block ‘D’
825 Marlboro Street
Keene, NH 03431

What appeared to be the entire on-duty Keene police department was called out to threaten violence against peaceful vendors who’d set up tables at Railroad Square, including a young girl who had intended to sell limeaid and ice cream.

Keene’s enforcement agents claimed a “permit” was needed and that anyone who remained would be charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.

Just doin’ their jobs. Protect and serve!

Click here to view the embedded video.

It is no surprise to those of us who write here at FreeKeene.com that we have many readers from the Keene community and beyond that firmly disagree with various things that we advocate.  If you happen to be one of the aforementioned, chances are that you’re a supporter of the state and the constitutions that define how it can behave.  Hopefully, I can appeal to you through this brief article.

Two nights ago two of Free Keene’s contributors had their constitutional rights violated by government employees that they both are forced to fund.  The argument of whether Ian Freeman and Sam Dodson were looking for a confrontation is irrelevant and no excuse for the behavior of government officials that was initiated by government officials.  In this state and country the government is prohibited from interfering with peaceful free speech and protest.  The onus is on government employees to comply with the entirety of the state and federal constitutions, at all times…  even when confronted by people peacefully expressing their displeasure at the continued enforcement of a government policy.

Especially when confronted by people peacefully expressing their displeasure at the continued enforcement of a government policy.

It was well publicized here on the blog that there would be a gathering of people at the Keene City Council meeting and that those people would be drinking from containers that could have alcohol in them.  From all accounts I’ve read, witnessed through video, and learned from speaking to the individuals involved, not a single disruption was caused at this particular meeting by the protesters.  The disruption ensued when the government employees and officials felt that the protesters were deflating their ego’s by mocking the way they choose to wield violence to control other people’s lives.

Facts:

1. The mayor, city manager, and police chief were aware that individuals may be consuming alcohol at the particular meeting they were attending on Thursday night.

2. Once at the meeting the mayor, city manager, and police chief identified several individuals who were quietly drinking out of bottles that might contain alcohol.

3. Drinking of non-alcoholic beverages from containers that appear to contain alcohol is not against state law or Keene ordinance.

4. The police chief embarked on an investigation to determine what was within the bottles in the possession of the protesters.

5. One protester waived her Part I, Article 19 and US Amendment 4 rights and consented to a search of the contents of her bottle.  The contents of the bottle revealed that she was only drinking water.  She was allowed to remain.

6. Ian Freeman and Sam Dodson invoked their rights under Part I, Article 19 and US Amendment 4 and refused the police chief’s request to search in the contents of their bottle.

7. As a result of the police chief’s inability to develop probable cause that Ian and Sam were breaking the law (or not breaking the law) they were ordered to leave.

8. Ian and Sam refused to comply with the order to leave.

The culmination of #1 and #2 would give the police reasonable suspicion that anyone present with a bottle mimicking a bottle for an alcoholic beverage was violating the town’s open container ordinance.  Reasonable suspicion only authorizes the police to conduct a brief detention and interrogation for the purpose of determining if probable cause exists to take enforcement action.  No citation can be issued, no property seized, and no arrest can be made absent probable cause.

The police chief’s actions in #5 have a direct nexus with his enforcement action taken against Ian and Sam in #7 and #8.  This clearly shows that if Ian and Sam had waived their constitutional rights that they too would have been allowed to remain present in a public meeting.  The issue with this though is that it flips the entire constitutional system upside down: you must waive two constitutional rights when “asked” by the police chief if you want to enjoy a third.

The New Hampshire Constitution in Part I, Article 8 states the following:

[Art.] 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted.

I’d be interested if anyone can make an argument supporting the notion that the police being unable to make a case that someone is violating the law, because the police are hampered by an individual choosing to assert their constitutional rights of privacy, constitutes a “reasonable” restriction and justification on stripping Ian and Sam of their clearly codified right to be present at the public meeting.

The law Ian and Sam were charged with violating states the following:

644:2 Disorderly Conduct. – A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if:

II. He or she:

(b) Disrupting the orderly conduct of business in any public or governmental facility;

Going on the facts as we know them…  can someone please tell me the difference in what Ian and Sam did versus the protester I mentioned in #5, OTHER than the fact that they refused to waive constitutional rights?

See where I’m going with this?

The police chief had absolutely no evidence that Ian or Sam were breaking the open container law.  In fact, they were not breaking the open container law.  Their invoking their rights pissed off the police chief and he retaliated by ordering them to leave.  Whether or not you agree with how Ian and Sam chose to protest this victimless law…  hopefully the patently unconstitutional way that the government officials in Keene conducted themselves causes you concern.

Thanks to the Union Leader’s Melanie Plenda for the great story about the ludicrous behavior of the Keene city bureaucrats on Thursday night that as of yet has only appeared in print. Here’s a .PDF of the article courtesy of Bill in Manch.

Liberty-minded people called “Talkback” on WKBK last week to discuss parole, the Free State Project, the federal thugs, drug war, immigration, open container, city ordinances, and drunk drivers.

Grab the archive.

As a bonus, here’s Sam’s call to Dan Mitchell on WKBK this morning.

Please join us for our weekly chat and calling sessions on Saturday mornings from 9a-12p. If you’re in the Keene area you can tune in to WKBK 1290 AM or 104.1 FM. The Talkback discussion thread is here on the Free Keene Forum.

The video of last night’s arrests is not yet available – stay tuned here to Free Keene for that. However, the Keene Sentinel’s Kyle Jarvis has written up his report:

Two men affiliated with the libertarian Free Keene movement were arrested Thursday night when they refused to dispose of what appeared to be alcoholic beverages during a Keene City Council meeting.

Ian Bernard, 30, of Keene, who goes by the name Ian Freeman, and Sam Miller, 34, of Keene, who goes by Sam Dodson, were arrested by Keene Police Chief Kenneth J. Meola during a recess of the meeting.

The men were part of a group protesting the city rules on having an open container of alcohol in public.

As the meeting began, approximately eight to 10 people associated with Free Keene.com sat in the audience, some wielding video cameras, including Miller.

About half appeared to be drinking bottled beer, which they’d brought in a small cooler.

About 10 minutes into the meeting, Mayor Philip Dale Pregent announced, “We do not allow alcoholic beverages in council chambers,” and advised the group, “If you don’t dispose of the beverages, you’ll be asked to leave.”

“Who are you talking to specifically?” Miller asked. “Do you see anyone with an alcoholic beverage?”

It’s unclear whether any of the people were actually drinking beer, as one pointed out that the words “not a beer” were printed on the labels.

In a comment posted on sentinelsource.com, Miller (under the name Dodson) said the drinks “were non-alcoholic malt beverages which don’t qualify as alcoholic beverages under city ordinances.

“The mayor and city manager created the disturbance by stopping the meeting, because they didn’t like the free speech that was going on,” Miller said in the post.

On Thursday, Bernard asked the mayor, “Why did you stop your meeting, Dale? Everything was going fine and then you stopped. Why?”

Pregent conferred with the city’s attorney and the city manager, and announced the council was taking a recess.

The council exited the chambers, and a Keene police officer approached the group and engaged members in a discussion about the situation, along with Meola.

The officer asked each member of the group if he could examine his or her beverage. One woman complied, and he determined her bottle contained water.

Miller and Bernard refused to allow the officers to inspect their drinks, however, and were placed in custody.

At one point the officer told Bernard he was “shaking,” and asked him why he was nervous.

“I don’t know, you have a gun,” Bernard replied.

Meola radioed for additional units, and at least two more officers arrived after the chief cleared everyone out of council chambers.

As Miller and Bernard were led out of the room and into the hallway, both in handcuffs, Miller shouted “the City Council should be disgraced!”

Bernard and Miller have each been charged with disorderly conduct.

A third person was arrested outside City Hall in a related incident, said Keene police Sgt. Todd Lawrence.

Monica Granger, 27, of Keene was arrested and also charged with disorderly conduct, although Lawrence didn’t have details on that arrest.

Police may have been aware of a possible situation ahead of time due to a post made by Miller on Free Keene.com Wednesday that announced “the Keene City Council drinking game.”

The post established a set of “rules” that specify when participants were to drink from their beverages, including anytime “there’s a call to order; a bureaucrat claims to do something as ‘the City of Keene’; a vote is unanimous; a council member says the phrase, ‘master plan’; they plan to do something ‘for the children.’ ”

Group members also handed out fliers to members of the audience and the council Thursday, outlining their objective for the evening.

“Some of your society’s ordinances are hurting peaceful people,” said the flier. “You as councilor have the ability to end these infringements on personal freedom.”

The handout addressed the city ordinances about alcohol consumption and open containers in sections of the city code.

“Please do the right thing and repeal these ordinances,” it said at the bottom.

Information about Bernard, Miller and Granger’s bail and court dates was not available.

Cheshire TV broadcast cut

Another scene occurred when a decision was made to cut the audio for the Cheshire TV broadcast of the meeting immediately upon council entering recess.

Cheshire TV Executive Director S. Lee Perkins showed up in council chambers and demanded an explanation.

“In the past we’ve cut audio during executive or nonpublic session,” Perkins told The Sentinel. “But not during a recess.”

Perkins was so angered by the maneuver that he pulled his crew, and the second half of the meeting proceeded without coverage from the station.

City Manager John A. MacLean, in a separate conversation with Perkins in the hallway, acknowledged the decision to cut audio was probably made hastily, and that he would speak to the mayor and council about it.

Thanks to Keeniacs Adam and Pete from Liberty on Tour for the video of this kidnapping. Learn about jury nullification – what the feds don’t want you to know, at FIJA.org.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Those of you following this blog know that Davi Barker was the artist who created the shire society documents signed by about  a hundred people during Porcfest.

The donations from signers and money for supplies was ripped off by a US Postal worker who was able to heist 2 rounds of Silver, a 5g & 1g Shire Silver card, and 40 dollars.  After cutting it open, they were nice enough to add scotch tape to the empty envelope which was delivered.

Was it some angry keene postal worker? The truth is, we will never know because the US postal bureaucracy pales in comparison to the tracking capabilities of private carriers. This is the second time I’ve had mail stolen. The first time was about 10 years ago when a postal worker stole a box of checks and went on a shopping spree.

For those of you that think the postal service is an independent The total US mail service pay in taxes bill for 2010: $0.

Do you think that gives them an advantage over FedEx, UPS, and DHL?

by Eric Margolis

The release over the Internet of 92,000 US military field reports from Afghanistan by WikiLeaks has sent official Washington into an uproar. The leak story dominates the talk of this town and has pushed chatter about the steady weakening of the Obama presidency into the background.

The reports reveal the ugly underbelly of a war merchandised to the public as a noble mission to liberate oppressed women and clean up a nest of terrorists. They have embarrassed and outraged the hell out of Washington and its NATO allies. Comparisons to the famed Pentagon Papers of the Vietnam War era that undermined public support for that misbegotten conflict are inevitable.

continue....

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis198.html

Pete and Adam from Liberty on Tour present a two-part update on the aggression that was committed against them by the people calling themselves the “Town of Greenfield”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m going to add this to the “New Here?” page. Big thanks to the brilliant Stefan Molyneux and Think Twice News:

Not a Beer

Where: 2nd Floor Keene City Hall

When: Thursday August 5th: 6:45 P.M.

Who: Open Container Activists, Onlookers, Press/media

Rules:

All participants drink when:

1. There’s a call to order

2. A bureaucrat claims to do something as “The City of Keene”

3. Everyone stands up

4. The City Council votes for Violence

5. A vote is unanimous

6. A council member says the phrase “master plan.”

7. They plan to  do something “for the children.”

9. Raise your glasses (drinking not needed) if someone suggests rolling back the size, scope or enforcement power of the government IE supports more liberty/freedom

Feel free to join us with the beverage and container of your choice. If you have feedback or input on the event, please join us in the discussion thread.

Anyone who wishes to come out in support of this event is invited, drinking or not,  with or without cameras.

See you tomorrow night!

Luthor returns to Keene and hits the ground running by announcing an open flea market every Saturday morning at Railroad Square starting this Saturday 8/7 at 9am! It’s open to anyone who wants to set up a table and sell or give away their wares, so come on out! Naturally, no government permission has been requested to hold this event. Here’s the flier.

If there were no War on Drugs, drugs could be sold legally anywhere. People could go to the corner store, for instance, to buy their marijuana and other drugs. They would be manufactured safely and distributed with usage recommendations, just like aspirin. They’d also be cheap because in the regular market competition brings prices down when the distributors aren’t jacking their rates due to risk of arrest.

Since unfortunately there IS a War on Drugs, criminal thugs are frequently the only way to acquire the drugs that people are looking for. This is because criminals are the ones most willing to risk arrest to do business. Since people are going to do drugs regardless of their legal status, this puts a lot of buyers in serious danger of being ripped off, or worse. The Keene Sentinel reports on the “or worse” part of drug prohibition. When was the last time the clerk at Walgreens beat the shit out of a customer trying to buy some aspirin?

This is what prohibition gets you:

More details have been released concerning a brutal attack last month at Carpenter Field in Keene, but questions still remain.

Kevin Alley Perry, 21, who is listed as homeless in Keene, was arraigned Monday morning in Keene District Court. He remainsat the Cheshire County jail in Keene for lack of $25,000 cash bail.

He faces two charges of felony first-degree assault in connection with an incident July 24 that left two people — Joshua Abrams, 21, of Keene and his girlfriend Paige Wilson, 18, of Gilsum — battered and bloody in the field.

An affidavit written by Keene police Officer Michael O’Donnell says the two were attacked by Perry and another man.

Abrams told O’Donnell he and Wilson met Perry — who is called “Alley” throughout the report — and an unidentified man and woman at the field July 24, according to the affidavit.

Wilson and Abrams said they knew Perry and considered him a friend, according to the affidavit.

Perry allegedly told Abrams he would “get (him) high and ‘smoke him up,’ ” before holding out an amount of marijuana, Abrams told police, according to the affidavit.

When Abrams lowered his head to look at the drugs more closely, he was struck with a metal object that appeared to be a baseball bat, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit doesn’t give a motive for the attack, and police officials couldn’t be reached for further comment this morning.

Wilson told police she was also hit in the head with the bat, then ran into some brush and fell into nearby Beaver Brook, O’Donnell wrote.

Abrams told police he was hit several more times by Perry and the unidentified man before he ran away. The men started to chase Abrams, but eventually fled in a car, according to the affidavit.

At about 10:15 p.m., Keene police were called to a Marlboro Street address for an unrelated incident.

While en route, O’Donnell saw Abrams staggering into the street, bleeding heavily from his face and head, waving to get the officer’s attention.

The police log from July 24 indicates officers looked for Perry that night in Keene and Swanzey.

On Friday, someone reported seeing him near Wheelock Park at about 7:30 p.m., and he was arrested soon after.

He is scheduled to appear in court again on Aug. 19 for an evidence hearing.

If you don’t want to end prohibition yet, you hate the children. Really. You are subjecting them to danger like this.

Pete and Adam from Liberty on Tour report from the event they created – Keene Nightcap!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was invited on Ernest Hancock’s “Declare Your Independence” yesterday to talk about what’s happening in Keene.

Download the archive.

You can hear Declare Your Independence via free, live streaming audio on LRN.FM every weekday from 5-7pm Eastern. Also, LRN.FM airs in Keene on 107.5 FM.