Wednesday • September 8 • 2010
Vol.II • No.XXXVI
Manchester, N.H.
The Keene Sentinel is reporting today on yesterday’s mass arrests in Keene. It’s nice to see an article from them that doesn’t mention “Free Staters” or “Free State Project”. Only Free Keene is mentioned here, and that’s far more accurate as liberty activists are not all “Free Staters”. Heika, for instance, is an awesome activist and Keene native who was activated by Pete and Adam of Liberty on Tour. She started coming out to the Nightcaps and then yesterday courageously defied the aggressive Keene PD, which led to her kidnapping and the subsequent arrests. Here’s the article:
Several people affiliated with the libertarian Free Keene movement were arrested in Keene’s Central Square after police responded to a report of a group of people drinking and disrobing Sunday evening, police say.
Police were called to Central Square about 6 p.m. by a passer-by who reported seeing people drinking and taking off their clothes.
When they arrived, they found Heika Courser, 26, of Richmond drinking a beer, partially undressed, while someone painted on her breasts, according to Keene police Lt. Darryl W. Madden.
Courser was charged with having an open alcohol container and resisting arrest. Jonathan E. Ray, 33, of Keene was also issued a summons for an open container.
As Courser was being put into a police cruiser, other people from the group stood in the way of the cruiser trying to pull away, Madden said.
Wesley Gilreath, 20, of Marlborough, Megan Steward, 26, whose address is listed as homeless, Richard G. Paul, 40, of Manchester and Ian “Freeman” Bernard, 29, of Keene were charged with obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct.
Bernard was also charged with resisting arrest, and Paul was charged with common law criminal contempt in connection with a previous arrest, Madden said.
Paul and Bernard were both out on bail on previous charges and are being held at the Cheshire County jail in Keene without bail.
Gilreath and Steward, who also goes by “Meg McLain,” were released on $500 personal recognizance pending an arraignment Sept. 7. Court dates for the others were not available this morning, Madden said.
After the arrests, a group of people followed the cruisers to the police station. Ray and David Dixson, 30, of Keene were issued summonses to Keene District Court for allegedly bringing open containers of alcohol into the lobby of the station, Madden said.
Nick Ryder has published the latest video to show the arrests of 5 people in downtown Keene that took place on Sunday. It all began after one woman was arrested for drinking a beer on a City bench.
Click here to view the embedded video.
As of Monday Morning, all arrested activists except for Rich Paul and Ian are out of custody with pending charges. It is unclear why either is still in, or what they are charged with, but the most updated information will be found on our forum thread about this subject at http://forum.freekeene.com/index.php?topic=3564
Do humans have a right to sit in public and drink a bottle of water?
A glass of lemonade?
A can of beer?
Some people think we should not have a right to drink the latter, but how are they different? Who is more hurt because a woman drinks a beer outside as opposed to water?
Activists were arrested Sunday evening in Keene. A woman named Heika was arrested first for possession of an open alcohol container in The Square. Further arrests occurred when activists Meg, Wes, Ian, and Rich Paul did not back down from standing in front and behind the police cruisers trying to take Heika and others away.
Further arrests occurred at the police station for allegedly having an open alcohol container inside the police station.
Here is a link to a long live upload from the scene from Ian Freeman.
http://qik.com/video/9339873
And here is a short video of Ian’s arrest: Click here to view the embedded video.
Further video should be available and coming soon.
Liberty activists have turned out in support of a bar owner whose customers are being targeted by the Weare police. Here’s the story from Weare News’ Dan O’Brien:
About 40 people gathered at Palmer’s Tavern on Saturday, July 10, to show support for George Hodgdon, the 60-year-old bar owner who was arrested July 1 for allegedly misleading a police investigation of a bar fight.
Police said the victim of the April 30 assault was Deering Selectman John Greene, 31.
Greene’s reaction to the event: “People are going to say all kinds of things now to get out of trouble.” A large segment of the Hodgdon supporters were members of the Free State Project.
They parked a camper in front of the Route 114 bar with an electronic road sign attached. The sign displayed phrases including, “Weare The Public,” “Live Free Or Die” and “Don’t Tread On Me.”
One of the supporters was state Rep. Calvin Pratt, R-Goffstown, who said he was contacted by Hodgdon shortly after his arrest.
“I have some questions about what was being done,” Pratt said. “Why was the selectman allowed to leave? Why were people held by police for three hours?”
Weare police confirmed that state police were called to assist the night of April 30 after Greene called 911 from his cell phone.
Greene said he was assaulted by at least five men, but Weare police have only arrested two on simple assault charges. Police said they haven’t gotten much cooperation from patrons at Palmer’s.
When reached Saturday, July 10, a Weare police officer said Chief Gregory Begin did not want to comment on the gathering. “The selectman came into the bar and had a beer. The next thing you know he’s pushing his chest out to a couple of guys around the pool table,” Hodgdon said.
“I asked him if there was a problem. He said, ‘no.’ I let it go,” he said.
Hodgdon said he was washing dishes moments later when someone told him a fight broke out in the parking lot.
“I see (Greene) coming up the ramp. He’s got a bloody lip and a bloody nose,” Hodgdon said.
Hodgdon said he sat Greene inside the bar and offered him assistance. He said he was going to call 911 but Greene said he already had done so on his cell phone.
Greene said Hodgdon’s version of what happened is inaccurate.
“That’s not true,” Greene said. “I was denied care. I was told I was bleeding all over the place and I needed to leave.” Greene said the fight started inside the bar and he called 911 from his phone in the parking lot.
Police said Hodgdon changed his story during the investigation and was uncooperative.
“(Hodgdon) was aware the assault had occurred, that 911 was needed and he knew who the suspects were,” police Sgt. Joe Kelly said July 1. “And he allowed the suspects to leave the scene.”
“As a bar owner, he has a duty (to report assaults) based on his liquor license,” Kelly said.
Hodgdon has been charged with hindering the apprehension of prosecution and unsworn falsification in connection with the investigation.
Hodgdon said local and state police would not let nearly 40 patrons leave the premises until each was questioned by police and had their names and identity information recorded.
Police said a handful of serious assaults have occurred at Palmer’s over the past 18 months, including an incident involving a firearm.
Click to Enlarge
This comic was inspired by a controversy over the Shire Society Declaration. The construction of the declaration was begun with a work by Libertarian author, L. Neil Smith. Many changes were made after a lengthy discussion, but they remain quite similar according to a number of people. I haven’t actually read the original work and I got turned off to the discussion for reasons described here. I did ultimately find myself in enough agreement with the final product to sign it.
L. Neil Smith feels he has been plagiarized and has even mentioned that he CCed an email complaint to his lawyer, though I have yet to hear of any explicit threats of legal action. This has resulted in a lengthy discussion of the notion of intellectual property and whether it’s a valid claim of property from a voluntaryist viewpoint.
One of the most eminently reasonable comments I’ve read about this controversy is from the Free Talk Live forum:
Even if you subscribe to the theory that L. Neil’s words and ideas are his even if you buy them from him, he still would not own the application of such, which is what the Shire Society did.
That would be like John Shaw writing a book on making flat screens or film editing and then claiming to own all the flat screens or films that readers may create in the future.
And in fact, it seems like he’d be really proud that someone was inspired enough to want to put his idea into motion in such a bold way.
My own views of intellectual property are a bit nuanced. I definitely don’t believe anyone is entitled to damages or restitution because someone copied, not stole, your shit. In that sense, I’m completely anti-IP. On the other hand, I believe in the notion of IP in the sense that you can own an idea to the extent that you can “protect it” without violence. You can either keep it secret or you can do a good enough job of branding it or at least date-stamping it so others will have difficulty claiming it as their own. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to make money off of copies but it might help you to counter that and make the money yourself in a peaceful manner. I’m also a big fan of people expanding on ideas and making them better. I think claims of damages for copying are unreasonable and they impede that creative process which many consumers stand to benefit from. I’m also a big fan of reverse-engineering actual physical products and making your own versions of them, possibly improved or just at a lower price. Patents are bullshit. This is something else that consumers stand to benefit greatly from.
The work above is actually an original work by Davi Barker. Sure, he constructed it with slightly modified pieces of my comics, but it’s an original work that I feel he deserves credit for creating. My comics are instantly reproducible and therefore not at all scarce. It’s my responsibility to figure out how to make money from such a product. I do feel I deserve the common courtesy of being given credit for the building blocks of it, but that doesn’t imply damages or restitution of any sort, and he did give me credit. He was able to construct his comic without doing any damage to me or my property whatsoever. It seems absurd to claim “damages”. Such a claim relies on the absurd notion that you are entitled to make money off your works. In fact, because he did provide such an obvious credit to the building blocks of his work, his comic will most likely act as free promotion of my works! Why should I complain about that?
Dear Kat,
The articles “From War to Peace”, “Who Killed Phoebe Prince”, “Authoritarianism is Bad for your Health” were all excellent. Jason Osborne's speech was also pure principles, so I loved it.
I was sent your little paper, and the Keene Free Press and I enjoyed them very much. As a Libertarian of 30 years, I hope NH is developing into an activist hotbed of liberty advocates. One of my favorite programs is Free Talk Live with Ian Freeman. My wife was on Free Talk Live recently about my particular case.
Jim Johnson has fun in court with the bureaucrats who are aggressing against him. This is the trial over him standing in front of a cop car as they attempted to kidnap a young man. Jim was kidnapped weeks later at his home and charged with “Disorderly Conduct”. Following the trial, Pete from Liberty on Tour does some Cop Blocking.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Just Pete’s Cop Block: Click here to view the embedded video.
Police in NH and around the country continue to arrest people for filming them, bad teachers in the UK, an undercover cop tackles a teenager trying to enter his own home, and Massachusetts passes a law that threatens to make much of the Internet illegal.
http://www.freemindstv.com
“Take care, New Hampshire, that you don’t let the police catch you using your cell phone or video camera to record their interactions with the public. You could be arrested and charged with a felony.”
“It shouldn’t be a crime to record public officials doing their jobs or to record public disturbances or other crimes. Doing so can be a public service. (Had someone taped the incident involving Christopher Micklovich and four off-duty Manchester police officers outside the Strange Brew Tavern earlier this year, that saga would not be dragging on and on.) But in New Hampshire it’s not only a crime, it’s a felony. This needs to change.”
Pretty easy editorial to agree with. What possible public benefit accrues from barring citizens from recording their interactions with governmental officials (particularly ones trained and authorized to use violence)? New Hampshire has some of the best and most professional police officers in the country, and as long as they stay that way they should have no reason to object to being recorded.
- Peter, Canterbury
Wow. Thank you Union Leader for such an awesome piece. The article is located here.
All Charges have been dropped against Christopher Micklovich who was arrested after being beat up by four off-duty Manchester police officers. Micklovich was charged with criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, simple assault and resisting arrest.
As previously reported, three of the officers were suspended after an internal review found that they violated standard operating procedures. Jonathan Duchesne, Michael Buckley and Matt Jajuga were all suspended without pay for an undisclosed period of time. The fourth officers, Lt. Ernie Goodno faces no penalties as he retired from the force shortly after the incident.
Although an internal review found the officers did not act in a criminal manner, the Hillsborough County Attorney, Robert Walsh, has decided to review the matter himself. This has enraged two different police unions, who insist the public should be left in the dark as to what actually happened outside the Strange Brew Tavern on March 3, 2010.
Micklovich claims that he was held down and beaten by the four officers before being taken into custody, and the 26 facial fractures he suffered during the incident show that either the police are incapable of taking a drunk man into custody without severely injuring him, or the off-duty officers acted criminally. Either way, these officers should be off the force forever. Instead, they are simply being suspended, without any details of the internal investigation or the actual duration of the suspensions being disclosed to the public.
It is more than troubling that the police unions want to cover this up. Why would they want bad officers on the force? Any officer worth their salt would want corrupt and bad police officers off the beat, yet the unions don’t even want the district attorney to investigate the incident. If the officers did nothing wrong, why attempt to block the investigation?
Micklovich is planning on suing the city for damages, for good reason. Unfortunately, the officers who should be facing both criminal and civil charges are being protected from any real consequences. Instead, the public will have to pick up the tab of the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the three officers who should likely be wearing prison uniforms, will continue to terrorize the public and hide behind the badge.
The 2010 national 5th annual LFOD Rally August 26,27,28,29 will be the best year yet with many new features and topic's. The LFOD Rally is the only all free true first amendment event in the U.S.
2010 FEATURES TO DATE:
* 40+ National & State Organizations
* 10 Cannons spectator participation revolutionary battle
* 20 benefit bands of redress
* 16 National & Local renown speakers
* Appleseed Project two-day rifle marksmanship clinic and Revolutionary War history course.
Beginner to advanced. Info or to register: nh@appleseedinfo.org
* Cannons & Fireworks grand finale
* Horse drawn Carraige rides
* Laser Show
* Camping spots
* Exhibitors tables & booth spots
* Food & Beverage's available
* More to be announced
2010 TOPICS TO DATE:
* U.S. & N.H. Constitutional enforcement
* Second Amendment rights
* National I.D. & Spychips
* Federal Reserve transparency
* Reduce Government
If you’ve seen Sean before, you’ll remember him. Perhaps he came to your rescue in downtown Keene by dropping coins in your expired meter, thereby saving you from the aggression of the parking bureaucrats. Or, perhaps you’ve just seen him around town in his trademark FSP “Don’t Tread on Me” flag cape. Now he joins the bloggers here at Free Keene. Welcome, Sean! Here’s his bio from the Bloggers page:
A long time constitutionalist, Sean came to the ideas of a voluntary society through the works of Ayn Rand and Stephan Molyneux. Moving from North Carolina to Keene, NH in December of 2009, Sean has been active in the local liberty movement, and can often be found doing outreach in the community, Robin Hooding in downtown Keene, and laughing at the state wherever he can. These days Sean finds the idea of a coercive state to be a childish anachronism of humanity’s youth, worthy of laughter, not fear.
Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to say what a lot of Americans already know — that our involvement in Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After nearly 10 years and approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all, if victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable.
With our economy at home in serious trouble, this wasteful occupation is something we clearly cannot afford. Each soldier costs us $1 million per year, and yet most in Washington are only considering how many more soldiers to send. Fuel costs an astonishing $400 per gallon for our military in Afghanistan! Yet somehow, many politicians feel it is acceptable to squeeze this money out of our taxpayers, who are truly struggling economically, to fund this non-war. Our economy here is not showing any real signs of improvement. Official unemployment is pushing 10% and getting worse. (Real unemployment is over 20% according to the free-market economists.) The growing debt and inflation used to fund this occupation only dooms us to more economic hardship for a long time to come. And — for what?
Where the money for Afghanistan comes from is one problem — where it goes is another. Recently, it has come to light that much of the aid money we send to Afghanistan is lost due to corruption. Billions of tax dollars from hardworking Americans are ending up lining the pockets of corrupt Afghan officials, and likely even filtering into the Taliban we are ostensibly fighting. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that curiously enough, billions more than the Afghan government collects in revenue is leaving the country in the form of cash on huge pallets and in suitcases and mostly ending up in Dubai, as well-connected Afghan officials buy up luxury homes and enrich their personal off-shore bank accounts. Investigations into corruption and graft have been blocked by the Karzai government, probably because Karzai’s own brother would have to be implicated. It is encouraging that the foreign aid appropriations subcommittee has attempted to block billions in aid as a response to these allegations, but this is likely temporary and may not even succeed.
The point is that sending aid money to Afghanistan is not making poor people over there better off. It is making poor people here worse off. Corruption is endemic to Afghanistan, with graft comprising about one fourth of their economy! Even though it is considered the second most corrupt nation in the world according to Transparency International, we still send the Afghan government billions of dollars in aid and are shocked to find it is not making its way out of the sticky fingers of the officials entrusted with it.
Robbing citizens here to fund corruption over there is not helping average citizens anywhere. We are sacrificing real economic opportunities at home for the opportunity to line corrupt pockets in Afghanistan. Not only that, but American soldiers are being killed and maimed. It is tragic and frustrating how much we have lost and wasted already. It is time to leave Afghanistan to the Afghans to sort out. I am glad more Americans are finally willing to face this reality.
["Money Hand" photo by David Neubert; CC BY 2.0]
1. The Union Leader has an awesome article about the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance’s annual dinner. In my opinion Mark Warden, the NHLA Chairman who is featured in the piece, is an amazingly outstanding liberty activist. He’s also running for NH state representative in Goffstown, NH. If you value your freedom and are a resident of Goffstown, this is the man who deserves your support.
“(NH Congressional candidate John) Stephen said he doesn’t agree with the NHLA’s support of legalizing the use of medical marijuana, but shares the belief in limited government and fewer taxes.”
I’d like to point out that medical marijuana isn’t even a “liberty” issue. It is a doctor/patient issue. If this tyrant wont even allow a doctor and patient to come to an agreement on a course of treatment for an illness… my question to you is why the hell you would want him having “power” to direct the violence of the government against you or anyone. If you were sick, dying, and in pain, and your doctor recommended that you use marijuana to ease your suffering and improve your quality of life, this political thug would have violence used against you and your doctor to have you thrown in a jail cell.
Petty street criminals are not the real threat to your safety… “politicians” such as this guy are.
2. Nashua, NH police continue to rid their community of drugs (not) at tremendous taxpayers expense:
“Nashua Police arrested a man on drug charges following a traffic stop Thursday. Police stopped 31-year-old Matthew Tamposi’s car on Fox Street and smelled marijuana, according to Nashua Police Lt. Scott Hammond. A patrol officer brought a department K-9, Rony, and the drug-detection dog completed a sweep of the outside of the car and indicated there were illegal drugs inside, Hammond said.”
It sickens me that this stuff continues to be news.
3. The School Sucks Project is continuing to make big news around the Seacoast thanks to some hard work by some unknown activists!
““This is the first time we had this kind of inundation of a deliberate attempt to put propaganda in books,” Beaudoin said.”
Books that are funded by theft… that if you don’t pay for you loose your house… that if you don’t leave when ordered to by men with guns you get arrested… and if you refuse to be arrested and have your home stolen, they’ll kill you. Considering Mrs. Beaudoin’s job is funded by some serious threats of actual violence, I’d rather not hear her whine about “propaganda.”
4. Homophobes gay marriage opponents, no, wait… homophobes are planning to rally in Manchester on thursday to oppose New Hampshire’s gay marriage law. The government really should have absolutely nothing to do with marriage, but since it insists on it, it should be fair and equal. New Hampshire having legal gay marriage is something that I am particularly proud of.
I wish these homophobes realized that they are just repeating history. People just like them many years back protested when black people were allowed to marry white people. Those same people lashed out at people like me who argued that they were racist. It is unfortunate that many of the homophobes who think our gay brothers, sisters, family members, and friends are second class citizens do not realize that with their mentality they would have been the ones pushing to deny black people to marry white people.
Sickening. Leave people alone, man.
“Kevin Smith, executive director of Cornerstone-Action, said his organization and the National Organization for Marriage are sponsoring the City Hall Plaza event from noon to 1 p.m.Smith said the rally will send a message to lawmakers who supported New Hampshire’s gay marriage law that they will be held accountable at the polls.”
And you, Mr. Kevin Smith, will be held accountable through history. The same history that makes the bigots and racists of the past look to be the disgusting individuals that they are. Years from now you will be the new neanderthal. To me you already are.
Ahhh the use of dogs in forever failed government “War on Drugs.” It seems that in Concord, NH a state police K9 got loose from it’s handler, ran across the street, viciously attacked another dog, and then viciously attacked the 13-year old girl/owner who was trying to protect her dog from being attacked:
“The girl, attempting to protect her dog, was bitten several times on her left arm and hand. (A NH State Police official) said the incident is under investigation by the department and that State Police have been in touch with the victim’s family.”
Clearly the state police will conduct a full, fair, and evenhanded investigation of themselves. Had this dog attack had been completely reversed in sequence and involved a dog charging the state trooper… I think we’d probably have another dead dog.
An interesting comment by a Union Leader reader:
The only question here is obvious….Why was the officer not in control of the dog?….I guessing that the drug dog broke free of the officers grip on the leash…but that doesn’t relieve the officer of responsibility…
- unwind, NH
Yes, that indeed is correct. The law on this type of thing reads:
466:31 Dogs a Menace, a Nuisance or Vicious
II. Under this section, a dog is considered to be a nuisance, a menace, or vicious to persons or to property under any or all but not limited to the following conditions:
(e) If it growls, snaps at, runs after, or chases any person or persons not on the premises of the owner or keeper;
(g) If, whether alone or in a pack with other dogs, it bites, attacks, or preys on game animals, domestic animals, fowl or human beings.
Since this clearly is a violation of this law… the state trooper will be facing charges, right? Isn’t that only fair considering if it were you or I who lost control of our respective dog and it did what the trooper’s dog did, we’d be facing charges?
With all the “authority” granted to a public official such as this, shouldn’t they be held to a higher standard?
The Queen of England uses up $57 million a year in tax dollars and does nothing, excess coffee may help protect against Alzheimer disease, a disabled man caught drinking on his wheel chair has been banned from using motorized wheel chairs for three years, and a mom and son are facing criminal charges for making dry ice bombs.
http://www.freemindsmedia.com
On March 3, 2010, Chris Micklovich was asked to leave a bar in Manchester because he had too much to drink. Once outside the bar, Chris was met by four off-duty police officers. The officers proceeded to cause 26 facial fractures to Chris’s face before arresting him, although they claim they did nothing wrong.
After an internal review, the officers were found to have “violated standard operating procedures,” although their actions were “were not criminal.”
If it takes four officers to beat a drunk guy half to death in order to take him into custody, the officers are either acting criminally, or they are so incompetent at their jobs that they should never be given a badge again.
Instead of going to jail, as anyone else who did this would, the officers are being suspended without pay for an undisclosed period of time.
What is particularly disturbing about this case is the fact that four officers participated in this. Michael Buckley, Jonathan Duchesne, Matt Jajuga and Lt. Ernie Goodno either participated in this act of aggression, or stood by and watched it happen. All but one of these officers, Goodno who recently retired, will be back on the beat in no time, “protecting us.” I know I feel safe.
… for idling his car too long. Really.
In this “Live Free or Die” state if you idle your car longer than 5 minutes and the temperature is above 32 degrees you’re looking at the possibility of being caged like an animal for up to a year. If the temperature is above -10 degrees but below 32, you get another ten minutes of idling before said imprisonment could become a reality.
How compassionate of the legislature to allow you to stay warm in frigid temperatures for another ten minutes before authorizing your freedom be stripped away and you be branded a criminal.
New Hampshire RSA Chapter 125-C
Air Pollution Control
III. Any person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter, or any rule adopted or order issued under this chapter, or any condition of a permit issued under this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor if a natural person, or guilty of a felony if any other person.
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
AIR RELATED PROGRAM RULES
Env-A 1101.09 Operational Requirements for Gasoline-Powered Motor Vehicles. The owner or operator of a gasoline-powered motor vehicle shall comply with the following operational requirements unless specifically exempted from the operational requirements for gasoline-powered motor vehicles:
(a) When the temperature is above 0 oC (32 oF), a gasoline engine shall not idle for more than 5 consecutive minutes;
(b) When the temperature is -23 oC (-10 oF), 0 oC (32 oF), or anywhere in between the 2 temperatures, a gasoline engine shall not idle for more than 15 consecutive minutes; or
(c) When the temperature is below -23 oC (-10 oF), and where no nuisance is created, a gasoline engine shall not be subject to idling restrictions.
As was revealed in Brad Jardis’ first post, one does not have to pay the bail commissioner’s fee to get someone released from captivity. We put it to the test when Rich Paul was arrested in May:
Click here to view the embedded video.
In this the second special show devoted to unraveling the mythology behind the belief that a “Constitutional” government is the ideal to help society function, Gardner Goldsmith takes two modern issues and uses them as entry points.
Listen as he explains why even so-called “strict construction” libertarians and conservatives should take notice: Government cannot ever work to help society.
Be Seeing You!
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]