Wednesday • September 8 • 2010
Vol.II • No.XXXVI
Manchester, N.H.
Here’s the feature story from the Union Leader’s Michael Cousineau:
Expect local officials across the state to review state and local nudity laws following weekly protests by topless women in Keene, according to the head of a police association.
“It will cause people to look and review their policies … and make sure they are protected about this issue,” said David Cahill, president of the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police.
“Sometimes, the worst thing you could do is create a knee-jerk reaction,” said Cahill, Sunapee’s police chief.
More than a half-dozen people were either ticketed or arrested last Sunday after police received reports of people drinking alcohol and taking off their clothes in Central Square.
Keene police Lt. Jay Duguay said no women were charged for being topless because it wasn’t deemed lewd behavior. The city prosecutor concluded a man painting a woman’s breast didn’t violate the state’s public decency law either, he said, adding the city has no local nudity law.
The topless women sparked discussions involving public morality, free speech and the political Free State Project, whose members were involved in last Sunday’s incident.
“These openly brazen protests I think do speak to a larger problem in our culture in which the current generation is being flooded with messages, like MTV’s spring break shows, where they are told to have no inhibitions,” said Kevin Smith, executive director of Cornerstone Action, a Manchester-based group dedicated to the preservation of strong families, limited government and free enterprise.
But Smith said the best protection for children “starts with good parenting, not with government.
“While government can pass laws or ordinances that protect the public from having to put up with these kind of lewd displays, talks to children about public decency and what is and what isn’t appropriate should start at home. And hopefully, local officials and law enforcement will complement sound parental advice by holding those who break the law accountable,” Smith said.
Claire Ebel, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, said she thinks the police acted properly in not arresting the topless protestors, but wondered whether state leaders might look to change the law.
“I can just imagine an interesting session of the Legislature next session when some legislator is offended by the fact that breasts are not covered by the public nudity statute,” Ebel said.
The state’s public decency law doesn’t specifically reference breasts.
“A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if such person fornicates, exposes his or her genitals, or performs any other act of gross lewdness under circumstances which he or she should know will likely cause affront or alarm,” the law reads.
Duguay said people can interpret the law differently.
“It’s one of those things: Does it cause an alarm of a person of a normal sensibility? Some people may feel an exposure of breasts in the Central Square area is gross lewdness,” Duguay said. “If someone is groping their breasts in a certain way, that could be considered gross or lewd. It’s kind of a case-by-case basis.”
Manchester police Lt. Peter Favreau said there are several city ordinances addressing nudity in public, including a ban on nude dancing in clubs serving alcohol.
“All of our ordinances fall back on disorderly conduct, where you’re causing an alarm in a public place,” Favreau said. “It’s debatable” whether topless women protesting would be violating a city ordinance.
Hampton Police Chief James Sullivan reported few problems.
“We have not had a significant concern with public nudity, complaints or incidents, at the beach,” Sullivan said.
Sunapee Chief Cahill said skinny dippers are his biggest problem when it comes to nudity complaints. Whether someone is arrested often depends on whether others observed the behavior and were offended, he said.
Last Sunday’s gathering in Keene was part of an event called “night cap,” with people gathering to drink openly to protest laws banning such activity.
Members of the Free State Project were among those who have gathered for the Keene protests, according to Duguay and Calvin Pratt, a spokesman for the Free State Project.
Pratt said Free Staters are guided by many philosophies toward the goal of gaining more personal choice.
Some Free Staters want to “live according to the code of choice they want to have and they just don’t want other people to impose an outside code on them,” Pratt said.
Asked whether it helped or hurt the Free State movement to be linked to such protests, Pratt said. “That’s a tough question. There is a dividing line between people who are involved in the local communities who are involved in politics. They look at this as ‘Ow, ouch, it doesn’t make us look good.’ ”
Duguay said protestors also have cut hair without a license and played penny poker in the park, telling the lieutenant that police selectively enforce the laws.
“In a way, they are right because there’s only so many police officers to go around,” Duguay said. “The solution to every incident is not an arrest.”
Pratt said he think a majority of Free Staters support the Keene protests. “A minority think when you disrespect the community’s mores in that way, you’re actually doing a disservice,” he said.
“People who are engaged in consensual activities are not being victimized. I think most Free State members would say victimless crimes should not be criminal offenses or violations,” Pratt said. “Who’s the victim?”
Rick Kardos, executive director of the New England office of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families in Bedford, said children are being exposed to nudity at younger ages.
“There has been a desensitization of community morals and standards,” Kardos said. “Our society has been desensitized by TV, by the rise of the Internet, the availability of Internet pornography.”
In years past, Kardos said he would “get flooded with e-mails” after a news story chronicled public nudity, but that wasn’t the case with the Keene protests.
Mary Bonser, co-owner of Cedar Waters Village, a nudist park in Nottingham, said “society as a whole is pretty sophomoric” these days.
“It doesn’t matter if they have clothes on or don’t have clothes on. It’s what is in the heart.” Bonser said. “The thong bathing suits? That’s more risque than being nude. Is next to nothing any better than being topless? That’s the question Keene has to decide.”
It simply cannot be said enough. Unless you’re saying “am I being detained” or “I do not consent to a search” you should remain PERFECTLY SILENT! I can think of countless situations where I’ve arrested people simply because they answered my questions. Had they not have… they would have not been arrested. Boy was I fortunate that these people didn’t know their rights… as you now do or did.
Talking to the police will not help you… it will hurt you. You can always talk to the police AFTER you’ve discussed what they want to talk to you about with an attorney. The attorney will determine if your statement will either help or hurt you.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Thank you to the wonderful blog Checkpoint USA for re-posting this video.
I’d welcome any of our active law enforcement readers to provide their opinions in the comment section of this blog.
A bill requiring all sales of $600 or more be tracked with a 1099 bill was rolled into the Health Care Bill, millions of stimulus dollars used to make signs touting the Obama stimulus, moonshine regaining popularity in the US, and an old man looking for better health gets a can of health pet senior from his local food bank.
http://www.freemindstv.com
For the last four years, Porcupine 411 has been a lifeline for activists in Keene and elsewhere in New Hampshire, and hopefully will continue to do so in the future. You can help make this happen by becoming a FED.
No, that stands for Finance Engineering and Development.
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A Free Keene reader has sent me a link to a rather disturbing video which is posted on a site called BLUtube, a site collecting police related videos and an apparent frequent hangout for police officers.
In the video a man being chased by the police blows his head off with a shotgun. The suicide is captured by a helicopter’s FLIR (infrared) camera as the incident happened at night. The video is titled “Suspect w/ shotgun, Good clean fun” and is submitted by a BLUtube participant calling himself “sergeanthulka555″ (a name which to me indicates he is either a member of the military or law enforcement).
I think our fellow FK reader is right on when he pointed out to me that the title of the video and the comments left by people most likely involved in the policing profession aptly show a lack of respect for human life. Whatever crime this man committed, he is a human being… and should be respected as such.
Here are some of the comments I felt were very disturbing:
Resistancewell that is just excellent. takes care of that problem quite nicely
imartinez116haha!!!!!! rest in pieces, ***bag.
ofcknightCool….They should all do that.
william56671damn…good shot…shoulda been a sniper.
exmarshalLOL.. suspect down… i wonder if CPR would have worked on him
Your thoughts?
While editing the footage I decided to join in the discussion to add my perspective to the mix. I hope it provides you with a fun and educational look at why government police simply lack proper motivations to create a truly peaceful society:
Regarding my last blog… a commenter spurred an idea in my head.
If I was going to drink beer in public in violation of the law, I do it from a beer bottle that can be closed with a cap and keep the cap with me. If the police approached me I’d simply put the cap back on the beer.
If the police asked me if the beer is mine… I’d say that it is, because if I didn’t it is essentially abandoned property and they can pick it up and dump it out.
If someone, say you, claimed the property as your own, in order for the police to legally open (and use in court) the beer that you just closed, they now need a warrant. Be sure to assert that you consent to no search of your property, as opening the cap of a container is a “search.” This takes anywhere from 2-4 hours of the police and court time. This will get old real fast for the police… or it is already old, and they’re not going to do it.
As the police cannot lawfully seize someones closed beverage without the intent to get a warrant (and heaven knows they’re not going to want to invest hours and hours and thousands and thousands of dollars in applying for warrants) to investigate whether or not the beverage was used in violation of the law… it seems to me that they are only left with the option to leave peaceful people drinking beverages alone.
PS: If they did take my closed beer without the intent to apply for a warrant to determine if it is alcohol (and a violation of the law) I’d probably will have a good civil suit against the police for stealing my stuff. I’d be sure to follow up on this to make sure that they did apply for a warrant. Once the statue of limitations has expired and the state can no longer initiate a prosecution against me for violating an open container ordinance, I’d be calling Attorney Lance Webber to see what type of civil action I could bring against the government for violating a slew of different statues and constitutional amendments.
(I am not an attorney, this is not legal advice… Lance is though, and he is exactly who I’d go to if this happened to me.)
Want to make it impossible for the police to attack people for the completely victimless act of possessing an open container, grind the courts to a halt, and force your local police department to alienate the state forensic laboratory… all while not actually breaking a law?
Here’s how:
1. Get several bottles of Corona.
2. Videotape yourself cleaning all the bottles out in the sink… removing any trace of alcohol.
3. Fill the bottles with non-alcoholic beer.
4. Stroll downtown to your favorite public park and/or into your local police department.
5. Sip.
6. Have your non-alcoholic beer seized.
7. Have several other people on hand doing the same thing. Have them appear at different times or locations so that the state can’t have all the trials at the same time.
8. Get charged.
10. Plead not-guilty.
11. Have your trial… introduce your evidence that you weren’t drinking beer. Get found not-guilty.
12. Repeat. (don’t forget the videotaped rinse)
The police are required to prove the existence of alcohol in the container in order for your conduct to be a proven violation of the statue (depending on how the ordinance is worded.) This leaves them with four options.
1. Seize alcohol and send it all to the lab… and only charge people afterward who the lab reports actually had alcohol in their “open container.”
2. Charge everyone, then test the “evidence.” This would tie up lots of prosecutor time in tracking all the evidence and communicating with the state lab.
3. Dump out everyone drinking a liquid that smells like beer from a beer bottle. This would open them up to a civil lawsuit, though. The police have NO right to destroy lawfully possessed property. If the police take your non-alcoholic beer and destroy it on you, sue them. They are only allowed to seize things as evidence of a crime… and are only allowed to destroy it with a court order.
Either way it will annoy the shit out of the state forensic laboratory, cost tens of thousands of dollars, tie up countless police resources, and clog the court system. In the end, you will have actually not broken a law Heads the activists win, tails the state looses. This method could actually collapse the court system if the police were stupid enough to continue charging everyone with an “open container.”
Civil disobedience should be played like a game of chess.
(oh, and the fourth option: don’t enforce victimless laws. sitting somewhere drinking a beer doesn’t hurt anyone. you going after someone sitting somewhere drinking a beer IS actually hurting someone.)
Video courtesy of Liberty on Tour: Click here to view the embedded video.
Saturday nights at Yankee Lanes! Thanks to Pete from Liberty on Tour for the excellent video: Click here to view the embedded video.
The Civil Disobedience Evolution Fund is looking for media volunteers. Want to support the good people who break bad laws like Keene’s Disobedient Seven? We’re looking for volunteers to assist with new media initiatives like researching, writing press releases, blogging, social media broadcasting etc. Want in? Get in touch.
Includes pictures of a topless woman and police abuse some may consider NSFW!
The Police Step on her Foot:
No one ever jumped or climbed on the hood of any police cars on Sunday afternoon in Keene’s Central Square, but the truth never got in the way of a journalist with an agenda. Here’s the Boston Herald printing of a very truncated AP version of the Union Leader story.
We weren’t linked to directly in the Union Leader, but the story they wrote about Sunday’s mass arrests got FARKed today!
First, thanks for all your support while I was in jail! If you want to help Rich Paul, please chip-in at the Civil Disobedience Evolution Fund. Here’s 26+ minutes from my arrival on the scene to when the cops took my stuff at the police station.
You’ve gotta give the Union Leader credit for their headline.
UPDATE: The Union Leader has re-written parts of the article, presumably after Sam gave them a call. The new article is posted here. I will leave the old one up so people can see the differences.
By MELANIE PLENDA
Union Leader CorrespondentKEENE – Being bare breasted on the streets of Keene may not be illegal, but breast painting, drinking in public, blocking police cars and harassing officers is.
At least seven people were arrested Sunday shortly after 6 p.m. when bystanders reported people were drinking and taking off their clothes in Central Square in downtown Keene.
Keene Police Lt. Darryl Madden said the people in the park were not arrested for nakedness, which is not illegal in Keene.
“One woman was toples and she was getting her breasts painted by another woman,” he said. “There’s no law against being naked, but you can’t be lewd or lascivious. And one person groping someone’s breasts and saying lewd things certainly qualifies.”
When police arrived, they also noticed people drinking in the park and began making arrests, Madden said. As they did, the crowd grew heated and started yelling at and “getting in the officers’ faces.” Police made more arrests. The entire incident took about 15 minutes, Madden said, and it’s not clear how many people were in the park at the time.
As police were driving away with the arrested, several in the crowd jumped on the hoods of the police cars to try to stop them. They too were arrested.
Once at the police station, two more people from the park were in the lobby at the station. Madden said they started drinking and they too were ticketed.
Madden identified many of those arrested as members of or associated with the Free Keene and Free State movements. People from these groups have met daily in Central Square since last summer, generally to publicly smoke pot. In recent months the Free Keene group has instituted “Topless Tuesdays” which also takes place in the Square, located across the street from Keene Middle School and Keene City Hall. There is no law or city ordinance against being topless in Keene.
Police have largely left the groups alone with only a handful arrests made for disorderly conduct over the past several months.
Arrested yesterday were Jonathan Ray, 33, of 176 Church St., Keene, for having an open container of alcohol; Wesley Golbreath, 20, of 60 School St., Marlborough, for obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct; Megan Steward, 26, who is listed as homeless in Keene, for obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct; Richard Paul, 41, of 816 Elm St., Manchester, for obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct; and Heika Courser, 26, of 3 Fitzwilliam Road, Richmond, for open container of alcohol and resisting arrest.
Arrested at the police station were David Dixon, 30, of 43 Gurnsey St., Keene, for having an open container of alcohol and Jonathan Ray, 33, was issued a second ticket for having an open container of alcohol.
No injuries were reported as a result of the incidents.
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
