Keene’s Police Chief Responds

July 29, 2010 by Bradley Jardis · 3 Comments
Filed under: Issues, Keene, Police, Question, Response

Two days ago I posted a blog which included a letter I sent to the Keene Police Chief regarding a question as to why his agency is not enforcing the state’s prohibition on activities during the Lord’s Day.

I’ve never met the fellow but from what I hear from fellow FreeKeene.com contributors he is indeed a very nice guy. I personally appreciate his responding to me so quickly regarding my questions.

This is what he had to say:
Read more

“Free Keene” UPOC Group

July 27, 2010 by Bradley Jardis · 1 Comment
Filed under: Outreach

Want to easily stay in touch with other individuals who believe in a peaceful evolution into a society where violence isn’t used to solve peaceful problems?

Have a cell phone that is able to send and receive text messages?

Join the Free Keene UPOC group. It is like an internet chat room… but one that is connected to your phone through text messaging. If you don’t have unlimited text messages, or even a cell phone, not to worry: you can read/send messages through the website.

This is sort of like the Keene 411 system… but easier to use/set-up. It is also private… so the general public cannot view the discussion.

(Membership in the group is restricted to verified contributors/participants with the Free Keene blog and forum. After you click “Ask To Join” please PM me on the forum so I know who I am verifying!)

A Question For The Keene Police Chief

July 27, 2010 by Bradley Jardis · 34 Comments
Filed under: Issues, Police, Question

After hearing the head of the Keene Police Department assert that outlawed activities are not illegal during his interview on WKBK I’ve decided to e-mail the Chief and inquire with him publicly what his positions are on enforcing the law.

Kudos to FreeKeene.com’s Sam Dodson for mentioning the ridiculous law that the Keene Police apparently have decided to ignore. This ignoring of a law seems to fly in the face of the first provision of the Keene Police mission statement.

My letter to the Chief is below:

Heika Arrested for Using Megaphone

July 27, 2010 by Ian Freeman · 38 Comments
Filed under: Civil Disobedience, Update, Video

I arrived on-scene as Heika was being loaded up into a KPD cruiser. Her crime? “Free” speech over a megaphone. We were kicked out of the court earlier by the robed man because a bunch of activists stood for Rich Paul when he was called. It was because we were kicked out of court that Monica went to get the megaphone – I had run home at this time to make a phone call I was late for, and when I returned, Heika was being arrested for “disorderly conduct”. According to witnesses, Heika was not on the megaphone when police arrived. They didn’t give her a warning that she was being “disorderly” – they just came up and arrested her. They are calling it a bail violation, so she’s in jail at least for the night and the arraignment is expected for tomorrow. Hopefully she won’t lose her job.

Please move to Keene and help us end this madness!

Varrin’s Letter to the Editor About Central Square

July 27, 2010 by Ian Freeman · 50 Comments
Filed under: Response, Update

Varrin Swearingen is the president of the Free State Project, and lives in Keene. Here’s his letter to the editor that appeared in the Keene Sentinel about the Central Square controversy. These are his opinions as Varrin the individual, as he is not speaking for the FSP:

Some people feel the topless, smoking and drinking demonstrations in Keene’s Central Square have gotten out of hand. Others feel the government and its police are wrong for making and enforcing unjust behavior codes.

So far, this debate has centered mostly around what behavior is acceptable.

Ironically, what some would call immoral behavior simultaneously illuminates and distracts us from the true moral problem. There are two facets of this previously-hidden moral problem I’ll highlight. Read more

Keene Activism Makes Front Page of Union Leader

July 26, 2010 by Ian Freeman · 18 Comments
Filed under: Living Free, News

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. Read more

Reminder: Don’t Talk To The Police!

July 26, 2010 by Bradley Jardis · 14 Comments
Filed under: Police, Video

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.

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.

Free Minds TV July 23, 2010 (EP 166)

July 25, 2010 by toby · 2 Comments
Filed under: Free Minds TV, National, News, Video

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

Support Liberty by Becoming a FED

July 25, 2010 by Michael Hampton · 19 Comments
Filed under: Announcement

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.

Times change and technology advances, and I now have a very long list of proposed features that people would like to see added to Porcupine 411. Features like live video streaming, text messaging, GPS location of callers in distress and more sit on the back burner waiting to be realized, because what I don’t have is time. I have to spend much of my time working on projects unrelated to liberty in order to make ends meet in this economy, and that has taken away from the amount of time I can put into improving Porcupine 411.

Now you can help. By contributing $3 or more a month, you will become a FED and gain access to new features before they’re made publicly available, not to mention helping to fund the creation of those features in the first place. To learn more, view a list of proposed features, or set up your contribution, visit Finance Engineering and Development today.

Police Heartlessness

July 24, 2010 by Bradley Jardis · 21 Comments
Filed under: Police, Thuggery, Video

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: