As of Monday July sixth, the people calling themselves the “State of New Hampshire” have imprisoned another videographer at the Cheshire jail. This time it’s Dave Ridley from RidleyReport.com. He’ll be spending six days in Chez Westmoreland because he dared to use his freedom of the press and record video in the lobby of the Keene district court. Videographer Sam Dodson spent 58 days in the same facility for recording video and then using his alleged right to remain silent. Sam, also a blogger here at Free Keene, was arrested at the arraignment forced on Dave. Now having been forced into a trial and found guilty, Dave has turned himself in (under their threat of violence, of course) for a six day sentence. Nearly twenty liberty activists came out and had a picnic and sign-waving rally on the jail grounds. The prisoners were pleased to see us, as always.
Total cost to jail peaceful activists in Cheshire county so far in 2009? At over $30,000 per year to imprison people in NH, Dave’s six days, Sam’s 58, and Andrew Carroll’s nine, that’s at least $6,000. How much they spent on all the bureaucracy (police, court, sheriffs) to get them in jail is another question entirely. Either way, it seems that mass civil disobedience and noncooperation are keys to freedom (plus education and enlightenment) and that when more disobey and say no, it will begin to cost the violent monopolists more and more. May they one day see the error in their ways!
JailedActivist.info has contact info for the court, jail, police, and Dave, so feel free to get in touch. Also, you can write to Dave via mail-to-jail.com, but hurry because he’ll likely be out Sunday.
More video of the jail scene to come, but prior to his arrival at the jail, Dave was interviewed by Motorhome Diaries‘ Jason Talley:
