Sentinel Reports on Topless Arrest – Curiously Restricts Access to Story

August 25, 2009 by Ian
Filed under: Issues, News, Update

The Keene Sentinel did run a story yesterday about Cassidy’s arrest, but it’s curiously not available on their website to anyone but subscribers. (It was my understanding that normally they only restrict their stories to subscribers after seven days.) Luckily, journalist Phil Bantz has his own blog where he posts all the stories he writes. So, thanks to Phil, we present his coverage of Sunday’s event:

By PHILLIP BANTZ

Sentinel Staff

The Keene Sentinel: August 24, 2009

A topless teenage girl with a handgun holstered on her hip was arrested Sunday afternoon near a busy intersection in downtown Keene.

Cassidy Nicosia, 18, was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure at about 1:30 p.m. near the Main-Marlboro-Winchester streets roundabout.

Nicosia was arrested after police answered multiple complaint calls about a topless girl walking through downtown Keene with a group of armed protesters affiliated with the Free State Project, Keene police Sgt. James A. Cemorelis said.

The Free State Project is an effort to convince 20,000 people to move to New Hampshire and participate in activism and run for local and state office.

Only 743 people have made the move and another 9,585 have committed to moving since a majority of project members voted on the Live Free or Die state as a home base nearly six years ago, according to the project’s Web site.

Nicosia lists Manchester as her current residence and Houston, Texas, as her hometown on the social networking Web site MySpace.

In an online video of Nicosia’s protest and arrest, she explains why she decided to go topless in public.

“I chose to do it because this is one of the most important issues to me is equality … men can walk down the street … and, you know, not get harassed at all but yet somehow this is dirty,” she says.

Shirtless men, some holding video cameras, are standing around Nicosia during the protest. Women who are wearing tops are also standing with her.

“She (Nicosia) was the only woman there who did not have her breasts covered,” Cemorelis said.

When the police arrive, the video shows Nicosia and others in her group arguing with them and requesting to be left alone.

“In an effort to be reasonable, we asked her many times to put her shirt on and be on her way,” Cemorelis said. “She absolutely refused to do so.”

Nicosia eventually agrees to put on a top, but only after she is arrested. She gives the gun she was carrying to another member of her group before the arrest. State law does not require residents to have permits to openly carry firearms.

While going through the booking process at the Keene Police Department, Nicosia refused to provide identification, Cemorelis said.

Other members of the Free State Project have also refused to identify themselves for police and government officials. One member, Samuel Miller, who also left Texas for the Granite State, spent nearly 60 days in jail because he would not provide his name to police or a judge.

Nicosia, though, decided to provide identification after speaking with police.

“We explained to her that the crime didn’t warrant her being held on bail,” Cemorelis said. “But if she didn’t provide us with identifying information, we’d more likely than not have to hold her until she could see the judge (Monday) morning.”

Nicosia was released with a summons to appear Sept. 9 at Keene District Court for arraignment.

Comments

8 Comments on Sentinel Reports on Topless Arrest – Curiously Restricts Access to Story

LibertyTiger on Tue, 25th Aug 2009 1:22 pm

It’s always good to seek Keeniacs getting exposure in the press. But seriously, “teenage”? To me that’s a word that describes a high school student or other minor, not an adult woman capable of making her own decisions. I feel the word “teenage” is often used to marginalize the thoughts and opinions of young adults.

Jitgos on Tue, 25th Aug 2009 2:33 pm

Good to see the fair report and the activism still getting good coverage. I do agree with LIBERTYTIGER’s point though. Also, Mr. Blantz should be careful using the word girl to describe a woman. That’s a slur about the same as calling a black man a boy. http://www.answers.com/girl I don’t think it’s anything intentional, but to some that is very offensive language.

Lpviper on Tue, 25th Aug 2009 2:51 pm

I see where you’re coming from, jitgos, but I also see how many, many common words could be used to turn people against one another because of perceived, though not always real, insult. ‘Sensitivity’ to this personalization of words is likely to make the problem worse instead of better

Justin on Tue, 25th Aug 2009 8:03 pm

““In an effort to be reasonable, we asked her many times to put her shirt on and be on her way,” Cemorelis said. “She absolutely refused to do so.”

Nicosia eventually agrees to put on a top, but only after she is arrested.”

If you watched the video you know that they threatened her: either put on the shirt or be imprisoned; they did not “ask” her to do anything.

Further, she only put on the top after being arrested because the protest was over – and for comfort, she didn’t want to stick to the cruiser’s seats.

Its heartening to see that this received some press, but “with friends like these…”

Justin on Tue, 25th Aug 2009 8:09 pm

““We explained to her that the crime didn’t warrant her being held on bail,” Cemorelis said. “But if she didn’t provide us with identifying information, we’d more likely than not have to hold her until she could see the judge (Monday) morning.””

In other words: The cops don’t think people should be imprisoned for this either, but they “have to hold her” if she doesn’t comply with the arresting procedure for the offense she shouldn’t be imprisoned for…

Sounds like another Keene Police agent is starting to see the contradictions in the system’s process. But really – if she shouldn’t be imprisoned, why did he arrest her? Did he just acknowledge that he is following orders that he finds morally objectionable? Isn’t that what all brownshirts do?

kalmia on Wed, 26th Aug 2009 3:59 am

JITGOS, ‘girl’ isn’t necessarily offensive. I hear many adult women use it to refer to themselves.

JUSTIN, it’s more about obedience for the sake of obedience. They do it to uphold the system.

Mike on Fri, 28th Aug 2009 1:05 pm

…police answered multiple complaint calls about a topless girl walking through downtown Keene with a group of armed protesters affiliated with the Free State Project…

Hmmm. How could the complainants have known these people were part of the free state project? (In fact, were they all?) There were no shirts with logos, so they couldn’t have seen anything identifying the FSP. We were not protesting – no signs, no flyers, no bullhorn, no protests – we were just walking around town. If this information came from the police (that the complainants reported free staters protesting) it seems to me to be a set-up directly targeted at people they already knew were free staters.

Gary on Fri, 25th Sep 2009 1:39 pm

I admire Cassidy for knowing her rights and sticking to them. Bennington, VT allows what she did, even in NYC. It will not be long before that is commonplace. She is 19 and in this State of Live Free or Die, she exercised her Freedom. Good for her.

Post your comment below. Login in the far right column to get rid of CAPTCHA. If you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!