I think YOU and all of your posts are a fiction, Ann.

Either that or you have a sadism issue that probably can’t be resolved by any of us.

I hope that one of these days you’ll look inside yourself and find the reason that you hate freedom.

And when you do, I hope you’ll find the resolve within yourself to fight that fear.

I feel sorry for you, and yet I am afraid of you and those like you, who let fear rule them, and cannot be free.

What’s sad is that you don’t want anyone else to be free either, unless they’re ‘free’ the way you think they ought to be.

Think about it Ann, think about the way you’ve been conditioned to think.

Those you fear and/or despise will never again think the way you do now. They have conquered that fear.

Will you?

Kudos to you on your direct and intelligent post. I suspect however that you also realize that your audience in this case is too invested in its collective ideological fantasies to actually hear you; thus the repetitious use of tired-out cliches and bizarre analogies that characterize so many posts here. The people here have accomplished very little with their lives, and so they seek a child’s sense of empowerment through ad nauseam stunts and self-proclaimed (and fictional) moral superiority. Since they lack many of the tools that would help them create lives for themselves that would bring them some sort of deeper satisfaction, this childish faux-empowerment is their meager compensation; they hold onto it for dear life, and I imagine you won’t be holding your breath waiting for them to change. You can’t argue with crazy people.

I don’t know all of the details, but I would like to make a few statements. Firstly, I do agree that KPD cops should get a fair shake when they do good things. Stopping the armed robber, saving a life, and exercising the discretion to leave the 420 participants (mostly) alone are all very praiseworthy.

I think you have a choice. You can behave as peace officers, who work for us and other average people, with a focus on protecting innocents from harm, or you can behave as law enforcement officers, who work for the beaurocrats/politicians, and enforce their arbitrary will upon us.

The first option makes you true public servants — doing what anyone has a right to do — protecting innocents from violent people, and otherwise helping to prevent harm. The main distinction from average people that peace officers have is their bravery and trustworthyness. To be a peace officer, it is not necessary to believe that one is exempted, by one’s position, from moral laws that apply to others, because one does not do things that would be immoral for others to do.

The second option makes you rulers over the public — the threat of violence that politicians use to enforce their arbitrary will. This is not something anyone has a right to do — enforcing compliance, and meteing out punishments for behaviors that have harmed no one, but have violated the politicians’ edicts about how we shall live our lives. Individuals do not have the right to use agressive (non defensive) violence to force complience or extract money, so to be the second kind of person, it is necessary to delude oneself that individuals can be exempted, by their position, from moral laws that apply to others.

Stopping an armed robber falls in the first catagory — protecting innocents. Any person has the right to stop an armed robber — you are only distingished from them by your willingess to act, and bravery. In this, you are acting as a public servant.

Ticketing/arresting someone for slowly rolling through a stop sign falls in the second catagory. It is not inherently an activity that would warrant a forceful response. No average citizen would have right to pull out a shotgun and start extorting money from someone for such an act, that has harmed no one, and is not even really dangerous. In this, you are acting as a ruler over the public, and are violating personal rights.

Helping convince someone not to kill themselves is in the first catagory — any good citizen may do it. It is public service.

Arresting someone for peacefully smoking pot is in the second catagory. No average person would have the right to take someone into custody who was minding their own business, just because they inhaled something the person didn’t approve of — nor would they have the right to extract money from them.

The first role earns respect and admiration, from all peaceful people not intent on harming others. The second engenders fear and resentment, from peaceful people who slip up and cross arbitrary lines, and whose lives and freedom of choice are increasingly and continually restricted by politicans.

The first role empowers the concience — you do what you believe is moral and right, to help others. The second atrophies it — you must do whatever the politicians tell you to do, no matter if you believe it to be moral or right.

This is the conflict. Sometimes police are servants, helping others. More and more these days, they are rulers, enforcing compliance. The first should be assisted, as a helper of others. The second should be thwarted, as a tyrant.

We are at a crossroads, in this country. You, and all of us, have to make our own choice as to what we will be, and influence others to be. Men with conciences, who have the courage to stand for what is right, or apparachiks, who will do whatever they are told.

We know, from history, which kind of men cause peace, great reform, and enlightenment, and which enable slavery, tyranny, and oppression.

I hope you will make the right choice, to protect peace, liberty, and individual rights, and that you and others will choose to spend your limited time helping those who really need it, not enforcing arbitrary diktats.

That’s a KPD I could get behind.

Regards,
Paul (Keene native, if that matters)

Are they also baised? Yes, but they’re honest and do not hesitate to call me out when I’m BSing.

“Hi Nick,

Good to hear from you…I’ve been on days off / shift change with a vacation day / training for about the last ten days, so last night was my first night back in a while.

I’ve watched the video from your link and I’ve spoken to both officers involved. It was explained to me that there’s much missing from your edited online version of the video, but then I’ve encountered that before (“…storage space limitations / bandwidth issues, that portion of the tape for some reason was bad.” I guess I believe it, I’m very trusting.).

Without going into details of what was told me by my (granted biased) officers, I will offer this:

#1 – Perhaps I’m just ignorant (I don’t claim to be the sharpest tack in the box), but please cite the “law” we’re bound by to tell you our names and badge numbers. I know there’s a name tag law, but I’m not aware of anything compelling me to tell you my name and badge number (even if we HAD badge numbers, which we don’t but you guys already knew that) if you’re not involved in the incident.

#2 – In my opinion, it has been established long ago that the cops in Keene do not randomly pull citizens out of their cars and beat them like harp seals. We refrained from this EVEN BEFORE “Keene CopWatch” focused their many video lenses on us. With that in mind, the whole KCW thing seems to have devolved into what we used to call in the Marines a “harass-ex,” that is, an exercise in harassment. An exercise whose apparent goal would be to goad the cops into doing something “blogworthy,” such as spazzing out and stomping on someone’s video camera, or saying something really idiotic. From experience, I would equate some of the KCW-ers with the kids we all used to know when we were young, the ones who on the school trip to the zoo would zing peanuts at the animals just to piss them off, knowing the animals couldn’t do anything about it. Not all, of course, but some. A hobby, not a mission…”Hey, Playstation’s boring, let’s go out and mess with the cops.”

#3 – Past KCW behavior alluded to in #2 includes trying to interfere with the car stop, whether it’s yelling stuff at the cops or the people stopped. Sometimes approaching the cops or the people stopped, during the car stop. How about having KCW-ers “fan out” around the car stop, some of them open-carrying, sometimes pissing off or scaring the people the cops are dealing with? My guys are supposed to pay attention to what they’re doing for a variety of obvious reasons, and it’s hard for them to do that when the paparazzi try so hard to distract them. Additionally, as was noted on freekeene to much fanfare, you folks have our logs and our radio transmissions, and you know how to identify us through our call numbers, which you’ve done several times already quite quickly and easily. To say you needed the officers name right there on the street so you could get the video blog posting right or so that you could get to know him sounds fishy. We don’t ambush people to get to know them.

#4 – KCW behavior aside, the actions and statements of many of your “group” in other forums (court, protests, forum postings, blogs etc.) make it quite unlikely that any officer would want to interact with most of you, besides a select few and me who are apparently masochists. Who would want to subject themselves to this kind of crap? Really. Ironically, we’re touted as one of the 111 plus reasons to move to Keene, but it appears this causes you to shit on us more (see zoo animal analogy in #2 again). With a few notable (and appreciated) exceptions, we rarely get an even break. So why would an officer want to “get to know you?” Rarely is there mention of anything good the cops do (we saved a life last night, but that doesn’t make good BLOG I guess.)

#5 – As for anything to “hide,” Officer Lamoureux has nothing to hide except that he’s an excellent DWI hunter and recently received an award for spotting, pursuing and assisting in the arrest of an armed robber (shotgun). Again, nothing bloggable there.

I will try to suggest a more positive interaction strategy for my officers. Don’t expect them to talk to you if you interfere with what they’re doing, if you crap on them or whatever. If you talk to them like a grown up, they will more than likely oblige. I don’t think an “ass kicking” is merited here.

Have to go, craps hitting the fan. Back again…that was a suicidal woman with a knife, and a suicidal guy with a gun, same time.

Take care of yourself, hope lyf is booming.

Shane (uh, Maxfield 083)”

Because I am feeling chastened over an earlier incident, I will not call you a retard.

I wish we had a hundred of this guy.
Because currently, there are thousands . . .