A recent mover within the last year, Andrew Mercer has kept a fairly low profile as far as activism goes, but he’s certainly still been active. He has gone to court hearings when he can, he’s been to a few 4:20 rallies, and he’s accompanied Sam on quests into City Hall for open records requests, he’s even been on a few CopWatching missions. Though he hasn’t gone out looking to push boundaries and engage in disobedience, but he was recently held in Vermont by state troopers just because one of them suspected he had an illegal plant in his possession.
However, Andrew just went to trial on an unrelated case out of Keene involving him being caught driving a car that didn’t have the correct license plate on it. At trial Andrew’s councel, FreeKeene blogger Nick Ryder, argued that the State could not prove that Andrew attached the wrong plate to the car, or allowed anyone else to.
Nonetheless, Judge Lane of the Keene District Court found Andrew guilty, and because of his resistance to paying fines to the government, Andrew will be committed to 50 hours in jail over two separate occasions. The first beginning this Tuesday afternoon (02-02-10).
He may be critiqued for “playing by the rules” in trying to defend himself “by the system” in court, but he’s costing the State several times the price of his $150 ticket. And if more people did that, the system would easily grind down.
Liberty-minded people called “Talkback” on WKBK last week to discuss stealing property, agreements, providing unwanted services, arbitrary extractions, and a tax revolt. We also hear from an offended caller, who calls liberty activists a “gang” – actually she calls them *my* gang, as though I’m in charge. The smarmy dartmouth guy also makes an appearance.
Please join us for our weekly chat and calling sessions on Saturday mornings from 11a-12p in the Liberty Radio Network Chat room. If you’re online, you can listen to Talkback streamed live via the Liberty Radio Network and if you’re in the Keene area you can tune in to WKBK 1290 AM or 104.1 FM. The Talkback discussion thread is here on the Free Keene Forum.
UK job placement agency rejects advertisement because looking for “reliable workers” discriminates against lazy people, US ethanol subsidies are leaving millions hungry, the Downsizer Dispatch, federal subsidies are at an all time high, and an upset parent has dictionaries which define “oral sex” banned from certain classrooms.
Ever sat in an arraignment on a Monday or Tuesday morning in Keene District Court? The room is usually packed full of people, the supermajority of which have never harmed another person. They are there for harmless traffic tickets, drug possession, open container, or some other nonsense “crime against the state”, where there is no true victim. Well, correction, the people who are in court for these “crimes” are actually the victims of aggression by the people calling themselves the state or city. They shuffle in and line up to cut a “deal” with the prosecutor and pay in many cases hundreds of dollars just to make the awful experience go away.
You can almost hear the cash register ring to the tune of thousands of dollars each day. Most of the people who are being caught for these things certainly cannot afford to pay these fines whether or not the economy is doing well. Many of them have to go on payment plans, because they certainly don’t want to go to jail, which is what is done if they don’t pay up. You’d think that with all that cash rolling in from these victimless “criminals” that the system would be in the black. You would be wrong. This is bureaucracy we’re talking about, and they don’t have the ability to run efficiently, period.
The Keene Sentinel’s Phil Bantz reports that the courts are in such dire financial shape, they have to shut down – not completely, but enough to make scheduling and “speedy trials” even more difficult. Many trials of local liberty activists are already set into late spring, and may be delayed even longer with the pending shutdown.
Perhaps if the police would stop aggressing against peaceful people then the caseload would be manageable and they wouldn’t have to be going through this.
Can you imagine what would happen if 5-10% of the victims of state aggression stopped plea bargaining and took their cases to trial? The entire system would crash and burn. Their power rests on your obedience, so set the example and refuse to take a plea. Make them pay to schedule a trial and if you can afford to, take the jail time rather than pay them fines so it costs them even more.
Perhaps they’ll eventually do the right thing and leave peaceful people alone and only go after real criminals who harm others. Here’s the Sentinel story:
Already understaffed and overloaded with cases, Keene District Court and Cheshire County Superior Court, in the heart of the city’s downtown, are bracing for monthly closures and temporary layoffs.
Saying it was the saddest moment of his 37 years in the state’s judicial system, Chief Justice John T. Broderick Jr. met with judges and marital masters last Friday and asked them to take furloughs, an unprecedented request. (more…)
A recent mover within the last year, Andrew Mercer has kept a fairly low profile as far as activism goes, but he’s certainly still been active. He has gone to court hearings when he can, he’s been to a few 4:20 rallies, and he’s accompanied Sam on quests into City Hall for open records requests, he’s even been on a few CopWatching missions. Though he hasn’t gone out looking to push boundaries and engage in disobedience, but he was recently held in Vermont by state troopers just because one of them suspected he had an illegal plant in his possession.
Liberty-minded people called “Talkback” on WKBK last week to discuss stealing property, agreements, providing unwanted services, arbitrary extractions, and a tax revolt. We also hear from an offended caller, who calls liberty activists a “gang” – actually she calls them *my* gang, as though I’m in charge. The smarmy dartmouth guy also makes an appearance. 
Ever sat in an arraignment on a Monday or Tuesday morning in Keene District Court? The room is usually packed full of people, the supermajority of which have never harmed another person. They are there for harmless traffic tickets, drug possession, open container, or some other nonsense “crime against the state”, where there is no true victim. Well, correction, the people who are in court for these “crimes” are actually the victims of aggression by the people calling themselves the state or city. They shuffle in and line up to cut a “deal” with the prosecutor and pay in many cases hundreds of dollars just to make the awful experience go away.
