Thanks to the Nashua Telegraph’s Joseph Cote for this story:
Activists were at it again Tuesday, protesting marijuana laws on Library Hill and later at the Nashua Police Department following one arrest.
Organizer Kelly McGuire said she was committed to continuing daily protests, which over the weekend included some protesters smoking joints and from bowls in the downtown park.
About six protesters held signs at the park at the top of Main Street, according to Nashua police Sgt. Denis Linehan. A handful of police were in the area to keep an eye on the protesters, including plainclothes officers among the group.
Linehan said police knew the protest was planned because it was advertised online. The man whom police arrested allegedly gave a joint to one of the plainclothes officers at the park and was charged with distribution of a controlled substance, Linehan said.
McGuire said police refused to identify themselves and didn’t give a reason for arresting the man.
“As far as I know, they came in and arrested him without cause,” McGuire, of Nashua, said. “They wouldn’t identify themselves.”
The man who was arrested was held overnight at the Hillsborough County Department of Corrections after refusing to give police his name, Linehan said.
The man was to be arraigned at Nashua District Court today, he said.
McGuire said she had planned to hold the protests every Tuesday at 4:20 p.m. but has decided to hold them every day until police stop arresting people. What she wants, she said, is to be ignored and for marijuana laws to not be enforced.
Bill Domenico, of Manchester, said that’s how police have handled other protests he’s attended.
“They just ignored us. That’s what we want: to be ignored,” he said.
“We’re going to be out there every day, at least I am,” McGuire said.
A number of people spent hours in the Nashua Police Department lobby after the protest waiting for information on the man who was arrested.
A protest this weekend at the same site resulted in three arrests. Lewis Labitue, 17, of Nashua, was charged with possession of a controlled drug. Catherine Bleish, 25, executive director of The Liberty Restoration Project, was charged with disorderly conduct and Nicholas Krouse, 28, of Keene, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. All of those charges are misdemeanors.
Linehan said police have no problem with protesters so long as they’re peaceful and not carrying or using illegal drugs. Otherwise, they stand to be arrested and charged, he said.
“They’re trying to antagonize. We have a responsibility to enforce the laws,” Linehan said. “We are going to enforce them.”
McGuire disagreed and said police could use their judgment, and do regularly, and could choose to ignore the protests.
“If the law’s wrong, maybe they shouldn’t enforce it,” she said.
Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com.
