Saturday, February 4th was a national day of action against agitation for war with Iran. With my camera charged up, I made my first stop on the mild winter day the Barack Obama campaign office in Nashua, which had an opening celebration at 10:00am. I showed up to meet Occupy NH participants who had brought literature to distribute. I went about my usual chalking, focusing on messages that I hoped would make supporters of the president question their commitment.
Some suits emerged from the building, looked around, and went back inside. As I was keeping the chalking away from a portion of pavement under an overhang, and in the public area of the sidewalk, I knew that there could not be a claim that I was chalking any private property. Aside from myself, only one other person chose to participate in the chalking.
Three police cars eventually arrive. An officer politely asks the group to be sure that they do not block the sidewalk, as they had received complaints. He was brief, leaving after having relayed the information.
Up the street, the officer from the lead car was speaking with a man in a red jacket. I filmed from a distance, and noticed when the police began moving away from him. You could hear him yell, “These people have no right! No right to deface public property!”
You can see in the video his profane reaction when I try to converse with him after the police leave. He went on to deny the first amendment freedom of speech, and imply that I was morally transgressing by speaking against “your president” and “your country”. Yet another example of an individual so detached from his fellow man that when he is offended by an action (chalking) he first goes to an agent of aggression, rather than have the courage to politely and respectfully address the issue himself.
Kudos to the Nashua PD for choosing not to interfere when there was clearly no wrongdoing going on.
My next stop of the day was an Antiwar Rally at Veterans Park in Manchester, which began at noon. Coverage of that event coming soon.
This article originally published at freeconcord.org.
