This post is my response to Steve Gilbert’s column, Free Keene and The Golden Rule, by Steve Gilbert
In a recent column, Steve Gilbert of the Keene Sentinel makes the argument that Free Keene’s Robin Hooders have violated the basic tenet of the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I agree that the golden rule is a pretty good standard to try to live one’s life by. I do not feel that any of MY actions as a Robin Hooder have violated this tenet.
Unfortunately, the city of Keene does not abide by this principle. The city of Keene engages daily in a form of bullying through its parking enforcers by using the city’s position of power to coerce people into paying for parking in public spaces whether they want to or not. The tickets are a form of extortion that I believe is unwarranted since they are issued to people who are simply parking their vehicles; an act which I do not think justifies the use of force. If a private business left a bill on someone’s vehicle which kept exponentially increasing if it wasn’t paid, sent threatening letters to one’s home regarding the bill, and eventually stole and held someone’s car to coerce them to pay the bill, most would view this behavior as unacceptable and not abiding by the golden rule.
Basically, the city is forcing people to act in an involuntary manner by the use of a threat, the parking ticket. The city extorts people to pay the parking tickets through intimidation by threatening to steal a person’s vehicle. If someone tries to protect their property from being stolen, they will end up in jail. This outcome is another double standard that is not applied to other businesses or individuals; imagine someone going to jail for trying to prevent someone else from taking his or her vehicle.
Steve makes a lot of accusations that are very exaggerated and untrue. Steve alleges that Robin Hooders stick “a camera in someone’s face for hours at a time.” I record the actions I undertake while out robin hooding for three reasons:
(1) I want to get the word out about what I am doing. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni7aOsBxPiE
(2) I want footage of anything interesting that may transpire. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH4iJzlaYu4
(3) Most importantly, the videoing is for my protection since it is good to have an objective record of exactly what happened. If an issue arises between me and the parking enforcer, the police and court system are likely to believe them over me. It also offers some protection between me and the general public. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUDIZjABQMU
Steve also unfairly attempts to broadly apply the actions of a few individuals to an entire group. This logic is outrageous and if applied to other groups of people would be thought of very poorly by most people. For instance if one assumes all persons of a certain race are criminals, that all persons of a certain religion are zealots, or even all members of a certain sex all act the same way.
Additionally, Steve has many of his facts incorrect. He makes the claim that this form of activism “started this winter.” Actually, Robin Hooding started in 2009 and has been a long standing form of activism as seen in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDvEFmylS8Y
Steve poses the question, “Is the goal to reduce parking enforcement officers to tears and badger them until they quit?” Steve is missing the entire point of Robin Hooding. As stated in Robin Hood of Keene’s facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/KeeneRobinHood, the mission of Robin Hood of Keene, which has been unchanged since the beginning of Robin Hooding in Keene started in 2009, is “Saving the good people from the king’s tariff by depositing a small coin into the ‘parking meters’ so the the king’s ‘Meter Maids’ cannot demand their tax.” I attempt to allocate my time efficiently by locating enforcers and feeding any meters that are along their path. It does not make sense to waste my time and resources filling meters that were not going to be ticketed. If I feed a meter and the enforcer never would have walked past it before the vehicle was moved, I would have wasted the donations Robin Hood of Keene has received from appreciative community members.
Robin Hooding is not about the parking enforcers. If it were about them, I could have made countless videos showing them violating laws (jaywalking, traffic violations, etc), acting rude to me and others, and any other mistakes they have made. Additionally, I do not interact with any of the enforcers when they are not on duty. I don’t follow them home or try to find them off duty.
Steve is also ignoring the overall reaction of the public to Robin Hooders. I have numerous encounters with the public on a weekly basis and they are overwhelming positive. Examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQ0koaC53E & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il8N7JJbcPA
If the suit does proceed to trial, the video records I have of my actions will prove that none of my actions are unethical and the suit is unfounded.
The city of Keene never attempted to contact me before filing a lawsuit against me, an act which I do not believe is in congruence with the golden rule. Likewise, the Sentinel and its writers/editors including Steve Gilbert have made no attempt to contact me regarding Robin Hooding before writing articles regarding the activity. Other news and media organizations including but not limited to, The Union Leader, WMUR, WBIN, Fox News, and Good Morning America made attempts to contact multiple respondents in the lawsuit regarding Robin Hooding. To my knowledge, the Sentinel is the only media outlet which only contacted one Robin Hooder, Ian Freeman for comment. I extend an invitation to Steve Gilbert to meet with me, on record, and discuss any of his concerns regarding Robin Hooding.
Yours Truly,
-James ‘Robin Hood’ Cleaveland
