Manchester Checkpoint

On July 15th members of the Manchester PD and New Hampshire State gangs set up a roadblock on S Willow St near the TD bank and detained drivers and passangers at random. As is usual, several people showed up with signs to warn drivers of the aggressions ahead while there was still an opportunity to turn onto another street. That night however, we were not at site when the checkpoint started. For a while the gang members had always detained people on Bridge street, and that is where we anticipated that they would be, though it was not the only location that we checked. We were beginning to think that the checkpoint had been called off when we heard a call on the scanner

about an arrest at a checkpoint. Approximately 10 people, most of them libertarians, held signs warning drivers of the impending aggressions ahead. Reactions from drivers and passengers were varied, as they always are, and ranged from waving and yelling “fuck the police,” to one individual who stopped in the road to ask us if we had anything better to do at 1am on a Friday night and that we should go home. What that individual was doing at 1am on that Friday night is unknown. Most driver, including most drivers who gave us negative reactions, were able to turn onto a side road and avoid the gang members.

178 people, not counting passengers were temporarily kidnapped that night. There were 5 arrests, only one of which was for DWI. The other four victims were arrested for a bench warrant, disobeying a gang member, driving without papers, and possession of an undisclosed substance.Source I saw one car being stolen, presumably it was the car being driven by the person who was unable to prove that they were sober to the gang members.

Warning people of police aggressions at checkpoints is relatively safe in New Hampshire. I am never in any real fear of gang members when I engage in checkpoint blocking, and as far as I know, no one has been kidnapped or robbed for doing it here. Gangs in other states can be more aggressive than those in New Hampshire, and people have been kidnapped Checkpoint Arrest  and robbed Checkpoint Citation for warning others of checkpoints in other places.

I always knew that knowing the location of the checkpoint ahead of time would not last forever. We were not able to warn as many people last Friday as we usually are, but it’s worth it if we are able to save just one person from police aggression.

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