KPD Turns to Liberty Activists for Evidence from Pumpkin Fest 2014 Riots

by | Oct 22, 2014 | 22 comments

Click for RAW video from Fr33manTVraw

Click for RAW video from Fr33manTVraw

The headlines are all over New England media: Keene Police have released photos of suspects from the Pumpkin Fest 2014 riots. Inevitably, critics of liberty activists in Keene, and those who are confused and angry about Cop Block will tend to think liberty-oriented people are anti-police, because we so frequently criticize them for various things. It’s a common misunderstanding.

Many in the freedom movement, including myself, value the idea of protection services, which is what the police are supposed to be. While I’d prefer competition among protection agencies and consent-based funding of the agencies, while we have a monopoly provider, as we do today, I’d prefer they investigate real crimes, and I support them when they do.

Once upon a time the government’s police were referred to as peace officers, but now they are “law enforcement officers”, which is a whole different role and mindset.

During the Pumpkin Fest riots, peace officers would have acted to stop the violence (bottle throwing, fighting), property destruction (destroying street signs, tossing cars and dumpsters), and trespass (people going unwanted, onto private property). Law Enforcement Officers, on the other hand, arrest people for all kinds of nonsense things like open container, underage drinking, cannabis possession, and various other “malum prohibitum” victimless “crimes”. Every moment they spend harassing a young person for drinking or smoking is a moment they can’t be investigating actual crimes that have victims.

Anyway, it appears the bulk of the photos that Keene Police have released came from the video I shot during the dangerous bottle war that I experienced on Blake Street. I knew as I was recording it, that the police would use the footage in their investigation. I presume the Keene police already know about Fr33manTVraw, the YouTube channel where activists upload unedited, RAW 1080p video files.

Should you, dear reader, want to assist in identifying those culpable of violence and destruction of property, here are the raw videos that I used to make the finished video news package you saw here a few days ago. The vids are uploaded in full 1080p so IDing people will be a little easier than by trying to use the 720p package I put out on the main Free Keene youtube channel. Click to see all the videos on Fr33manTVraw.

If you want to reach Joel Chidester at Keene police with an ID of one of the aggressors you see in the raw videos, you can call him at (more…)