In this RAW video, former city council candidate Bradford Hutchingson encounters Graham Colson and Rich Paul on Main St in early April. Bradford aka “King of Keene” asks for change over and over and sticks his face in Graham’s camera (he did the same thing in this video with Dave Ridley). Bradford’s behavior probably has something to do with the continuous accusation against area activists that we are “shoving” cameras in people’s faces. I’ve never put a camera near someone’s face, let alone shoved it at anyone. I’ve never seen other activists with cameras disrespect people’s personal space, either.
Graham shows again that he is capable of deescalating a violent situation very well, though the conversation does get heated and loud. Graham is a good activist and has been and will get better with time. Here’s the video, much of which is very funny, thanks to Free Keene blogger Rich Paul’s role:
Dave Ridley of RidleyReport.com visits Keene during Keenevention and encounters former candidate for city council and prolific commenter at Free Keene, Bradford “King of Keene” Hutchingson. Ridley confronts Bradford regarding his alleged assault of Free Concord & FK blogger Garret Ean and Bradford responds in a very bizarre manner:
Bradford Hutchingson, who has been known to call himself “King of Keene” in this blog’s comments, recently filed for a stalking order to be issued against Free Keene blogger Garret Ean. Hutchingson is known for his bizarre and sometimes dangerous
behavior. In fact, Hutchingson is facing criminal charges for an alleged attack on Garret Ean and will soon be back in superior court for a jury trial in that matter. Hutchingson is also the only city council candidate who did worse than me in the election of 2013.
The superior court’s John C. Kissinger conducted a hearing on Monday and firmly ruled against Hutchingson’s plea, as Hutchingson admitted that he had no fear that Garret was a danger, while Garret told the judge of the multiple occasions on which Hutchingson had attacked or threatened him and offered to show video of various incidents.
During the hearing, Hutchingson announced his candidacy for Keene city council in 2015 for the at-large seats. Here’s video of the full hearing:
The freedom-fearing folks of “STOP FREE KEENE!!!” have apparently started an anonymous blog site. The site claims on its “Get Involved” page, “we believe in transparency”, yet readers have no idea who is writing the articles.
Another important difference is that FK’s bloggers are willing to talk with people who disagree in real life and online, whereas many of SFK’s members thus far have shown an unwillingness to communicate with their neighbors. Their blog’s comments are moderated, meaning each comment must be approved by the site admins. (EDIT/UPDATE: They appear to have changed their moderation settings to either allow all comments or allow all after one approval, as I am now able to post without pre-moderation.)
In contrast, the Disqus commenting system we have here at Free Keene allows anyone to post, though there is a moderation system which at times on its own will hold up certain posts. Those auto-moderated posts are usually approved, provided they are not spam, racism, or advocating violence. People masquerading as others are also not welcome to comment at FK. However, anyone can post here with anonymity and by default comments are not moderated.
In real life at the recent “STOP FREE KEENE!!!” silent protest, I am told there was a middle-aged man (not a liberty activist) who came up and attempted to talk to SFK’s Joshua Erickson, (one of the administrators of their facebook group, a self-described socialist) and inquire of him about their protest. Josh apparently refused to speak to the man, but Free Keene blogger, James “Robin Hood” Cleaveland was more than happy to talk to the gentleman when he inquired, and they had a great conversation. (Some of which you can hear in the background of the video from the event.)
To SFK’s credit, they did have an awesome turnout at their event. Unlike their predecessor, the long-defunct “Keene Matters” blog from 2007, SFK actually has a real-life presence. Too bad not even the heads of the organization will talk to anybody about their ideas, whatever those are. So much for transparency.
One more interesting thing in the realm of transparency, some of SFK’s members have bragged about their facebook group having over 1,000 members. (more…)
Keene held a municipal primary on October 8 because a municipal ordinance says if there are more than 2 candidates for Mayor or a Ward Council seat, or more than 10 candidates for At-Large Council there shall be a primary. There were 11 candidates for At-Large council, so the City spent approximately $5,000 to remove 1 candidate from the general election ballot.
Ian Freeman survived the municipal primary for At-Large City Council, snagging the 10th ballot spot by a mere 10 votes over Bradford Hutchingson. (more…)
In this RAW video, former city council candidate Bradford Hutchingson encounters Graham Colson and Rich Paul on Main St in early April. Bradford aka “King of Keene” asks for change over and over and sticks his face in Graham’s camera (he did the same thing in this video with Dave Ridley). Bradford’s behavior probably has something to do with the continuous accusation against area activists that we are “shoving” cameras in people’s faces. I’ve never put a camera near someone’s face, let alone shoved it at anyone. I’ve never seen other activists with cameras disrespect people’s personal space, either.
