Free Keene

When videographers tried to document Kurt Hoffman being taken out of the Keene District Court on a stretcher, they were met with extreme resistance, forced into a side room, and issued threats of being penalized for violating HIPAA.

Not once has anyone been able to show us the text of HIPAA that restricts people from recording patients in public. In fact, you may be surprised to see that in the video below, a videographer in Keene openly records the scene of an accident and the patient, without his consent, and the police don’t even seem to acknowledge it as an issue.

On the day of the general election I went to Ward 4’s voting location with the intention of voting for Free Keene’s Nick Ryder. As the city clerk had promised, I had indeed been removed from the voters’ rolls because I’d registered to vote with my “domicile” as my box at the UPS Store. On the day of the general election I was homeless and decided to register to vote as such. As happened during the primary, they did everything they could to prevent me from taking part in their system. (Interestingly, people like me who prefer outside-the-system activism are incessantly told that we should work within the system, but if we try to, this is the kind of crap that happens.)

So I tried to register as a homeless person and despite signing TWO forms under penalty of perjury (the “domicile affidavit” and the “voter challenge affidavit”) they STILL refused to accept my registration! I immediately pulled out my blackberry and QIKked their explanation. Turns out because the “checklist supervisor” didn’t FEEL like I was homeless, that was enough to deny me the right to vote. It didn’t matter one iota that I’d sworn an oath to my claim being true. My supposed right to vote was DENIED. Watch as it happened:

(Read on …)

FreeKeene.com’s blogger Sam attempted to record a trial in Keene, NH. He had previously been allowed into the courtroom, but now all of a sudden the rules had changed and people with guns assaulted him and his camera. This is raw footage of the encounters from my perspective with a Blackberry phone. Watch here at FreeKeene.com for Sam’s video when it’s available.

While in the Cheshire County Jail, I requested to use the law library on a few occasions to defend myself. The requests were generally approved after anywhere from 3-8 days later after several follow-up requests, and in one case, a petition signed by 20 other prisoners.

Unfortunately the law library at the jail is severely deficient. The New Hampshire RSA set, updated last in ‘94, has volumes missing. They have the RSA’s on one computer, which was down for weeks, but that doesn’t include much useful case law.

The Federal code volumes are from the 50’s and have more volumes missing than on the shelves. The NH court rules haven’t been updated since 1979, and that’s important because they have added hoops to jump through to call witnesses in your own defense, which are not even in the 1979 rules. The Keene city ordinances are nowhere in sight,  and several activists continue to be charged with them.

While in the Jail Richard Van Wickler said it’s not his responsibility, and that I should call the Public Defenders office because they maintain the law library, and they have assured him that it’s up to date.

Today I called and spoke with Jan who has managed the Public Defenders office for over 20 years.

Guess what, they have never been responsible for the law library at the jail. (Read on …)

In the video below I explain my motives for not going along quietly with a simple citation and paying the fine. Statism is a religion that I simply do not have faith in and those of us who feel that way need to come out of the closet and stop pretending that we do in order to fit in and avoid conflict.

I was recently accused of hiding behind my principles. The implication was that I was making a poor decision pragmatically speaking in order to adhere to some lofty and impractical principle. But principles are pragmatic. At least they ought to be. Otherwise what good are they? If your goals are noble, what better way to determine principles than based on whether they help you achieve your goals?

We often confuse expediency with pragmatism. You can make a choice that provides immediate return and seems the pragmatic choice only to pay a higher price later. A person who commits a crime is getting some immediate reward but has an ever-increasing risk of being caught each time. He’s gambling. He’s also shitting where he eats by destroying the sense of trust in his community. Lying is similar. When you get caught in a lie, which is likely just a matter of time depending on how often you attempt it, you seriously undermine your reputation. Worse yet, if you lie now expecting some immediate gain from it, even if you correct yourself in the future, anything you say thereafter will be circumspect. Even when you get away with it, every lie you tell for some immediate benefit undermines your veracity because you know you’re a liar. Conversely, knowing in your heart that you are consistently honest and sincere shows through in the power of your convictions. It’s a rare talent to be able to lie convincingly.

(Read On…)

Free Keene has just uncovered an exclusive internal draft of a recent KPD press release related to an upcoming CALEA accreditation:

Public Notice

The Keene Police Department is scheduled for an on-site assessment September 13-15, 2009, as part of a program to achieve recognition by verifying that it meets professional standards. The recognition program requires agencies comply with state-of-the-art standards in four basic areas: Customer Satisfaction, Responsiveness to Citizen Requests, Solution Oriented Focus Addressing Root Causes, and Victim Restitution.

The public is encouraged to provide feedback ensuring our assessors get a complete picture of how this agency is impacting the community. Refreshments will be provided to visitors who may meet with our team during business hours this week, during the Saturday/Sunday sessions or other times by appointment. We look forward to hearing from you.

Janice Hartman, CALEA Team Lead

Okay, as you may have guessed, this is not a genuine draft of the press release. I wrote it to get you thinking about how police may be a bit  hypocritical and even delusional in their claim to protect and serve the interests of the public.

In Reality, if you want to “offer comments” you’ll need to . . . (Read on …)

Last week I had a chat with Keene’s city clerks Patti Little, Bill Dow, and the assistant city attorney about their challenge to my voter’s registration. The episode, some highlights of which you can see in the Ridley Report below, turned into a perfect example of how even if you think you know what their rules say, it’s only their interpretation that matters.

I filed for my candidacy for mayor as Ian “Nobody” Bernard. That’s my slave name with a nickname of “Nobody” added to the middle. The publicly announced purpose of this campaign was to give voters the first opportunity ever to actually choose Nobody, rather than the lesser of two evils. (As I would not take the oath of office or attend council meetings.) Clearly, the establishment did not appreciate this and immediately set to disqualifying me from the ballot. They decided on attacking my voter registration, which hadn’t seemed to be a problem before. (Read on …)

I like to hang around during office hours with the staff of Jeanne Shaheen the US Senator. I may be  one of the local “businessmen” who uses government for my own benefit.  Do you know anything about me? Please share your information in a comment below.

In unrelated news, Shaheen has updated office hours, and she apparently doesn’t want to hear from Keene. The closest location to share your concerns is now over an hour away.

Here’s the video containing Cassidy’s arrest for being female and topless in public. There are several videos of the scene in addition to this and all of them can be found on Free Keene Live.