Saturday, February 4th was a national day of action against agitation for war with Iran. With my camera charged up, I made my first stop on the mild winter day the Barack Obama campaign office in Nashua, which had an opening celebration at 10:00am. I showed up to meet Occupy NH participants who had brought literature to distribute. I went about my usual chalking, focusing on messages that I hoped would make supporters of the president question their commitment.

Some suits emerged from the building, looked around, and went back inside. As I was keeping the chalking away from a portion of pavement under an overhang, and in the public area of the sidewalk, I knew that there could not be a claim that I was chalking any private property. Aside from myself, only one other person chose to participate in the chalking.

Three police cars eventually arrive. An officer politely asks the group to be sure that they do not block the sidewalk, as they had received complaints. He was brief, leaving after having relayed the information.

Up the street, the officer from the lead car was speaking with a man in a red jacket. I filmed from a distance, and noticed when the police began moving away from him. You could hear him yell, “These people have no right! No right to deface public property!”

You can see in the video his profane reaction when I try to converse with him after the police leave. He went on to deny the first amendment freedom of speech, and imply that I was morally transgressing by speaking against “your president” and “your country”. Yet another example of an individual so detached from his fellow man that when he is offended by an action (chalking) he first goes to an agent of aggression, rather than have the courage to politely and respectfully address the issue himself.

Kudos to the Nashua PD for choosing not to interfere when there was clearly no wrongdoing going on.

My next stop of the day was an Antiwar Rally at Veterans Park in Manchester, which began at noon. Coverage of that event coming soon.

This article originally published at freeconcord.org.

You can download the edition for this week here. Topics covered include the latest on the BEARCAT, Kelly Voluntaryist’s return to the Manchester airport, and the Free State Project reaching 1,000 participants in New Hampshire.

You can add Radio Free Keene News to your podcast client via this RSS feed.

Photo: Carlos Miller

The police have deleted the footage he had taken in the moments leading up to his arrest. Another journalist is believed to have captured footage of the arrest, which has yet to be released. There is a reason that the United States has recently been downgraded to 47th place on the global Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.

You can read the first hand account of the arrest at the Photography Is Not A Crime blog. I especially appreciate Carlos’ activism and reporting, as he was the first of many bloggers to feature coverage of my Lemonade Liberation outreach last August.

Carlos Miller will be speaking in Nashua, New Hampshire on Saturday, February 25 at this year’s Liberty Forum.

This article was originally published at freeconcord.org.

Feb 4 2012: Some of the footage that was deleted by police has been recovered, and the slightly choppy video is embedded below. In a blog published today, it is noted that data recovery services will be used to restore more of the footage.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click the pic to the right for a full-size version.

UPDATE: A full photo album is here on Kelly’s website.

Nearly a decade after establishing roots in New Hampshire, members of the Free State Project are welcoming their 1,000th member to the Granite State.

The milestone member relocated this week and has found a home on the Seacoast, according to local members of the pro-liberty activists group.

Founded in 2001, the goal of the Free State Project was to recruit 20,000 libertarian-leaning people to move to a single state to concentrate their efforts. New Hampshire was selected as the target state in 2003.

Since then, 1,000 people from all over the country have moved to the Granite State and officially registered as members of the organization.

Portsmouth resident Michael Finger was the 932nd member to move to New Hampshire.

Finger said the way the Free State Project works is that participants sign a statement of intent, declaring they will move to New Hampshire within five years of the movement getting 20,000 signatories.

More than 11,500 people have signed the statement of intent.

Finger said he ended up moving to New Hampshire over the summer because he got anxious and decided to follow a separate, but related effort, called Free State Now.

Instead of waiting until the movement got 20,000 signatories, Finger said, the Free State Now effort encouraged people to not wait and make the move as soon as possible.

Finger, who moved from Manhattan with his wife, said he chose to move to Portsmouth out of all of the other places in the state.

“We like New Hampshire because we like the way it is,” he said. “People are friendly and it seems a little bit more sane.”

Finger said he considers himself to be a “refugee” from a big-government state.

Like many other members of the Free State Project, Finger said he moved to New Hampshire because of the state’s business-friendly climate.

“It’s got a low unemployment rate and it’s easy to start a business,” he said.

Finger owns a consulting firm called Centinel Consulting, on Middle Street. He said many of his friends in the city also own businesses and have moved from places such as Colorado and California.

Erik Voorhees, a former resident of Colorado, said he moved to New Hampshire with his girlfriend nearly one year ago.

Voorhees said he joined the Free State Project because he liked its principles.

“I like that it is effectively trying to move more libertarian types to one small geographic area to have a much larger impact,” he said. “People of our political persuasion tend to be scattered around. I consider this to be quite a smart thing.”

Voorhees, 27, said the movement is full of diverse and progressive people of all ages and interests.

“I know Free-Staters of all ages, from age 5 to 88 years old, and everywhere in between,” he said.

“This is an important benchmark” said Free State Project President Carla Gericke, who moved from New York City in 2008. “It shows people are willing to vote with their feet for more freedom. We are modern day pioneers.”

The “First Movers” have made vast strides, according to Gericke.

At least 12 are now state representatives, and numerous others serve on school and town boards. Others have founded or worked with organizations that highlight liberty-oriented issues, such as the N.H. Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy; the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, which grades state representatives according to their voting records; and Cop Block, a police accountability organization.

Some have created a strong independent media presence in New Hampshire, such as Free Talk Live, a nationally syndicated radio talk show based in Keene.

Others have also started private charities and mutual aid societies, such as Shire Sharing, which delivers care baskets to the needy, and Fr33 Aid, which provides volunteer first-aid at events such as Liberty Forum and the Porcupine Freedom Festival.

When asked about the reasons for the movement’s growth, Gericke said a combination of factors have been at play. She cited the economic downturn, the popularity of Ron Paul and his message of limited government, the growing national debt, the federal government’s overreach on issues such as education and health care, and the country’s involvement in wars under President Barack Obama.

“With its ‘live and let live’ culture, its livability, its low taxes, its relative prosperity,” Gericke said, “New Hampshire is well-situated to become the beacon of liberty for the rest of the country.”

As he was being led to his death, Eddie said to his fellow soldiers, “They’re not shooting me for deserting the United States Army, thousands of guys have done that. They just need to make an example out of somebody and I’m it because I’m an ex-con. I used to steal things when I was a kid, and that’s what they are shooting me for. They’re shooting me for the bread and chewing gum I stole when I was 12 years old.” Eddie Slovik was 24 years old at the time of his death.

Fear leads to BearCat

There is a specter haunting our nation — a specter of fear.

To me, and I know that in this evaluation I am not alone, it is apparent that since Sept. 11, 2001, fear has been the motivating force for change across the United States.

Where do I see fear? For the present I use but one parameter — despair, the need to arm one’s self, seek protection against the “other.” The “other” is too often an illusion than a reality but what a powerful one it is.

It is “we” against “them,” often irrational fears of the future.

For example:

New Hampshire could become only the fifth state in the country to let people carry concealed guns without a permit. The House voted 193-122 to make gun permits optional.

Members also voted 204-110 to allow loaded rifles and shotguns in motor vehicles, as long as there is not a round in the chamber.

The National Rifle Association reports that: “There are well over 250 million privately-owned firearms in the U.S., including nearly 100 million handguns and tens of millions of “assault weapons” — the types of firearms that gun-control supporters have tried the hardest to get banned — and the number of firearms typically rises about 4 million per year.

Annual numbers of new AR-15s, the most popular semiautomatic rifle that gun control supporters call an “assault weapon,” are soaring.

“In 2008, there were more than 337,000 new AR-15s configured for home defense, competition, training, recreational target practice and hunting”

Homeland Security News reports that: “At a time when officers are facing a more cold-blooded criminal element and fighting a war on terror … For the second straight year, law enforcement fatalities in the United States rose with 173 federal, state, and local officers killed in the line of duty during 2011; this represents a 13 percent increase over the 153 officers killed in 2010 and a 42 percent spike when compared to the 122 officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2009.”

Do you not find it rather unsettling that the Keene City Council, with one dissent, elects to purchase an armored vehicle (BearCat) that a newly elected mayor may in the future authorize the law enforcers (them) under his command to deploy it against the very people (we) that elected him? Or maybe he is not in command?

I further ask which group is the more fearful, who needs an armored bullet-fire-proof offensive device? Is it meant to be a threat – “Stay off the Central Square lawn or else?”

George Orwell, 1984: “There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”

Google: “The girl in the blue bra.”

ARPAD J. TOTH

11 Houghton Point South

North Swanzey

Van Wickler:

Bob “Weeda Claus” Constantine, Nurse Patricia Smith, and more:

Here’s a facebook event for the next City Council meeting. Come with signs and show your support for a peaceful, not militarized, Keene police.