The police state is getting worse – join the Free State Project, escape to New Hampshire (here are some reasons to move to Keene) and help us all get free from those who would control peaceful people.

JAFFREY – Call them liberty lovers, Libertarians, radicals or rogues — just don’t call them Tea Partiers.

Those are fighting words — metaphorically speaking — for the peace-loving folk who came out to rally for four days in a field at the 5th annual Live Free or Die Rally this weekend.

Rally organizers and the group that helps sponsor the event — The Citizens Alliance Against Creepy Politics — describe themselves as a non-profit, non-aligned, pro-freedom organization that addresses a wide range of political issues.

Those in attendance may not agree on everything, but the one area there’s consensus: They are not the Tea Party.

“I agree with some of it,” said Stacy Coutu, of Jaffrey, of the Tea Party movement. “But I think with them, if you don’t think just like them, you become an outcast. With us, it’s just the opposite.”

The rally is meant for everyone, said Tiffany Marler of North Conway.

“The tea parties have been hijacked by the more neo con Republicans,” said Marler. “Personally, I’m an anarchist.”

Marler and others maintained the event is somewhat apolitical. They said it was simply an event to speak one’s mind and enjoy the right to peaceably assemble and openly carry firearms just because they could.

Other rally goers echoed the sentiment. Joan Bastek of Manchester said she’s part of the 9/12 party, but that she likes coming to the rallies to mix with Free Staters, Keeniacs (members of the Free Keene movement) and others who may not think exactly as she does.

Participants stressed a big-tent philosophy, saying “even leftists like liberty.”

Not to mention, they said, Live Free or Die has been around for years before the Tea Party movement started grabbing headlines.

Coutu’s husband, local handyman Jean Coutu, started the Live Free or Die Rally. About five years ago he had become disenchanted with what he was hearing when it came to free speech and liberty.

“He just came home one day and out of nowhere he said ‘I think I want to have a rally,’” she said. “At first I was like, ‘A rally? What do you mean a rally? . . . But I was like, ‘Great. Who doesn’t love a party?’”

The first year was anything but a party. Some people in Jaffrey dismissed the event as racist and anti-Semitic and tried to stop it from happening.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Coutu said. “None of us are racist, everybody is welcome . . . But it was new, and that scared people.”

Picketers protested the event.

“But I watched them,” Coutu said. “And the more they saw what was going on and what people were actually saying and that no one was hating anybody, by the end of the day, those people with the signs were walking around with us eating hot dogs.”

Coutu said that’s the biggest difference between their event and Tea Party rallies.

“I want people to feel free to come here to say what’s on their minds,” she said. “And we are not going to hate you for what you think. We aren’t going to hate you if your views are outside of the box of what we think. You are still welcome at the rally.”

After all, she said, that’s what America is about.

“The people who built this country did so by standing on a stump and shouting their ideas,” Coutu said.

“This is grassroots. This country is made up of us. We are the ones who will make change.”

A challenge to the city’s open alcohol container ordinance by a member of the libertarian Free Keene group didn’t cause any action, but did produce lots of dialogue Wednesday night.

Much of that discussion happened outside City Hall, between Free Keene members and members of a new group started on Facebook, Free Keene from the Free Keene Stigma, before a City Council committee meeting.

The Facebook group’s members say they want to combat Free Keene tactics, which the group deems ineffective and harmful to the city’s image.

Members of the Free Keene group staged drinking games during two City Council meetings earlier this month.

At the first meeting, two members of the group were arrested during the meeting and charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to allow police to inspect whether their beverages were alcoholic.

Inside City Hall Wednesday, the council’s municipal services, facilities and infrastructure committee discussed a letter submitted by Free Keene member Heika M. Courser, asking the council to consider overturning the open container ordinance.

The ordinance states that no person shall carry or be in possession of an open container, made of any material, containing alcohol on any public way in the city.

“As an adult, I feel we should be able to make our own decisions on public property, property that we all collectively own,” said Courser in the letter. “It is unfair to tell a person of legal age that they may not enjoy a beer while watching a sporting event in a public park. It is unfair that I cannot quench my thirst on a nice summer day with a beer that I bought while walking home from the store. As adults, we should be allowed to make our own decisions, as long as it is not hurting anybody.”

Courser said after the meeting she felt there was little chance the committee would overturn the ordinance, but it appeared they were sympathetic to her cause.

“Thirty years ago I’d have probably been right out there with you guys,” said Councilor Terry M. Clark during the meeting. “I applaud your idealism … but as you get older, you discover things about yourself and about other people. I’m not as responsible after three or four drinks as I am right now, that’s just the reality of life.”

From the audience, resident and former councilor Frederick B. Parsells told the committee he agrees with Courser, to an extent.

“I do believe that responsible individuals should be allowed to drink in public,” Parsells said. “But the unintended consequences of irresponsible people will happen.”

Due to “public urination, fighting, littering, and otherwise disorderly behavior,” merchants, shoppers and residents downtown would be victims if the ordinance were reversed, Parsells said.

Clark and Parsells referred to the 1970s, before Keene had an open container law.

“Behavior in certain areas of the city at that time was not what you’d expect of adults,” Clark said. “I think this was the main reason the council passed the ordinance.”

Parsells, a former Keene police officer, agreed.

“I witnessed those behaviors 30 years ago, and it will happen again (if the ordinance is overturned),” he said.

Free Keene member Sam Miller, who goes by Sam Dodson, questioned whether comparing modern-day issues to those of 30 years ago was appropriate.

“We live in a world today that’s a lot different than it was in the ’70s,” he said. “For example, everyone today has a cell phone with a camera. If you see someone urinating in public, you pull it out and record them and post it on the Internet … that’s how you stop it.”

The fact that most people have cell phones now also makes it easier for concerned residents to call the police when they see something out of line, Miller said.

The committee voted unanimously to file Courser’s letter under “informational,” which means it’ll be kept on file.

But committee members also thanked Courser and those in attendance for engaging in healthy dialogue.

“Thank you, Heika, for bringing this to committee,” said Pamela R. Slack, chairwoman of the committee. “I’ve admired the way you all acted tonight. It was a very respectful discussion.”

Courser said she was both impressed and disappointed by the meeting’s developments.

“I think everyone was very respectful,” she said. “But I feel they already had their minds made up before the meeting.”

Courser said she was “very impressed” by the Free Keene From the Free Keene Stigma Facebook group’s support of her letter.

Respectful discussion was the theme Wednesday night, even as members of the Facebook group demonstrated outside City Hall before the meeting.

“We’re not here to debate politics,” said co-founder Jeffrey M. Petrovitch, 27, of Keene. “We just want to promote positive and effective ways to create change.”

The group held signs expressing support for Courser’s letter as such an example of positive activity.

“Some of the recent tactics of the Free Keene group … we don’t think it’s good for the community’s image, and it hurts your cause,” said the Facebook group’s other founder, Annie F. Callaway, 19, of Keene.

Miller said his group’s more positive actions, such as writing letters to police when Free Keene members feel officers have done a good job, don’t garner the sort of coverage the group seeks in order to get its message out.

Kyle Jarvis can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1433, or kjarvis@keenesentinel.com.

City officials say they have made no special plans if a Free Keene group attends another Keene City Council meeting to play a “drinking game.”

The group’s website, FreeKeene.com, says that the “drinking game: round two” will be held at tonight’s meeting.

On Aug. 5, a group of Free Keene members attended the City Council meeting, drinking from bottles appearing to be alcohol but marked with the label “not a beer.” Mayor Philip Dale Pregent stopped the meeting to address the group, after which two people were arrested when they refused to allow police to determine whether the bottles they were drinking from contained alcohol. A third person was arrested outside City Hall after the meeting. The group members said they were protesting the city’s open container ordinance.

“We have made no plans,” said Keene police Capt. Steven Russo, adding that it is largely up to the mayor and council to address the issue. “Frankly, we’ve hardly even thought about it.”

Russo said the department may discuss the situation prior to tonight’s 7 o’clock meeting.

Pregent said “We’re going to handle city business in a normal, everyday manner. If there’s an issue, we’ll deal with it then.”

On tonight’s council agenda is a letter from Heika M. Courser of Keene, who was part of the Free Keene group at the council meeting earlier this month. She asks that councilors reconsider the open container ordinance, and apologizes to anyone she may have offended during the last council meeting.

“My intentions were not to offend or anger anyone,” Courser said in the letter. “I had never been to a council meeting, and felt it was a fun and quiet way to become involved. I thought it (the drinking game) would be fun without being disruptive.”

Courser’s letter also talked about the reasons why she and others believe the ordinance should be repealed.

“As an adult, I feel we should be able to make our own decisions on public property, property that we all collectively own.

“If you are thinking that the streets of Keene would be littered with drunkards, then I ask you to take a look at Main Street on a Saturday night as people are stumbling out of bars,” she said.

The correspondence will likely be referred to a council committee.

Thank you Lew for your visit to Keene, the great interview, and the excellent endorsements. I’m adding them to the top of our Endorsements section of the 130 Reasons to Move to Keene!

After reviewing their city council rules, city ordinances, and state laws; Dale Pregent seems to have made up the rules barring alcoholic beverage containers (not containing alcohol) in order to target free speech. When the Police Chief Ken Meola is unable to determine what is in the closed containers held by Ian  Freeman and Sam Dodson, they were arrested for refusing to consent to search. The video clearly shows, Heika – who consented to the search – being told “your fine”  as she remained in the meeting drinking from her bottle.

Let’s not forget they did all of this on live TV with the community watching.  Plans are in the works for the next City Council Drinking game, Aug. 19th, 7pm. Mark your calendar, it’s going to be a special event.

AP:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/7144804.html

The Toronto Sun (theirs is the best story outside of NH, as they actually bothered to look at FreeKeene.com for our perspective on things):
http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/08/08/14962111.html