Topics covered include the imprisoning of Derrick J and Beau and a man smoking cannabis legally in the state house. Here’s the archive:

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Please write to Beau via Mail-to-Jail or at this address:

Beau Davis
825 Marlboro Rd.
Keene, NH 03431

You can put money into his commissary (so he can be a little more comfortable on the inside) via the info here.

Re “Law enforcement resisting pot bill” (Sunday Monitor front page, April 29):

Enfield Police Chief Richard Crate was quoted as saying the pending medical marijuana bill is “looking for a potential solution when there’s not a problem out there.”

Many people endure needless pain and suffering because of the prohibition of this medicine.

Others risk losing their money, their liberty, their houses and their kids if they break the law to stop their pain.

Some people with cancer or other serious ailments succumb unnecessarily to the symptoms of their illness or its treatment such as chemotherapy, dying months or even decades sooner than they would have had they been able to use medical marijuana.

Untold numbers unnecessarily suffer from the worst diseases and ailments known to mankind. Others unnecessarily risk everything to escape their suffering. And some people are unnecessarily sent to an early grave – and there is no problem out there?

I do not know whether Crate is blinded by the conflict of interest as his salary and benefits derive in part from this prohibition, or whether it is the lust for power that corrupts him, or whether it is just old-fashioned ignorance of the overwhelming scientific and medical evidence that proves marijuana is the safest and most broadly effective medicine ever discovered.

But I do know he is without any factual, moral, legal, constitutional or practical basis for imposing criminal sanctions on the sick and dying. Anyone so incompetent is not fit to hold any office or to determine the law.

PAUL O’DAY

Spofford

A few weeks ago, my shotgun would have subjected me to years in a state prison, I paid an 8.625% sales tax on nearly everything I purchased, and a progressive state income tax made every effort to steal from me the fruits of my labor. Finally, a local municipality driven mad by xenophobic anti-immigration activists declared my apartment illegal and threatened to evict me from my home. Thanks for that, no, really, thank you, because coming to New Hampshire is the single greatest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.

So I fit what I could in my van and fled the criminal gangs calling themselve The State, operating inside the arbitrary geopolitical boundary commonly known as New York. 5 hours north, I find myself in Marlborough, New Hampshire, just outside of Keene.

The move couldn’t have gone smoother. I made a forum post on the Shire Society website describing my predicament, and within hours I was contacted by a man who rented rooms in his house, a few message exchanges and a deal was made. I had become quite used to living alone, and had a bit of hesitation about living with 3 other guys, but as it turns out I really like the people I live with. Privacy is respected, but we’ll frequently find ourselves in common areas of the house hanging out, laughing, and discussing a wide range of topics.

On my first day, I was introduced to something of a private club we have not far from here. I can’t go into great detail on that in public, but suffice to say it is a place for freedom loving people congregate nearly any time, day or night. We eat, drink, inhale, exhale, watch movies, sing karaoke, plan activities, have deep philosophical discussions, and more. I was instantly plugged into a network of dozens of very serious liberty activists who are some of the coolest people I’ve ever known.

We exchange goods and services as free people should, by voluntarily exchanging value for value. This can be sort of offputting at first to some, when an individual is making dinner, offers you some, then asks for payment. But it didn’t take long for me to see the benefit to this. Sharing has its virtues, but a person is not going to be inclined to make free food every day, and even in the most giving of circles, someone is at some point going to feel like they are giving more than they are getting. By exchanging value for value, everyone is made whole all the time, nobody is ever losing, nobody is ever made to feel like they are carrying anyone else. Unless of course, that is what they desire to do, and people who are otherwise productive do get helped if they hit a rough spot. We’ve all known “that guy” who comes to the party to drink other peoples beer and eat other peoples food, but never brings anything to the table, or always comes away with more than he brings. “That guy” is unable to exist that way here for any significant period of time, his choices are only to produce more than he consumes, or find other people to leech off of. With value and production being the only available means of survival, we need not be surprised when there is lots of value and production going on. Within our small community, there is always food and drink, and other things, available. People are anxious to help eachother, for a small fee, and so whatever it is you need help with, someone is always ready to help you. With every new person who arrives, and every new skill and resource acquired, it becomes less and less necessary to go outside the community for the things we need, the inevitable outcome of which, is a self sufficient voluntary society where The State has no role to play.

We even have our own money. Sure it doesn’t have fancy designs with questionable meanings or pictures of dead tyrants on it, but I rather enjoy the sound of 0.1 Oz silver bars clinking about in my pocket, and the honest feeling of exchanging real value as opposed to the grim depressing knowledge that my primary means of exchange is the cause of so much human suffering.

People seeking to be free are unfortunately the frequent victims of armed men in costumes with tacky lights on their cars. In response to this, we have “Shire 911″. If you are threatened by individuals in such disguises, if they flash those ugly lights at you, call, txt, or transmit over your two way radio if so equipped, and available liberty loving people will come with the cameras, making every peaceful effort to hold them accountable.

In the event that you are kidnapped, or handed a threatening note by these mislead, theft fed aggressors, people will come to your court dates, offer you advice, tell you what to expect, and offer you moral support. Being a guy who has had his fair share of conflicts with the law, I can tell you it would have given me a great deal of joy to know a dozen or more people were outside my court dates with signs saying “Free Chris”.

Luckily I haven’t personally had any adventures in legal land since my arrival in The Shire, but observing, and talking to people about their adventures has been informative. As a man with no respect for fictional authority figures, I’m pretty much certain that this information will come in handy at some point.

The activism is energetic, fun, and frequent. If you haven’t read my previous note about the 4/20 rally in Concord, NH, I strongly suggest you do so, smoking pot on the steps of the State House in full view of the police before walking into the building and singing drug war parody songs was quite the thrill. But not everything need risk arrest, just the other day some of us went down to the local High School with signs and “Philosophy of Liberty” brochures. My sign said “Don’t let school interfere with your education”. The week prior I was sad to have to miss a visit to the University in Keene. There is some sort of outreach effort, rally, or civil disobedience sort of event happening pretty much at least once a week since I’ve been here, and I haven’t even bothered to look outside my local area. If one wanted more action, there are things going on in other parts of the arbitrary geopolitical boundary commonly known as New Hampshire, but I find that just hanging out with my new friends and being part of the counter economics is powerful action in and of itself.

I can hardly believe I spent so much time swimming against the tide in New York. I miss my friends and family there sometimes, but I can’t imagine going back. If you’re in a place like New York, and you feel the way I do about government coercion, you know that you’re in the wrong place. You know that the taxes are too high, you know that the cameras they are putting up on your streets are intrusive and unnecessary, you know that checkpoints and arbitrary searches are unconstitutional and invasive and wrong. You know that the gun restrictions are absurd and dangerous and contribute to a high crime rate. You know that your political systems are so terribly broken and corrupt that you have no hope of fixing them within your lifetime. I imagine if you know all of these things, you might, like me, find yourself pondering “Why do I tolerate this?”, and if you do, I imagine the only conclusion you could come to is “I shouldn’t tolerate this”.

So don’t tolerate it. Leave. Flee your oppressive governments and join us in New Hampshire. Why struggle to convince your neighbors to be free, when you can come to a place where your neighbors already so desire? Let’s trade freely, let’s speak freely, let’s enjoy beautiful scenery, let’s make one last stand for human liberty on planet earth. You see how bad things are getting, you know you can’t stop it doing what you’re doing. Dispersed across the country and planet the way we presently are, things are going to get much worse much faster and it could be generations before we can right the ship. But if we are concentrated in one place, working together against the forces of statist aggression, there really is a chance for Liberty in our Lifetime. Come and be a part of it.

I recently came home to discover Fred and his partner Josh, parked out front of my house, standing at my new neighbors’ door. They were just leaving and I inquired of Pete, who was there recording, as to what was going on. I was informed that they were threatening the neighbor over the car in their side yard. I informed Fred and Josh that I have no problem with their car being there and that I don’t appreciate them picking on my neighbors. Josh told me to stop eavesdropping, as though when strange men come threatening my neighbors that it’s not my business. I don’t know where Josh lives, but I want to live in a place where neighbors care that their neighbors are being threatened by aggressors.

Afterward, I spoke with the lady next door and assured her that I had not called code enforcement on them and nor would I. If I have an issue with a neighbor, I’ll do like a good neighbor should, and drop by to talk. She informed me that Fred claimed he’d gotten a complaint from another neighbor regarding their car in the yard, because the other neighbor had experienced code enforcers threatening them over the same issue. Typical cycle of abuse. It’s sad to see neighbors using the state agents to threaten one another. It’s also sad to see grown men telling other humans how they have to behave on their own property, when no harm has been done to others. The neighbors’ car in the side yard was hurting no one and it certainly didn’t bother me.

The code enforcement department should be shut down. All they are is a means for people to hide behind and act less neighborly and also a tool to attack neighbors that are disliked (or political dissidents the state agents wish to punish or intimidate).

The employees in the code enforcement department would likely say their job is to ensure homes are safe, but if that were true, why has Fred threatened me with violations, fines, and jail time because of “unregistered” vehicles being parked on the property? What neighbor would care or even know that a car was unregistered? Clearly Fred is on an obedience kick and/or revenue hunt.

If Fred actually were just going around trying to help people be safer, he wouldn’t need to threaten. He could be a code suggestor rather than enforcer, and make helpful suggestions on how to make construction better and safer.

Of course, Fred is not a construction worker. He’s a former cop who is playing detective again on people and their “code” violations. I’d imagine most people who see Fred don’t much want his services.

I’ve never sought to be kidnapped and caged. Yet that’s happened five times not because I harmed person or property, but because I asked questions of those who operate as if they have extra rights.

The surest way to curtail such rampant unaccountability is not to hide or remain silent when you or a friend is harassed but to be vocal – to stand-up for your rights and point-out the claimed double-standards. Failure to do so for even the most trivial of transgressions only bestows upon such actions tacit consent and sets the stage for even more egregious actions.

Transparency is key.

The purpose of this post, which houses all information related to these less-than-ideal situations is three-fold: first, to help hold accountable those who initiated force; second, to serve as an example to others who too have been forced to engage in damage control when targeted by aggressors who purport to “serve and protect” in the hopes that lessons can be imparted; and third, to encourage critical thinking about the nature of “law enforcement” in the hope that a better alternative can not just be imagined but implemented.

Jones County, Mississippi – May 14th, 2009

meta-post “Jones County, MS“
documents “Jones County, MS“
playlist “Jones Co, Mississippi Arrest”

Greenfield, Massachusetts – July 1st, 2010

meta-post “The “State of MA” aka Todd M Dodge vs. Ademo & Pete Eyre”
documents “Greenfield, MA”
playlist “Greenfield, MA – Wiretapping”

Denver, Colorado – August 29th, 2010

meta-post “Arrested at Denver’s Invesco Field for Asking Questions”
documents “Denver, CO”
playlist “Arrest by Denver PD at Invesco Field”

Keene, New Hampshire – January 24th, 2011

meta-post “FREE PETE – Wearing a Hat is NOT a Crime”
documents “Keene, NH”
playlist “Keene NH Arrested for Wearing a Hat”

Manchester, New Hampshire – June 4th, 2011

meta-post “Manchester’s Chalking 8”
documents “Manchester, NH”
playlist: “Manchester Chalking 8“