GRAYLNG — The fatal shooting of William Reddie, 32, by a Crawford County Sheriff’s Department deputy during the “emergency removal” of his 2-year-old son from an apartment they shared has many of his friends crying foul.

A Michigan State Police probe has concluded the shooting was justified because Reddie had a pocketknife and lunged at police.

“I can’t believe they (police) could not subdue Will without killing him, and over what, marijuana,” said Joanne Michal, who knew Reddie for half of his life. “Why didn’t police just arrest him or cite him for marijuana instead of removing his child?”

Marijuana itself is scientifically far safer than its prohibition ever will be.

This violence is totally unnecessary.

From a comment of mine on my Facebook page:

Since I moved to Keene last Dec. 1, I have been thrown in a cage per the orders of “judge” Arnold at the Cheshire County superior court simply because I did not stand in honor when he entered the room, banned from said establishment for singing peace carols outside during the holidays, held hostage in a cage in the basement of said establishment, and am facing up to a year in the spiritual retreat (jail) for walking into this establishment which I am forced to pay for via theft (taxation). I have been banned from Monadnock regional high school, had students flip me off and throw things at my friends from their publicly funded school buses, and been threatened repeatedly for exercising my natural and inherent right to free speech by RESPECTFULLY handing out educational literature (I go out of my way to be respectful when doing public outreach).

And that’s only a portion of what’s happened to me in Keene. Additionally, in Manch, I face trial on the 22nd for writing “free Ademo” with childrens’ sidewalk chalk on a publicly funded building, although I immediately offered to clean it up. What happened to my right to peacefully object to the tyranny that I truly believe is being imposed upon us all, on the basis of my own conscience? What happened to free speech and all the other empty promises made to me by the constitution? I thought this was supposed to be America.

Yeah, Amerika, the good ol’ USSA.

Wake the hell up people and stand up for your rights….because every time ours are violated, it only serves to ensure a little bit further the inevitability of yours being violated as well. Due to simple laws of nature, the violation of my rights and those of my friends and family is equivalent to the violation of your own. I would highly recommend moving here, as it is easier to stand up for your rights with the support of our liberty oriented community. Also, it is sad to say that as often as our rights are violated here, it is much, much worse in most other areas of the country.  Despite it all, Keene is still a relatively peaceful society.

Anyways, enough bitching about Thê State. As far as I’m concerned it does not even actually exist Peace and love,

Kelly

The raw video of the Civil Disobedience Panel – a session held at the 2012 Liberty Forum, in which Jason Talley, Ian Freeman and I converse with those present about ideas, strategy and impact.

Recorded on Friday, Feb. 24th, 2012 at the Nashua, NH Crown Plaza.

I’ll get a sub-10min version up in the near future.

l-r: Silver Dave, Ademo Freeman & Pete Eyre; Photo cred: Vanessa Finger

A personal thanks to FreeKeene.com, who covered Liberty Forum registration for Ademo and me and half a vendor table for CopBlock.org.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at PorcFest!

More:
http://freekeene.com
http://copblock.org
http://freetalklive.com
http://fr33agents.com
http://shiresociety.com
http://freestateproject.org
http://libertyontour.com
http://motorhomediaries.com

They could have heard the voices of the people who were crying out against this intimidating monstrosity that will inevitably militarize the Keene police even more, and as city councilor Carl Jacobs appropriately pointed out, distance them further from the community they supposedly serve.

They could have. But they didn’t. The BEARCAT passed 9 to 4.

Despite the outpouring of opposition in the community against the BEARCAT, not a single councilor changed their vote from December, when they originally voted in favor of it. That vote was 13 to 1. Why were the numbers different? The new city councilors who took office in January were the ones to vote against it. So, the councilors who originally voted for it completely disregarded all the input they received from the community in various forms:

• In a Keene Sentinel online poll, 72% said they city council was wrong to accept the BEARCAT. (Only 12% favored the BEARCAT in the poll.)
• WKBK’s Dan Mitchell stated on-air that 90% of his callers were against the BEARCAT.
• City councilor Bettina Chadbourne related during tonight’s meeting that of the 80 phone calls she received from various members of the community, (old, young, business owners, men, women, etc) only ten calls were in favor of the BEARCAT.
• The public hearing on the BEARCAT featured dozens of speakers, the supermajority of which opposed the BEARCAT.
• A random walk down Main St. would show anyone who bothered to ask people that the supermajority of people oppose the BEARCAT.
• Most letters to the editor of the Keene Sentinel were in opposition to the BEARCAT.
• During the meeting the councilors who favored the BEARCAT got no applause from the packed room, while the councilors who spoke in opposition to the BEARCAT were blasted with applause.

The reasons given for supporting the BEARCAT by the councilors were pathetic. Mitch Greenwald believes the Department of Homeland Security has our best interests in mind. Dale Pregent believes it will help in a flood. Janice Manwaring trusts the Keene Police to be good boys with their new, violent toy. Look for video here at Free Keene soon.

Not one of them changed their minds. The emails they received, the calls, the personal contacts – none of it mattered. None of it outweighed what the Keene police wanted.

Silly me. While I was cynical from the start that the BEARCAT would actually be rejected, I thought there was at least a chance someone would change their mind and do what the people clearly wanted them to do in this instance. Not so. Not one.

The courageous ones who deserve your appreciation were Terry Clark, Bettina Chadbourne, Carl Jacobs, and David Meader.

The cowards who deserve to be shamed and lose any attempt they make at re-election are Mitch Greenwald, Janice Manwaring, Dale Pregent, Kris Roberts, David Richards, James Duffy, Phil Jones, Thomas Powers, and Ruth Venezia. Chuck Redfern had to recuse himself because of some connection he has to Homeland Security – reason enough to vote him out next election.

June Donegan was not present for this meeting. It is not known how she would have voted.

Thank you to everyone who has been active regarding this issue. We made international headlines as the only place ever to stand against the BEARCAT. Over 300 of these have gone to police departments across the country, and only Keeniacs had the courage to stand up, speak out, and organize.

It’s not over. Obviously, we won’t forget this come the 2013 election where BEARCAT supporters Greenwald, Manwaring, Pregent, Roberts, Venezia, and Jones will all be up for possible re-election. However, before then, who knows what interesting activism will be able to happen regarding this war machine that the federal government is shoving down our collective throat.

The most important lesson, in my opinion, is that the system doesn’t work – not even at a local level. (Though, had Keene been politically structured as a town, the BEARCAT would have gone down in flames, as at town meetings the people actually vote, not the “selectmen”.) Everyone knows the system doesn’t work at the federal level. Look at the huge opposition to the bailouts as an example. Despite congressmen admitting that they received 80-90% of calls against the bailouts, they almost all voted for it anyway. I thought that maybe, just maybe, that since these people on the city council are our neighbors, that we’d have a chance of changing some of their minds. I was wrong. It’s obvious that in most political issues, it’s impossible for a so-called representative to actually represent besides themselves. However, it’s amazing that in a situation like this, where the numbers were so overwhelmingly favoring one position, that the councilors ignored all the input, and did what the police (and feds) wanted them to. Peer influence meant nothing to them.

Heaven forbid someone in power admit they were wrong and have the courage to change their mind.

Congratulations to the people calling themselves the Keene Police and City of Keene. Tonight they succeeded in proving that they don’t give a damn about what the people in the community want and effectively destroyed even more of the precious legitimacy that is so crucial to people seeing them as something other than an occupying criminal gang. Even though the advocates of peace lost in the vote, we won in the long view, because the aggressors have shown their hand yet again. They don’t care about your desires to live in a peaceful place. They only do what aggregates more power and money to them and their buddies. It’s clear they are the masters, not the servants.

If you aren’t here yet, what are you waiting for? Please move to the Shire and help us change things for the better.

• clips from The Onion News Network’s video “Obama Win Causes Obsessed Backers To See How Empty Lives Are” with the words “Obama” and “Barrack Obama” replaced with “Ron Paul”
• clips from myself, encouraging current Ron Paul supporters to take their views to their logical conclusions
• clips of Ron Paul striking the root from Adam vs. The Man, Motorhome Diaries and Fox Business

For the record, I myself supported Ron Paul during the primary last time around. Since then I’ve moved on. As have a lot of good people.

I’ve already Googled “Voluntaryism” – all you have to do is click this link

Thoughts?

I could get a few of my friends together and shout from a megaphone and sign-wave in Rittenhouse Park. We would go “Robin-Hooding,” where individuals feed parking meters for strangers in an attempt to “cost” the State the “revenue” of the ticket. But even in a city of 1.5 million, there were only a handful of us doing activism on a regular basis. “What’s the deal?” I wondered.

At the same time, I was seeing videos and blogs produced on a regular basis of all sorts of interesting activism going on in New Hampshire, especially Keene. One of those videographers is Garret Ian of FreeConcord.org. In fact, it is he who was the inspiration behind this blog post.

I missed Garret’s Chalking trial today. I felt terrible about it because I wanted to be there to support an awesome activist and a great guy. I later tuned in to FreeTalkLive only to hear the hosts talking about the trial, and I suddenly felt much better about today. I was relieved knowing that while my presence would have been useful and appreciated, there are so many activists here that my absence was barely felt.

When one is among a small group of liberty-lovers, activism can live and die with one’s actions. While it’s awesome as an individual to have such a disproportionate impact of activism in the community, it can burn a person out.

The Shire is going to do activism with or without you. If you live in a place that only does activism when you do, why not move to the Shire? That way, you can add your efforts to an already humming machine — a place where you can take a break once in a while and the machine will keep running.

I’ve only been here 7 months. There are people who have been here for years. I know the Shire hasn’t always been this way and I think it’s completely awesome and mystifying that through the continued efforts of those individuals, this harbor for activism is possible. Thanks to those of you who paved the way. If you haven’t moved here yet, what are you waiting for?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Every time I’ve recently heard someone complain about “Free Staters” I’ve been hearing about how the dreaded “Free Staters” want to “force” their views on people. I’m not a Free Stater, but I’d be proud to call myself one.  For the sake of argument, lets pretend that I am .

I am now a Free Stater.  *click*

You there!  Reading the FreeKeene.com blog and hating every syllable.  I want you to be left alone to live your life how you see fit so long as you don’t harm anyone.  You disagree?  Tough crap!  I’m going to force you to be left alone!!  By leaving you alone!! Theres nothing you can do to stop me…..!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

This whole forcing liberty thing is apparently an epidemic.  I’m debating it with a guy on the usacarry.com forums in this thread here.   I’m far from the best debater on the planet, so feel free to back me up if you see fit.

I often wonder how many times people like me need to point these things out before detractors finally realize that what we’re talking about has some substance to it.

Drug prohibition causes crime.  Drug prohibition funds violent criminal enterprise.  Drug prohibition does the opposite of addressing the problems of drug abuse.

Shouldn’t be long now before I have some fresh stories from across New Hampshire of needless victimization fueled by the insane drug war.