Steven Gilbert

Yesterday, I filed a discovery request with royal court jester Thomas Mullins. In it, I ask for all evidence related to the case against Robin Hood of Keene. The city, led by the prince and building its case through the riddle-loving royal jester, have made all sorts of baseless and vague allegations against those associated with Robin Hood of Keene. The degradations took a patronizingly condescending turn recently when city powers had one of their minions, Steven Gilbert, go on the attack through yet another antagonizing editorial. Fortunately, the Sentinel is just as able to verify its claims as the city, which is to say that they were heavy on allegations and insinuations, and frail on fact. Gilbert’s intentionally misleading diatribe may deserve its own response, but at the moment, with more pressing matters on the table than the opinions of an ailing dinosaur, I intend to cut through such static with the important ultimatum Robin Hood and friends have been awaiting since allegations against us began spewing from city officials prior to the filing of the frivolous lawsuit. With my request for discovery, I am demanding from the royal deviants the evidence that they have gone to such lengths to keep obscured. What honor has a man who makes false claims against numerous upstanding members of the community, and insists he possess evidence supporting such claims? How long can one continue the allegations before the final shreds of faith in their person wither? Actions speak where words are banter, and as time passes, the banter becomes easier to isolate. Prince John, Jester Mullins, and the royal henchmen and spinsters have for too long continued preaching falsehoods against Robin Hood and the Merry (wo)Men. Within ten days, I expect a response from the Jester as is obligated by the rules of the court. Will the city be able to manufacture their alleged video evidence of Robin Hooder harassment, or will the world be lulled by the softening roars of another paper tiger?

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a recent column, Steve Gilbert of the Keene Sentinel makes the argument that Free Keene’s Robin Hooders have violated the basic tenet of the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I agree that the golden rule is a pretty good standard to try to live one’s life by. I do not feel that any of MY actions as a Robin Hooder have violated this tenet.

Unfortunately, the city of Keene does not abide by this principle. The city of Keene engages daily in a form of bullying through its parking enforcers by using the city’s position of power to coerce people into paying for parking in public spaces whether they want to or not. The tickets are a form of extortion that I believe is unwarranted since they are issued to people who are simply parking their vehicles; an act which I do not think justifies the use of force. If a private business left a bill on someone’s vehicle which kept exponentially increasing if it wasn’t paid, sent threatening letters to one’s home regarding the bill, and eventually stole and held someone’s car to coerce them to pay the bill, most would view this behavior as unacceptable and not abiding by the golden rule.

Basically, the city is forcing people to act in an involuntary manner by the use of a threat, the parking ticket. The city extorts people to pay the parking tickets through intimidation by threatening to steal a person’s vehicle. If someone tries to protect their property from being stolen, they will end up in jail. This outcome is another double standard that is not applied to other businesses or individuals; imagine someone going to jail for trying to prevent someone else from taking his or her vehicle.

Steve makes a lot of accusations that are very exaggerated and untrue. Steve alleges that Robin Hooders stick “a camera in someone’s face for hours at a time.” I record the actions I undertake while out robin hooding for three reasons:

(1) I want to get the word out about what I am doing. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni7aOsBxPiE
(2) I want footage of anything interesting that may transpire. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH4iJzlaYu4
(3) Most importantly, the videoing is for my protection since it is good to have an objective record of exactly what happened. If an issue arises between me and the parking enforcer, the police and court system are likely to believe them over me. It also offers some protection between me and the general public. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUDIZjABQMU

Steve also unfairly attempts to broadly apply the actions of a few individuals to an entire group. This logic is outrageous and if applied to other groups of people would be thought of very poorly by most people. For instance if one assumes all persons of a certain race are criminals, that all persons of a certain religion are zealots, or even all members of a certain sex all act the same way.

Additionally, Steve has many of his facts incorrect. He makes the claim that this form of activism “started this winter.” Actually, Robin Hooding started in 2009 and has been a long standing form of activism as seen in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDvEFmylS8Y

Steve poses the question, “Is the goal to reduce parking enforcement officers to tears and badger them until they quit?” Steve is missing the entire point of Robin Hooding. As stated in Robin Hood of Keene’s facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/KeeneRobinHood, the mission of Robin Hood of Keene, which has been unchanged since the beginning of Robin Hooding in Keene started in 2009, is “Saving the good people from the king’s tariff by depositing a small coin into the ‘parking meters’ so the the king’s ‘Meter Maids’ cannot demand their tax.” I attempt to allocate my time efficiently by locating enforcers and feeding any meters that are along their path. It does not make sense to waste my time and resources filling meters that were not going to be ticketed. If I feed a meter and the enforcer never would have walked past it before the vehicle was moved, I would have wasted the donations Robin Hood of Keene has received from appreciative community members.

Robin Hooding is not about the parking enforcers. If it were about them, I could have made countless videos showing them violating laws (jaywalking, traffic violations, etc), acting rude to me and others, and any other mistakes they have made. Additionally, I do not interact with any of the enforcers when they are not on duty. I don’t follow them home or try to find them off duty.

Steve is also ignoring the overall reaction of the public to Robin Hooders. I have numerous encounters with the public on a weekly basis and they are overwhelming positive. Examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQ0koaC53E & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il8N7JJbcPA

If the suit does proceed to trial, the video records I have of my actions will prove that none of my actions are unethical and the suit is unfounded.

The city of Keene never attempted to contact me before filing a lawsuit against me, an act which I do not believe is in congruence with the golden rule. Likewise, the Sentinel and its writers/editors including Steve Gilbert have made no attempt to contact me regarding Robin Hooding before writing articles regarding the activity. Other news and media organizations including but not limited to, The Union Leader, WMUR, WBIN, Fox News, and Good Morning America made attempts to contact multiple respondents in the lawsuit regarding Robin Hooding. To my knowledge, the Sentinel is the only media outlet which only contacted one Robin Hooder, Ian Freeman for comment. I extend an invitation to Steve Gilbert to meet with me, on record, and discuss any of his concerns regarding Robin Hooding.

Yours Truly,

-James ‘Robin Hood’ Cleaveland

Steve has it backwards. It’s the people calling themselves “the state”, or in this case, “the city”, that are violating the golden rule. While the state believers sometimes offer a valuable service, like education, roads, or fire protections, they do not offer it on a consensual basis.

If you decide you don’t want to do what the state people want or pay what they demand, you could have your home stolen, car stolen, be put in a cage, or even killed.

That is not how one should treat one’s neighbors. However, despite the violence and the threats of violence enacted against me by the state, I will not respond in kind. I know that violence begets violence and that peace is the way.

Asking government bureaucrats questions on camera is the definition of accountability. If they don’t like it, they can quit their immoral jobs. Also, to Steve or anyone else reading this, please find me video of a Robin Hooder “sticking a camera in the face” of a parking enforcer for even a moment, let alone “several hours”. These claims are so common and yet completely baseless. Holding a camera in my personal space and pointing it at a government worker is not sticking anything in anyone’s face. Get real.

Steve asks what the endgame of Free Keene is. I wonder if he bothered to read the “About” page of this website. The endgame of course is to convert Keene into a consensual society where people stop using coercion against their peaceful neighbors. I don’t care if the government people go away – I only want them to stop threatening and hurting peaceful people.

Oh, and there are PLENTY of people who appreciate what Robin Hooders do – there is no shortage of monetary contributions and compliments given to us by members of the public.

Click “Read More” to see the license plate of the car from which this angry man came:

In early May 2013 the “City of Keene” filed a preliminary injunction against six individuals, hoping to establish a 50′ anti-freedom zone around parking enforcement employees (part of the Keene Police Department). The six individuals all filed written responses and on June 11, 2013 appeared in “Superior Court” for a hearing.

The man in the black robe, John Kissinger, told the six individuals and Thomas Mullins, the lawyer for the “City of Keene, that they had 20 days to submit more info about the related constitutional arguments and that a full-day hearing would be scheduled at a later date – possibly in August – unless he first dismissed the injunction.

MORE

http://FreeKeene.com/?s=Robin+Hood
http://CopBlock.org/RobinHood

Thomas Mullins
(603) 357-9806
http://ci.keene.nh.us/departments/city-attorney

Now, two years later, others concerned about judicial abuse will gather at the front of the courthouse at 3pm Friday 6/13. Here is the relevant facebook event.

• One year in jail –  With good time and  time served I should be out sometime around December 18th
• Three years probation
• Various fines about $2500

Is this sentence fair?  Of course not.  I’ve harmed no one.  I provided good product at a fair price to an adult who wanted it.   I wish that more people would do that rather than making their living ruining lives to be paid with stolen money.

I can hear the drug warriors thinking, “But weed is a gateway drug.”  Oh, really?  The government-worshipping drug warriors should be relieved to find out that when the government’s Institute of Medicine studied the gateway effect, they found no causal relationship between the use of cannabis and the use of harder drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin.  Moreover, researcher and addiction specialist Todd H. Mikuriya, in his study entitled “Cannabis as a Substitute for Alcohol : A Harm Reduction Approach”, found that alcoholics who used cannabis were more likely to avoid relapse into the active use of these more dangerous drugs.

The “gateway effect” seems to be pretty well debunked.  Spread the word!

I will be appealing my conviction and have already raised over $8,000 towards that end.  I hope that you will help by donating here in either bitcoin or dollars.