Ademo Freeman of CopBlock.org and Garret Ean of FreeConcord.org joined me to discuss the topic, “Is Silence Better than PR?” The answer depends on the individual, but Ademo & Garret draw some pretty clear lines of when it is a good or bad idea to go public with a criminal charge. Do you agree or disagree with their views? Please share your thoughts during tomorrow’s live episode of Peace News Now at 10p EST on LRN.fm.
This blog was originally posted at CopBlock.org, and was written by Ademo Freeman from Valley Street Jail.
Before coming to jail, I used a song and some clips my friend Clyde Voluntaryist put together called, “None of us are free, one of us is caged.” More recently, I received a letter from a person I’ve never met who credited the “Free Ademo” movement for bringing him and his friends to the concept of Voluntaryism. Jay, the man who sent me such letter, stated, “We are no more free than you, except that our cage has a larger roaming ground and aims to be more subtle.”
Before I elaborate more on that statement, I’d like to thank everyone who made this interaction possible. The “Free Ademo” movement is something I can not take credit for. It’s something y’all have done, and done extremely well. Be proud of yourselves as I’m sure ‘Jay and his friends’ are not the only one’s you’ve touched.
Back to the issue at hand – freedom. As I sit in my jail cell, writing this on the lamest excuse for a desk combined with some of the most ridiculous rules you’d ever hear, it’s obvious I am not free. That I am in fact caged and basically the slave of my captors. But what about you?
Are you free? If society was as clearly controlled at the setting I currently live in, would you tolerate it with the same compliance as you do current day-to-day life?
Let me expand a little more on what I’m trying to say. In my jail cell, all movements are controlled. When I was taken to court for my trial, in order to leave my unit I had to have my jail ID. To leave the jail, I had to have the proper paperwork. Some may say that’s understandable because I’m an inmate, but how is that any different from those who are not incarcerated? In order to leave your house, you need a government driver’s license – which is the exact same size as my jail ID. Of course, you can walk without it, unless you’re stopped and questioned by the police. Then, like me when I roam the jail as their worked, you must produce such identification in order to end the involuntary interaction. Even if you have the ID, states require you to have some sort of registration. Sounds very similar to the paperwork required to transport me.
Look at it from another angle and you get the same effect. Everything in my possession (ie, in my jail cell) must be jail issued. I’m told how many razors, toothbrushes and even how much food I can have in my possession. There is a whole chapter in the handbook dedicated to what I can possess while caged here. Again, many will say, “What do you expect?” or, the common line on the inside is, “Welcome to jail.” Is this really all that different from those outside of jail, though?
In some states you’re told how many guns or ammunition for those guns you can possess. Even possession of a medication can land you in the cell next to mine without proper paperwork – as in, some state licensed doctor’s permission slip. For me, if a cellmate gives me an extra soup or shirt and I don’t possess the proper proof, I can be written up or taken to the hole. Some governments – state or local – go as far as to tell you how many cars, trees, or animals you can have on “your” property. There have even been stories of people being charged or harassed for painting their house a certain color, or for refusing to move a piece of property (Ian’s couch, for example) from their own property.
I could go on and on about the control, oppression, and restrictions put on people every day. The point Jay reminded me of is simple: Your jail might be bigger, your chains invisible, but they’re restraining you just the same as mine. Yes, we’re all oppressed and it’s not getting any better. When will we break these chains?
Many individuals around the world have learned that only by interacting peacefully can we achieve a more harmonious, prosperous, healthy, fair and tolerant society, that our lives on this planet can be far better. People universally oppose acts of aggression, theft, and fraud when committed by individuals. We accept the principle that the initiation of physical force against others is illegitimate, immoral, and may rightly be defended against. For the most part, we also insist that organizations of individuals, such as corporations, also abide by this natural tenet.
When it comes to state aggression, however, especially that wrought by democratic governments, the perspective for many can change. Individuals too often excuse the state when it harms innocent individuals. This may be because they feel powerless to effect change or uninformed, preferring to defer to those more knowledgeable. They may possess cultivated feelings of nationalism and exceptionalism; expectations of benevolence and altruism in state officials; fears of attack, fostered by interventionist propaganda and complicit mainstream media; yearnings for conformity; or just a willingness to harm, burden or restrict others, in the expectation of benefit to ends and causes they themselves consider to be good ones. Thus, when our governments act as aggressors rather than protectors of human rights, many individuals remain silent.
So begins the the forward to Why Peace, an over 600-page compilation of pro-peace essays edited by Marc Guttman, a book he he says:
In this video Derrick and I (Rapsher) discuss and partake in Robin Hooding. One of our motivating factors is, like most people in the community, we’ve been compromised into paying various fees associated with driving. Robin Hooding is one way we believe we can neutralize our karma for paying a criminal agency. So, we’re not personally getting our money back, but we are preventing others in the community from having their money stolen from them by the city with parking tickets. We encourage you to do this in your city, or just come to Keene NH and join in the fun here.
It was a brisk and sunny October evening in the Shire. I drove down to the Cheshire County Jail where Freedom Activist Michele Seven would be turning herself over to the House of Corrections and serve time rather than pay the State a fine for driving without a State-approved “Registration” for her vehicle.
Having driven all around the continent without registering her cars with any State Agency for years, it was New Hampshire’s finest who finally put a halt to the Freedom Activist’s years-long crime spree of driving her vehicles without carrying Government-required papers.
When I met up with Michele, she looked composed and focussed. She has a sentence of 2.5 days which she will serve in consecutive Friday-Saturday overnight caging until time is served. She faces 8 more tickets of this kind and could face the same time for all of them. That’s every Friday night in jail for half a year—as punishment for not paying fines and registration fees to the Government.
About 8 Freedom Activists came out to send Michele off with hugs and words of appreciation, and the atmosphere was defined by a lightheartedness tempered by occasional reminders of the heavy-handed State.
I, for one, feel uplifted by Michele’s fortitude when facing the State. She lived her life as a free human until the agents of the State intervened, and now she’s choosing the lesser of two evils by aiding in her own caging rather than paying to perpetuate the State’s bad behavior.
Michele’s story is another powerful reminder of the depth of the saying, “Good people disobey bad laws.”
-DJF
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