Today is my birthday, and where else would I want to be at 8:30am except in Judge Burke’s courtroom, awaiting another parking ticket arraignment? Last time I tried the “dead fish” strategy: I didn’t speak during arraignment, I barely spoke during trial, and I was predictably railroaded by the prosecution. Judge Burke found me guilty of two parking violations and fined me $10.
The trial and everything leading up to it costs the court (and therefore the taxpayers) far more than the $10 collected in “revenue”. Not only is it costly for the government to prosecute this victimless crime, it’s also time consuming: the prosecutor was kept busy filing paperwork, gathering witnesses, and preparing his arguments. The entire parking enforcement (which only consists of 2 people) was incapacitated for nearly 4 hours while sequestered for trial. How much money can the city government collect in 8 parking enforcement man-hours? Well, that opportunity was lost because I chose to take these tickets to trial.
If you think this is stupid, you might be surprised that I agree with you. What a waste of time and money! But remember — I didn’t set the system up this way — the people calling themselves “the government” did. And they can stop this charade at any time by simply dismissing the parking tickets. What would they have to lose? They’d certainly have a lot to gain.
Anyway, this time, I chose a new strategy: Go to arraignment with a piece of paper already written out, explaining that I want to plead GUILTY, except the paper is *UNSIGNED*. Once Judge Burke accepts this piece of paper, it becomes part of the record. It is now on the record that I want to plead guilty.
You’d think that would be enough, but Judge Burke did something interesting. He entered a plea of NOT GUILTY on my behalf. Why would he do that? The answer can be found in the following short video from court this morning:
In short, my point was: The judge has demonstrated bias against me, the defendant. Judge Burke is presuming (without evidence) that I am subject to the laws of the State of New Hampshire, but that is one of the elements that must be proven by the prosecution! How can I be forced to be at arraignment if the Judge is not presuming jurisdiction?
What do you think about this strategy? My next step is to file a motion to reverse the plea and motion to have Judge Burke recuse himself because of the bias he demonstrated. He is protecting the prosecutor and doing his job for him by assuming one of the essential elements of the crime: jurisdiction. Without jurisdiction, the case must be dismissed, but he’s not going to let that happen, is he?
On March 16 of this year, I received a parking ticket while parked on Winter Street. After looking at the ticket, I realized that the ticket was written before the meter was supposed to have expired. I had parked at 1:00pm and put enough money in the meter to cover the next 1 hour and 6 minutes. The ticket was written at 2:05:57. A few days later, I went to the Police Department stating that I would like to challenge the ticket. A Pre-Trial Conference (PTC) was set, and I motioned to waive the PTC. A Hearing was then scheduled for June 12 at 9:00am.
I arrived at the District Court at approximately 8:40am and at 8:50 was called by the Clerk to go into the “small room” near the lobby. I can only guess that Judge Burke did not want everyone in the main court room to see the trial.
The only witness against me was Jane McDermott, the Parking Enforcer who issued the ticket. During cross-examination I asked how, since the meters aren’t calibrated, she knew the meters kept accurate time, she stating that she doesn’t know, but if the batteries are bad, they replace them. I attempted to make a statement and was told that I would have to testify in order to introduce any “evidence,” so after the “City” rested it’s case, I was sworn in. I stated that on the date in question, I had parked at 1:00pm and put enough money in the meter to cover the next 1 hour and 6 minutes, which meant the meter should not have expired until at least 2:06 (and some seconds). Since the ticket was written at 2:05:57, I was shorted some amount of time that I was owed.
Judge Burke then said “Since the burden of proof is on the City to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, I am marking a finding of not guilty.”
Today I went to District Court in Keene for my arraignment for alleged parking violations. I was joined by 3 other activists contesting tickets who also had arraignment. Nemi Jones, Cecelia Freechild, and Kelly Voluntaryist. We were joined by cameramen and activists who came out to support us like Ian Freeman, Pete Eyre, Jason Rapsher, and David Crawford. (more…)
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.
This is a video of 5 activists rolling into the Keene Police Department on Dec. 6, 2011 with cameras and tickets. They all want their day in court so that they can remind their accusers that there is no victim. (more…)
