A great deal has happened these last several days involving activists and various Law Enforcement Agencies around Keene, NH. Many videos have been posted and much outrage expressed. In the end I think the heat of the moment causes us to lose sight of the reality and perhaps creates an illusionary world where one does not exist.
I might catch hell from my friends for posting this but I’m the type of person who speaks his mind regardless.
In general the Keene Police Department and the local Sheriffs have acted in a very professional manner and have shown a great deal of restraint in dealing with activists. Most notably, Lt. Shane Maxfield. In every incident I have seen involving the Lt. he has been calm and communicative, dare I say honorable. This is reality. Whether you like the job they do, the actions they take or the orders they follow, we are fortunate to have good humans in those uniforms. And they are human, just as we are, subject to the same flaws and features, the same mistakes and misjudgments.
I do take issue with the way Patrick was carried today and the way Sam was likely treated, I do take issue with the orders to arrest peaceful activists for victimless crimes and I do take issue with the use of force in general to achieve a hegemony of the State over the Individual. One need only read my previous blog entries to see how I feel.
You want to see bad cops search “police abuse” on google or Youtube and you will get an eyeful. You want to see what a lack of restraint truly looks like or what a jackbooted thug really does, see my previous sentence.
This is the reality we live in. No Photoshop, no bullshit just the real truth. We ( the activists and the police ) may not see eye to eye but at least we are given legs to stand on and not lying on the ground with a knee on our throat.
I left the police station this afternoon mulling over a blog post describing the event as merely an exercise in intimidation, which it was, but after cooling down and reading some private information I realized that we were giving up our most potent weapon. The Truth.
We talk and debate about the truth that the State is merely a monopoly of violence and that they do not and can not produce anything because they must first take from the producers. We talk about the truth involving the drug war and victimless crimes. Why then can we not speak the truth about how we are treated for the most part by the KPD with respect and civility. Obviously there are exceptions but they are few.
Here is some more truth. Police Prosecutor Rivera lost his wits today. A dozen or more upset but PEACEFUL activists in the lobby concerned over the screams of a friend in captivity and he calls in the hammer squad to bust up the circus. He knew given our history that we would not harm him physically but the truth is he knows (don’t deny the truth Mr. Rivera) that what was going on was wrong. His position in the argument was morally bankrupt. Arresting someone in a public court room for wanting to video tape a public arraignment is just asinine and asking for civil dissent. Couple that with the fact that no other arraignments were going on at the time and the only people in the court room, other than civil servants, were activists and your left with a What the Fuck situation. There was no reason to not allow cameras other than the whole power trip obey-and-comply bullshit. This is the truth.
One final piece of truth for you the reader. The ONLY reason cameras are not allowed is because Judge Burke embarrassed himself with his little outburst and Youtube ate it up.
When confronted with the truth an individual can choose to do one of the following: deny it, cover it up, ignore it or accept it. Which one are you going to choose? Rivera? Burke? Maxfield? Which is it going to be?
Man up or STFU.
