Here’s a guest blog from Mark Edge on his successful noncooperation regarding a parking ticket. Next time you get a parking ticket, consider demanding a trial, like Mark did. It bogs down an already overburdened system. Of course, risk is still involved and your mileage may vary. As you’ll see, Mark’s charge was dumped before trial, but I went to trial over a ticket on Apr 28th and have never received a verdict. Worst case, if you don’t want to noncooperate all the way and they find you guilty at trial, you will probably only need pay the $5 then – after you’ve really made them work for it. Please give this a try, Keeniacs, and post to the Free Keene Forum with your results or in advance if you’d like some input or support at your court appearance, should it get that far. This is an excellent first step for an activist new to saying “no” to government people.
When I moved to Keene in Sep06 I noticed right away that Keene has a problem with parking and Parking Enforcement downtown. The parking meters dissuade people from patronizing the businesses downtown. One morning my wife and I were going to go to Timolean’s for breakfast. When we parked, we realized that we didn’t have any change. We got back in the car and went to Friendly’s on West Street, were the parking is free.
Obviously, there needs to be some sort of system to disincentivize people who are not doing business from taking up the parking spaces of those who wish to, but Parking Enforcement, as I understand it, runs a large deficit every year. It costs more to send the little ladies with parking tickets around to fine people than they collect from meters and fines. That is silly.
Top that off with what I have often said, you don’t have to pay those tickets. (more…)
I went to visit Marc today for the first time at SeaTac FDC. Thankfully, I’m able to visit him even while he’s in SHU (“segregated housing unit”, solitary confinement). When I arrived at 1:30pm, it was very nerve-racking. I stepped up to the massive building’s entrance, got buzzed in, then found myself in a big lobby with a reflective glass booth and a little hole to pass ID and paperwork through.
There was a table with the paperwork to fill out for visiting, but no pen. Thankfully there were some visitors there who had been through it all before and helped me figure out the process (and loaned me a pen), because you don’t get any answers from the staff. Visiting officially begins at 2pm on Fridays, but by 2:15 they just started processing, which took a very long time itself.
Big families and many individuals filled the lobby. So many broken-hearted parents, girl friends, wives and troubled children crying “I want to see daddy” and behaving unruly, to the distress of the moms… so many Drug War Widows and Orphans. After all, the vast majority (almost all) of the inmates are there for non-violent drug law violations. (more…)
Last night I attended a suspicion-less sobriety checkpoint in Tilton, NH. I attended alone to get video footage of what I believe is an excellent example of the erosion of liberty in the “Live Free or Die” state.
I was asked for my name and I refused to provide it. The officers were all very polite and professional. I stood literally right in the middle of the checkpoint and was allowed to film unfettered. For this, I thank them.
The people who live in those communities should be proud of the level of respect their police show citizen-journalists. They should also be concerned that the police-state is alive and well in their area.
I will be putting together a video showing what I believe is a unjustifiable encroachment on individual liberty.
A hero in Colorado has been arrested for rescuing a girl who fell out of her raft while white water rafting, man jailed because custom officials mistook his shampoo for ecstasy, ridiculous leash laws in the UK, and VT police accused of cuffing a passed out man out man and dragging him out of his own house before
pepper spraying him because they thought he was a burglar.
When I moved to Keene in Sep06 I noticed right away that Keene has a problem with parking and Parking Enforcement downtown. The parking meters dissuade people from patronizing the businesses downtown. One morning my wife and I were going to go to Timolean’s for breakfast. When we parked, we realized that we didn’t have any change. We got back in the car and went to Friendly’s on West Street, were the parking is free.
I went to visit Marc today for the first time at SeaTac FDC. Thankfully, I’m able to visit him even while he’s in SHU (“segregated housing unit”, solitary confinement). When I arrived at 1:30pm, it was very nerve-racking. I stepped up to the massive building’s entrance, got buzzed in, then found myself in a big lobby with a reflective glass booth and a little hole to pass ID and paperwork through. 
