There has rightfully been much ado regarding the BEARCAT attack vehicle in Keene recently, but all along, there’s another serious issue facing the people in this region. The money-hungry gang at the Keene Police Department have convinced the city council to install two parking kiosks downtown as a test. According to the police chief, Ken Meola, they are all about raising revenue. They estimate another $100,000 per year just for the parking division! I bet they can hire another enforcer with that money – doesn’t everyone want to see more parking enforcers on the street? Is there a way for me to paint those words with more sarcasm?
As you might imagine, many people in Keene do not want these parking meters, but they should speak for themselves. The Keene Sentinel recently published a letter from Luann Udell that outlines some great reasons the city council should say no to these awful meters. (Of course, ALL the meters should go, but that’s another issue entirely.) Here’s Luann’s letter:
Parking kiosks are a problem
To whomever makes parking meter purchase decisions:
I am not enjoying the new parking meter system in downtown Keene. And if we can judge by the unusually high number of empty parking spaces in that area lately, I have a lot of company.
I’ve had to wait in line at the kiosks, even when I simply need six minutes to run an errand. (more…)
People often ask me how I discovered the ideas of liberty. Like many others, I was taught about government in school using state approved curriculum; which never mentions the ideas of liberty, self ownership, and personal responsibility. In addition, I was raised in a extremely liberal area, which gave me a socially acceptable set of morals that included support of government social/welfare programs. This was not because I disliked the idea of private charity and personal compassion; but rather, I believed it to be the only method of mass charity (the ability to fund care for many people at once). It was my experience in trying to use these social programs which led me to discover the ineffective, wasteful, and harmful effects they create. They didn’t help people. They gave those suffering the bare minimum for survival, but wasted so much time, and came with so many requirements, that those the government “helped” would never be able to move forward. They would become dependent on the system for survival, which skews this “help” to be thought of as a “right”… because obviously everyone feels they have a right to life. (more…)
As the NH house and senate return to a full schedule for public hearings, I’ve made an effort to maintain camera coverage for certain bills. Last week was a house hearing on HB 1705, which would heavily restrict, but effectively legalize home consumption of cannabis in the state of New Hampshire. The ‘tax and regulate’ bill was complimented with a decriminalization bill. The decrim bill, heard on February 2nd, would have set the penalty for cannabis possession of under an ounce at a $100 fine. The bill was amended to criminalize the third possession, so in a sense, this bill only decriminalizes cannabis possession for one’s first two offenses. The bills are imperfect, as all are, but both represent a very progressive step forward for cannabis policy reform in New Hampshire, a state which is far behind all other New England political subdivisions in this sense.
As is to be expected, those that escalate the drug war, the enforcers who invest their consciences into the fight, will speak at hearings impassioned to continue what they consider to be important work. Occasionally, those who are invested in such work recognize it to be harmful in nature, and separate themselves from the job that they do to speak out against the ill caused by the role that they play. Such rejection of the standard rally cry to continue the war on drugs is voiced by Richard Van Wickler, who in his day job is the administrator of the Cheshire county jail. He comes to the hearing acknowledging that he is not representing the role he plays at his job, and that he has taken a vacation day to express his personal feelings before decision makers in Concord. Richard is one of the few speakers on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition who is currently employed in the criminal justice industry, showing how unpopular holding such a viewpoint is while actively working in the field. Below is a link to his testimony favoring the legalization legislation, as filmed by Biker Bill.
Yesterday while handing out some information at a local high school, the principal mistakenly thinks that free speech doesn’t apply in public spaces. Despite repeatedly making threats to use force (call the police), a student-council representative tells us he doesn’t appreciate how disrespectful the FreeKeene activists are toward the principal.
Are we forcing anyone to take the information? Will the police use force against us at the whim of a government worker’s say-so? You bet. I won’t speak for others, but I was prepared to be arrested if my only “crime” was handing out literature in a public space. Why? This is why:
There has rightfully been much ado regarding the BEARCAT attack vehicle in Keene recently, but all along, there’s another serious issue facing the people in this region. The money-hungry gang at the Keene Police Department have convinced the city council to install two parking kiosks downtown as a test. According to the police chief, Ken Meola, they are all about raising revenue. They estimate another $100,000 per year just for the parking division! I bet they can hire another enforcer with that money – doesn’t everyone want to see more parking enforcers on the street? Is there a way for me to paint those words with more sarcasm? 
