by Garret Ean | Apr 14, 2012 |
Tim Osmar arrested for chalking, Dec 15 2011
After a cost of eighteen days in a cage and a few months of legal threats, there is good news to report on chalking freedom out of Orlando, Florida. The ABA Journal published yesterday that Timothy Osmar, who was twice arrested for chalking at the Orlando city hall plaza, had his rights violated when he was legally kidnapped over protected political speech. US district magistrate David Baker’s ruling deemed the arrest for violation of a city ordinance to be an overreach of a code designed to prevent unauthorized commercial advertising. Unlike NH, Florida’s towns and cities are endowed with the power to write words powerful enough to invoke arrest for their violation.
Prior to the decision Friday, Orlando officials indicated that they would be appealing an “adverse ruling”. The city would find it difficult to play a purer than thou antichalk attitude in this case. Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer encouraged downtown businesses to chalk their sidewalks in support of the home team Magic when they were in the NBA playoffs in 2009. The city also permits a yearly chalk art festival held by the local Rotary Club. David Baker told Orlando bureaucrats, “The city may not selectively interpret and enforce the ordinance based on its own desire to further the causes of particular favored speakers.”
Mayor Dyer did not seem thoroughly interested in the deeper constitutional and moral issues regarding chalking arrests. His comment, while charges were pending was, “This was a guy who wanted to be arrested, by all accounts, and has been… This guy was given every opportunity not to go to jail, but he chose to go to jail.” (more…)
by Highline | Apr 13, 2012 |
– Return from Cheshire County Superior Court regarding the Nolle Pros of Jason Talley’s “Contempt of Court” charge .PDF
Jason now faces only criminal charges for possession of a camera in a public area of a public building.
Even the Cheshire County Superior Court has abolished that rule, yet Jason Talley remains charged with “disorderly conduct” and “resisting arrest.”
by Kager | Apr 13, 2012 |
This article was posted on LadiesInKeene.com last night regarding the standoff in Greenland, NH.
Around 6:30PM, April 12th in Greenland, NH, five police officers were seen standing on the front porch and peering into the windows of 517 Post Road. The officers were at the home to serve a ‘search warrant’ as part of a ‘drug related investigation.’ Kevin Clay from WMUR reports: “Police went to 517 Post Road and entered the home. They were confronted by an armed suspect.” A man who noticed the police officers on the porch and a cruiser on the lawn as he was driving by said that he then heard gunshots and saw police running away from the home. After the passerby pulled over to direct traffic away from that area, the cruiser went flying past him, presumably to the hospital with an injured officer.
A woman living across the street from the house said she was cleaning when she heard the gunshots and looked out the window to see four police officers running away from the house and three of them falling. More officers arrived very quickly and steadily continued arriving. The woman reported that an officer came to her daughter’s bedroom window and told her that they needed to stay in their basement. Other neighbors were told to stay in their homes and as the area was blocked off, other residents were prevented from returning home.
As of right now, the standoff is still underway: helicopters, SWAT teams, and police officers from numerous areas throughout the state are present in the area of the home. Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where the five officers shot – one who did not survive – were taken for medical attention, is swarming with LEOs from dozens of departments.
WMUR reports, “That [male] suspect and a female were still inside the home Thursday night as police tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution.”
It is very unfortunate that this incident occurred, and though many will blame the man who shot at police officers entering his home for the outcome of this interaction, he probably did not act with malicious intent. Reacting to an aggressor with force is commonly known as self-defense and generally viewed as acceptable and often applauded – unless the aggressor wears a badge or is deemed a “government official.”
(more…)
by Ian | Apr 13, 2012 |
Did you know that rule 1.1 of the district courts is that they can waive the rules at any time? It’s true – and they do. Anytime you call them on breaking their own rules, they just breeze right on by like the rules mean nothing to them. However, when *you* break one of those rules, they operate on a whole other set of standards.
There are countless examples of this, but here’s another one.
I’m currently facing a trespass charge for trying to do business at the “superior” court when I’d been “banned” by a flagrantly illegal order from local sheriff Dick Foote.
So, we’re mere days away from the trial date of April 17th, and the Cheshire attorney’s office has only just sent their witness list to me. Their rule, 2.10 B says:
Not less than 14 days prior to trial, the State shall provide the defendant with a list of names of witnesses, including experts and reports, and a list of any lab reports, with copies thereof, it anticipates introducing at trial.
It was less than a week prior to trial before I got the witness list (more…)
