Here’s audio from a message Fred left on my voicemail where he claims he’s not a thief (as I alleged earlier) and that Clyde, who owns the house across the street, “authorized” him to remove the sign and further claims he didn’t want it there.
Clyde has yet to weigh in with his side of the story, but considering its Fred’s job to be the “code enforcer”, that he likely intimidated Clyde into allowing him to take the sign. Clyde’s roommate and blogger at Free Keene, Ademo Freeman, states that Clyde was told he needed to take down the sign, to which he responded that it wasn’t his and he didn’t live there. Fred then said he’d take it down for him and Clyde said, “Fine”.
When someone uses a threat of aggression in order to obtain obedience, that is called extortion. So, looks like Fred is not a thief after all, but instead is an extortionist. He’s a very nice extortionist, but that’s what he does for a living – threatens peaceful people whose property doesn’t meet the arbitrary rules set by a group of people calling themselves the “city of Keene”.
He also really believes he’s not doing anything wrong, as the end of his message reveals. He thinks he’s hung up the phone apparently when you can hear a co-bureaucrat in the background express surprise that he would have called me from his personal phone instead of his city phone. He responds that he’s had my number in his cell phone for a long time and that he likes me.
He seems sincere and it does appear to be an accident that this audio was captured.
Fred and I have broken bread together many times in the past, but that was before he made me into his pet enforcement project in his new-ish job as “code enforcer”. Prior to Fred becoming “code enforcer”, I had not heard from Keene code enforcement about anything for five years. Then, as soon as he got the gig, all of a sudden my property had “issues”.
Fred, I’m happy to meet you for coffee – after you withdraw your standing threats against me. This is my property. I am not harming anyone, and I have a right to have a Liberty 94.3 sign in my yard if I want to, and so does everyone else. What you are doing is wrong. Please quit your job and enjoy your retirement.
