Robin Hooder and FK blogger Garret Ean was audio interviewed by the Derek Brommerich show. Also, Lawyers.com posted a very friendly piece:
The city of Keene, N.H., has had enough of a group of Free State activists who feed parking meters to help fellow citizens avoid tickets and is suing the group, alleging they harass parking enforcement cops, according to a news report.
Freed from Parking Tickets
After several years of simply feeding the random parking meter to save a fellow citizen from a parking ticket, Robin Hood of Keene members took the idea to whole new level about six months ago, says Ian Freeman, a blogger at FreeKeene.com and talk show host for FreeTalkLive.
“Robin-Hooders” walk about ten feet in front of the meter police, feeding any meters about to expire, making it virtually impossible for that particular cop to hand out any tickets.
They are part of a local movement called Free Keene, which in turn is part of the larger Free State movement, in which 20,000 people are moving to New Hampshire in order “to achieve liberty in our lifetime,” explains Freeman.
“The Robin-Hooders’ activities have resulted in 4,000 motorists being saved from parking tickets,” Freeman says. “Keene is a small place, and it’s taken a real hit on revenues.” Freeman says Robin-Hooders leave cards on the cars of their beneficiaries that ask for donations, and that’s how they fund their meter-filling cause.
Comes Down to Money
In the lawsuit filed May 2, the city alleges that six Robin Hooders, as well as unnamed others, have “taunted, interfered with, harassed and intimidated the Parking Enforcement Officers.” Officers say they’ve been “bumped” and complain about stress and sleeplessness.
While the city won’t admit it’s about money, it is suing for tortious interference with contractual relations, saying that the Robin Hooders are interfering with the economic relationship between the city as employer and its parking enforcement cops. It demands temporary and permanent injunctions to keep the Robin Hooders from getting within 50 feet of the officers.
A hearing has been set on the matter for June 10.
System Breakdown
Freeman says the city is worried that its parking enforcement officers will all quit and be irreplaceable because no one will want the job. And that’s exactly the point.
“It would be nice to shut down parking enforcement,” he says. “People who own businesses downtown, instead of the city government, should own the parking spaces.”
Robin Hooders also place informational flyers on cars that have been ticketed, encouraging their owners to challenge the tickets and clog up the court system. “The police should be dealing with real crimes with victims – rape, murder, arson, etc.,” he says. “If people who get tickets challenge them, the city will have to drop it. They’re overloading the system in order to change it.”
Freeman says that while using the democratic process is one way to effect change, the direct action that the Robin Hooders are using can be better sometimes. “Robin Hooding is something you can control, something that will immediately have an effect,” he says. “Immediate change is great.”
