In late 2015, Free Keene blogger Christopher David was arrested and charged with felony “wiretapping” for recording his interaction with a bar bouncer and Portsmouth cop on the streets. Now, Portsmouth police have dropped the charge down to a misdemeanor, which means Chris now only faces a year in jail instead of several years in prison.
Chris told the Portsmouth Herald, “it’s still ludicrous that recording a conversation on a public sidewalk could land me in jail at all… Under that same logic, thousands if not millions of videos on YouTube represent potential misdemeanors. Why single me out? I think we all know why.”
The reason why is that Chris leads Free UBER, a group of drivers committing ongoing civil disobedience and advocating for transportation freedom.
The wiretapping statutes in New Hampshire are one of the worst parts of the state. NH is one of only a few states where all parties must consent to the recording, which prevents people from being held accountable for their actions. In many other states, people with undercover cameras can record their conversations in businesses or with government. Here, doing that will get you a possible jail sentence.
Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest and for more Christopher David, check out his speech this week to the Portsmouth City council, announcing the forthcoming ride-sharing app, Arcade City:
