In a post yesterday, Ademo Freeman’s current situation was reported as he awaits trial on felony wiretapping charges. Sitting in Valley Street jail on ‘resisting’ charges for going limp during a chalking arrest, his final pretrial hearing was cancelled and rescheduled two days later. Yesterday’s post has the video of the hearing, just released today is this video of the chalking that went on outside of the jail on July 25 immediately after the hearing was cancelled on Wednesday.
https://www.youtube.comwatch?v=QcaVVGqV22w
Ademo was able to see the chalkings left on the sidewalk of Valley Street from his cell window, but as a consequence of the peaceful gathering outside, the cell block in view of the sidewalk was locked down and Ademo was relocated to another area of the jail.
A suspicionless checkpoint will be established by the police on the roads of Concord some time during the first week of August. It’s no wild guess to predict that the court-sanctioned violation of rights will be occurring on either a Friday or Saturday evening. At the checkpoint, vehicles will be profiled and stopped without probable cause for the offence of happening to pass through the designated security area. These checkpoints are established in the name of preventing DUIs, though often more arrests are made for victimless crimes not related to impaired driving. Beyond the arrests made, the police produce thousands of dollars in revenue for the state by operating these checkpoints, as dozens of drivers are cited for innocuous motor vehicle violations. At a recent suspicionless checkpoint in Bedford, the Union Leader reports that of the 330 vehicles that were stopped, twenty-eight drivers were given motor vehicle citations, four were arrested for non-alcohol drug possession, one arrested on an immigration charge, and a whopping four drunk drivers were arrested. Also profiting from the festivities are the towing and impounding companies utilized by police.
In the Union Leader’s thorough overview of a night spent at the police’s peacetime security checkpoint, they describe the state’s modified RV, the DUI Mobile Command Center. In case you’ve ever wondered what it’s like inside the Command Center, here’s a video I took of the vehicle on display at Concord’s law enforcement National Night Out, August 2, 2012.
The following video is of Will Hopkins, director of NH Peace Action, reading a statement before the Occupy New Hampshire general assembly on July 22, 2012.
Today was the second day in which Occupy New Hampshire’s recent division was covered with stories on the front page of the Concord Monitor. An in-depth article on last week’s separation was published on July 22, the date of the first GA since the split. (1, 2) At the GA, only one of the board members of the new Occupy New Hampshire corporation was present, and she apologized for having participated in the incorporation and announced that she would be removing herself from the board. An article published in today’s Monitor reports on the first GA since the split. (1, 2) Also published in Sunday’s Monitor was an editorial on the split by Occupier Theresa Earle. (1) (more…)
Radley Balko, HuffPo journalist and chief of The Agitator blog reportson the increasing corporate media focus around a “war on cops”. 2012 is shaping up to be one of the safest years for law enforcement since 1944; a much different time for policing in the US.
A few other media outlets are now picking up on the massive drop in police fatality statistics this year (Welcome to the story!) But so far, none of them have questioned what happened to all of those alleged trends (gun ownership, increasing contempt for cops, videotaping of police misconduct, anti-government sentiment, decreases in funding for police departments) that they all reported were behind the non-existent “war on cops” they were all reporting last year. Or in the case of the New York Times, as recently as April.
If we use the numbers from the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, there are 800,000 cops on the streets. There have been 53 on-the -job fatalities so far this year. But 21 of those were car accidents. There have been 19 firearms homicides against police. I looked through the descriptions of this year’s officer deaths at the NLEMF page. Two of the fatalities were from firearms injuries sustained in previous years (in one case, 30 years ago). That puts us at 17 for this year. I then looked through the 13 deaths classified as “other.” Four of those appear to have been homicides—three stabbings, and one officer who died from a blot clot resulting from an altercation with an inmate. So let’s add those to our 17. That gives us 21 homicides in the first half of 2012 (I’ll go ahead and count the two officers killed during SWAT-like drug raids, even though it’s possible the tactics themselves may have contributed to the officers’ deaths).
By my math, that gives us a homicide rate of 5.25 (more…)
The first meeting of ONH, Arms Park, Manchester. 6 Oct 2011
I have been waiting to publish information regarding the status of Occupy New Hampshire as of the general assembly held on the state house lawn on July 15, 2012. Before I arrived at the scene, a clear division had formed and meetings were occurring between two separate camps. I noticed many familiar faces at the camp closest to where I had parked and began walking toward them with my camera rolling. Hearing what appeared by all indicators to be a productive discussion in progress, I set the camera down and tried to see who I could recognize in the farther crowd. Seeing both friends and strangers, I saw others in the movement whom I considered to be more failed politicians than impassioned grassroots organizers. Among the many who have come and gone over the span of ONH since its first GA on October 6, 2012, my observation would only place two or three individuals in this category. In all popular power struggles, it is these individuals who act upon opportunity to declare themselves the vanguard. Vanguardism in popular movements is dangerous in that it offers the revolutionary a sense of entitlement over the masses as had existed for the class which had been overthrown. If there comes to be a conflict over who truly represents the Occupy movement in New Hampshire, may we listen most cautiously to the loudest voices.
The individuals who seceded from the general assembly without engaging in any sort of consensus process are reportedly trying to retain the Occupy New Hampshire name by unknown means. There has been discussion of possible lawsuits pending against members of the group who did not participate in the ostracism campaign and secede from the main group. While I am still gathering information about what happened on Sunday and its consequences, information continues to be released by different parties. My raw footage from the inclusive circle (which welcomed all individuals) will be online by the end of the week. The seceding circle’s meeting was recorded through written notes and some still photography, but it is believed that no video exists. The meeting minutes, as taken by Katie Talbert, are the most complete public record of what occurred on the other side of the park.
Meanwhile, here’s a perspective from Rich Angell, a newcomer to the Occupy movement who describes himself as a periphery supporter from the beginning. Rich is from a more rural area of the state than most and has been involved with sustainable intentional communities since moving to New Hampshire for the Free State Project in 2007. He recalls the unwelcome reception that some gave him when he arrived.
Some accounts of the event with false information have been released, and there will be links to valid sources of information as well as corrections included in the post released with the full video.
