Christopher David of Free UBER – Graphic Courtesy Coin Telegraph
Free UBER‘s Christopher David is making headlines again for his latest announcement where he and several other drivers are offering free rides to people on New Year’s Eve in Portsmouth, NH. The drivers are accepting tips, and Portsmouth police chief Frank Warchol said in an interview with the Portsmouth Herald that accepting donations would still place them under government control and means they’d be fined if caught operating without government permission slips.
Chris’ announcement has really put the government gang in a ridiculous spot that shows their true nature. Prior to this, the controversy with UBER in Portsmouth has been that UBER’s background check requirements aren’t as stringent as Portsmouth’s ordinances demand. There’s been endless debate and discussion in city council meetings about who should be allowed to drive other consenting adults from place to place, with the town government agents acting concerned about “protecting” the passengers from potentially criminal drivers. However, no one in the Portsmouth government would care if a felon takes someone from point A to point B for free, but if they accept a dollar for their effort, then the regulations apply! What’s this scheme of theirs really about? Perhaps money, control, and protecting the old cab companies from competition?
Frank Warchol, Chief of Portsmouth Police – Photo Courtesy SeacoastOnline
The Portsmouth gang is threatening the charity drivers with fines of $500 to $1,000 if they are caught accepting money for rides. How police will catch them is another question entirely. With UBER, police could use the UBER app to monitor the locations of the UBER cars (whether they have, I don’t know). However, UBER is not involved at all with the New Year’s Eve charity, so police would have to run a sting operation by scheduling a ride, then pouncing on the driver when he or she accepts a tip from the undercover cop.
Chris says that his reading of the Portsmouth gang’s “ordinances” and the state gang’s “statutes” lead him to believe there are virtually no restrictions on limousines. The Portsmouth transportation ordinance defines limousine services as those which, “provide designated luxury or specialty vehicles by prior appointment for discrete functions or transportation to locations outside the City or the reverse”. Chris says the vehicles on New Years Eve will be specialty because they will have fun games in the passenger seats.
Will anything go down on New Year’s Eve between city cops and the charity drivers? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest, and if you’re looking for a ride on New Year’s Eve in Portsmouth, sign up for yours here at Chris’ new project, Arcade City!
Hoping to overturn the illegal, discriminatory town ordinance, Lilley and MacKinnon teamed up with Free State Project early mover and attorney Dan Hynes.
Hynes’ line of questioning was interesting, specifically asking the state’s witnesses, which included three snitches and a few cops, how they determine someone is a woman. The all answered something about breasts, which is inconclusive. Without inspecting genitalia, which the police did not do, there would be reasonable doubt that the person is female.
Hynes argued, in a ten-page motion to dismiss (complimented by jovial Judge James M. Carroll) the ordinance is unconstitutional and violates equal protection and the right to free expression. Further, he argues the ordinance is also illegal because New Hampshire is not a “home rule” state and unless the state legislature authorizes towns to pass laws of their own, they cannot legally do so.
Now, in just over a week’s time, the percentage is up to 91%! That’s 200 signers (from 18,000 to 18,200) in 1/3 the time it took for the previous 1% (about a month).
If you’ve been thinking about signing up, why wait any longer? You don’t want to be in the second batch of 20k, do you? Take a moment to join the Free State Project! Once we reach 20,000 signers, the official move begins in which you have five years to make the move to NH, so start planning now. See you in the Shire!
Originally inspired by the libertarian “Hammer of Truth” blog, which featured multiple authors, I launched Free Keene nine years ago, on December 27th, 2006. At that time, there was exciting civil disobedience and street theatre being performed here in Keene by early Free State Project movers. I wanted there to be a place for area activists to post news, media, and opinion about the fun things happening here.
Prior to this blog, there was already the “Keene Free Press” newspaper edited and distributed by civil disobedience superactivists Russell and Kat Kanning. I moved in 2006 as part of the FSP and brought my nationally syndicated talk radio show, “Free Talk Live“, with me. When Free Keene launched at the end of 2006, liberty media in Keene continued to grow. The first post to the Free Keene blog was the premiere episode of “Free Minds TV“, a show hosted by area natives and produced by several Free State Project early movers.
Various new media efforts and Free Keene blog personalities followed, including several whose personal journeys led them out of New Hampshire eventually, as well as a couple who publicly resigned. Keene in many ways has become an activist Mecca, with some bloggers cutting their teeth here and moving on to other parts of the Shire, like JJ Schlessinger. JJ founded and produced Free Keene TV, which eventually became Shire TV, and now he’s a video professional in Manchester.
The Free Keene blog has become a go-to source for original NH news reporting, in addition to its traditional role of promoting activist media and opinion. Free Keene has long been a Google News source and has been responsible for breaking news (scooping other media) as well as providing video footage for mainstream media reports across New Hampshire. Our site has been privately thanked by multiple mainstream media members for providing them with content.
Free Keene‘s scope has also widened over the years, from originally focusing on Keene-area activism and news to Shire-wide reporting. Free Keene’s bloggers are physically distributed across the southern tier of New Hampshire, including Keene, Manchester, and the Seacoast, and we’ll certainly report on liberty activism and news-of-interest across the Shire. (more…)
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