James Cleaveland gave an epic, inspirational speech at Keenevention 2014 and covered dreaming big, taking risks, facing fear, persistence, making mistakes, haters, his parents, Robin Hooding, his arrest for recording police, the Pumpkinfest riots, Keene and the Free State Project, and took several audience questions. Here’s full video:
During the lengthy trial, the state called several police witnesses to testify that in order to keep James safe from a gunman who was threatening to take his own life, that they needed to arrest James and put him in a cage for two years. Of course, the police really wanted to keep themselves safe from James’ camera and were willing to crush the supposed freedom of the press to do so.
Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the verdict when it’s available.
Darryl W. Perry tweeted live from James Cleaveland’s trial this morning. James is facing two years in prison for recording the police at the scene of this Summer’s suicide. Here are those tweets in reverse chronological order:
Darryl W. Perry @DarrylWPerry · 2h 2 hours ago
Burke to take the case under advisement #Robinhood
Darryl W. Perry @DarrylWPerry · 2h 2 hours ago
Prosecutor objects to Burke watching video provided by #Robinhood
Darryl W. Perry @DarrylWPerry · 2h 2 hours ago
Burke hasn’t opened the envelope containing video evidence #Robinhood (more…)
The Keene Sentinel recently featured an anonymous editorial about the Colbert Report on Robin Hooding. I have heard the idea behind such unsigned editorials is that all the editors agree with the content. If that is the case, then this response is directed at all of them.
The most objectionable part is that the Sentinel’s editors continue to attribute some kind of ridiculous hive-mind to the bloggers at Free Keene:
To its credit, the group has received the segment with a sense of humor and, presumably, the outlook that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
The Sentinel’s editors do not know what each blogger at Free Keene thinks of the Colbert Report. I don’t even know. Neither I nor the Sentinel have polled this site’s dozen-plus bloggers to find out their thoughts. So, the statement the Sentinel’s anonymous editors make is inaccurate. An accurate statement would be to name specifically who at this website has received it with a sense of humor. I happen to be one of those who enjoyed the Colbert Report (nor was I surprised by it – we expected to be skewered), but my view is not necessarily shared among all the bloggers. Unlike the Sentinel, every post at Free Keene is attributed publicly to its author, so there’s no confusion.
The Sentinel’s anonymous editors may not appreciate the “absurdity” of the Robin Hooders‘ efforts to save people from parking tickets, but multiple employees of the paper have thanked the activists for saving them – so obviously the anonymous editors do not speak for 100% of the Sentinel staff.
After arresting Janelle Westfall, 18, for underage possession of alcohol, Seastrand allegedly told her she could avoid charges if she went into the police station basement with him and did a nude photo shoot.
Of course, none of the money being given to Ms. Westfall is coming from Seastrand – it’s the taxpayers who are on the hook for his actions. He is protected from responsibility by the system. Prosecutors will not prosecute him. You can bet that if any gun-toting non-cop threatened a young lady and demanded nude photos that person would be fully prosecuted. It’s good to be in the government gang!
The big question is – how many times has Seastrand pulled this move and gotten away with it prior to this incident? I doubt it was his first time using his power to intimidate girls into taking off their clothes.
