Concord Police Chief Backpedals on Likening Free Staters to Terrorists + Mother Jones Picks Up the Story

by | Aug 7, 2013 | 3 comments

BEARCATIt’s a lame excuse and he doesn’t apologize for basically calling free staters “domestic terrorists”.  He’s just trying to cover his ass in his letter back to Free State Project president Carla Gericke.  Here’s his letter and her reply on the FSP website.

Also, big thanks to Mother Jones’ Gavin Aronsen for his recently published story on the Concord BEARCAT controversy.  You can read that below:

After the public release of a document where he suggested that Occupiers and libertarians pose a domestic terror threat to Concord, New Hampshire, the city’s police chief has backed away from the claim. (more…)

215 Sign Shire Society Declaration at 2013 Cheshire Fair

by | Aug 7, 2013 | 0 comments

Cheshire Fair 2013At least 215 people declared their personal independence by signing the Shire Society declaration at the 75th annual Cheshire Fair! It was the 2nd year for the Shire Society booth at the fair and we got an upgraded spot this year and were fortunate to be located across from Porcfest favorite, the Juice Caboose!

Amusingly, the Cheshire Democrats were set up a few spaces down with a lame booth (see the photo to the right) featuring the nationalistic American flag (ours had the peace flag).  On their table all they had was some printed/copied papers about how great government healthcare is and about their position on gun rights (contrast to our colorful, graphically interesting fliers).  They, like most political booth operators just sat there and waited for people to approach them (we actively pitched to passers-by).  However, they at least deserve credit for trying.  The Cheshire Republicans were no where to be found.

Like last year, we asked passers-by to sign the re-designed paper version of the Shire Society declaration and hundreds did! Our biggest day was Saturday, with 77 signers, (more…)

Paranoid Conspiracy Theories

by | Aug 6, 2013 | 22 comments

CultIt’s interesting to be the fly on the wall for the conversation between people who are believers in the state and who feel threatened, angry, or confused about the liberty movement in NH. The misinformation and lies are pervasive, of course, as are personal insults about prominent liberty activists. That’s all to be expected when you have an effective movement that is actually making an impact – something the liberty movement has never had until the Free State Project.

More interesting still are the conspiracy theories that the state-believers ascribe to the liberty activism world. While some people in the liberty movement follow conspiracies (and in my opinion, to their detriment), apparently so do the statists. Here’s a summary of those I can recall off the top of my head or are currently being discussed in the brand new facebook group for haters of this website and the people associated with it, “Free Keene from Free Staters“.

  1. The Keene Sentinel has been infiltrated by Free Keene operatives. – This one is brand new and courtesy of a thread on the Free Keene from Free Staters haters group on Facebook.  Basically, someone posted an old article about Mark Edge from the Keene Sentinel, which discusses his past as a prisoner for nine years for a murder charge. Mark didn’t kill anyone and has turned his life around. Nonetheless, the state-believers are so paranoid that they think Sentinel reporter is candy-coating the murder rap and therefore must be Free Keene operatives that has infiltrated the Sentinel (former Sentinel reporter Phil Bantz is indicated by one hater group member as a possible mole). It is stated in the group that the paper’s editors will be approached, and much trashing of the Sentinel is done as well. The poor guys at the Sentinel can’t win, it seems. Now they are part of the liberty movement, according to paranoid state-believers.
  2. Activism must be organized hierarchically, like the state. – This one is pretty pervasive. People who believe in the state tend to believe that every other group of people must be organized just like theirs – an understandable confusion. (more…)

Free State Project President Demands Apology from Concord City, PD

by | Aug 2, 2013 | 97 comments

Free State ProjectHere is the statement from Free State Project President, Carla Gericke:  The Concord NH Police Department has made false and misleading statements in a grant application for $258,024 in federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to receive a Lenco Bearcat armored vehicle, hereinafter the “Tank.”

The DHS grant application states: “The State of New Hampshire’s experience with terrorism slants primarily towards the domestic type. We are fortunate that our State has not been victimized from a mass casualty event from an international terrorism strike however on the domestic front, the threat is real and here. Groups such as the Sovereign Citizens, Free Staters and Occupy New Hampshire are active and present daily challenges. Outside of officially organized groups, several homegrown clusters that are anti-government and pose problems for law enforcement agencies.”

Gericke_Carla2008[1]As president of the Free State Project (“FSP”), a NH-based non-profit organization with the sole mission of attracting 20,000 pro-freedom people to the Granite State, I am alarmed and appalled at the cleverly worded insinuation that the FSP is a domestic terrorist threat, or that “Free Staters” are “active and present daily challenges” to the Concord Police Department.

Individuals who sign up for the FSP generally subscribe to the non-aggression principle, an ethical stance which asserts that "aggression" is inherently illegitimate. "Aggression" is defined as the initiation of physical force against persons or property, the threat of such, or fraud upon persons or their property. Our website specifically states: "Anyone who promotes violence, racial hatred, or bigotry is not welcome." (more…)