William Kostric’s courageous activism has been featured before on this blog. He’s an activist out of Manchester and Free Keene welcomes him as our newest blogger. Here’s his bio from the Bloggers page:
William Kostric – Growing weary of petty tyrants in Maricopa County, AZ, William determined to free range outside the confines of the United States. One night while researching the Iraq war, he happened upon the Free State Project forums and found that there were many like-minded individuals spread out across the continent. The idea of gathering in a localized area where a greater impact could be made struck a chord and he signed the statement of intent and made the move in 2008.
William’s current projects include Free State Now who’s goal is to complete the 20k signers before the end of 2014, The Quill – a libertarian community center in the Manchester area and working with Occupy New Hampshire to build a broad-based coalition of activists who are motivated to take local action towards measurable goals.
Newly elected sheriff Eli Rivera has done the right thing and withdrawn all the no trespass orders that were issued by his predecessor, Dick Foote. As you may recall, the orders were recently ruled unconstitutional by Keene district court judge Ed Burke.
After Burke’s ruling, on behalf of all those issued the letters, I wrote to Eli requesting he officially rescind the unconstitutional orders and issue an apology to the activists whose rights have been trampled by these illegal orders. I also asked him to issue a proclamation that his agents will respect the rights of those who wish to access the courts and that media will no longer be threatened for recording in the court lobby.
As you know if you’ve been reading here for a while, I’ve been facing “disorderly conduct” charges in Palmer, MA for recording video in a town hall. Back in December, they dropped the misdemeanor charge and offered a deal on the remaining town ordinance violation. The ACLU of MA has come on board to assist and now they are changing the charge from a criminal to civil. That means the potential penalty drops from several hundred dollars to something like $25.
ACLU attorney Shawn Allyn will be filing a motion to dismiss on 1st amendment grounds and a hearing will happen regarding the motion on 5/22 at 2pm at Palmer district court. You are welcome to come watch!
Three heroic activists from Occupy NH stood up for your right to peaceably assemble and speak out and were arrested for it, then convicted by a jury of their “peers”. This is an over five hour trial RAW footage – there are some real gems in here. I hope someone will take the time to make a highlight reel. Don’t miss the exclusive interview with one of the jurors at the end.
Manchester occupiers are on trial for criminal trespass today in superior court. Video is being recorded and updates are being posted on the Free Talk Live Facebook page. Here’s the twitter feed for those updates:
William Kostric – Growing weary of petty tyrants in Maricopa County, AZ, William determined to free range outside the confines of the United States. One night while researching the Iraq war, he happened upon the Free State Project forums and found that there were many like-minded individuals spread out across the continent. The idea of gathering in a localized area where a greater impact could be made struck a chord and he signed the statement of intent and made the move in 2008.
Newly elected sheriff Eli Rivera has done the right thing and withdrawn all the no trespass orders that were issued by his predecessor, Dick Foote. As you may recall, 
