On today’s Planet Money, we travel to a place where people are trying to live without government interference. A place where you can use bits of silver to buy uninspected bacon. A place where a 9-year-old will sell you alcohol.
It’s the 2011 Porcupine Freedom Festival, known to its friends as PorcFest. It’s the summer festival for people who think we should return to the gold standard and abolish the IRS.
On Monday 6/27, the day after Porcfest 2011, there were two trials of liberty activists scheduled in Keene district court. Rich Angell for driving without a government license and Rich Paul for trespassing at the jail when he tried to bail someone out. You’ll see another angle of Beau’s arrest for wearing a hat as well. Rich Angell was found guilty and plans to appeal, while in Rich Paul’s case, the robed man, Edward Burke had to recuse himself and the trial will likely be rescheduled with a different robed man.
As you probably know, about two weeks ago a man self-immolated in front of Cheshire superior court over his frustration with the “justice” system. The following day, I went to Cheshire sheriff and requested a copy of the footage from the security camera. I was told that it had been given to Keene Police. Apparently while this statement was true, they could have made another copy for me, but instead misdirected me to KPD. I then filed a “91-A” freedom of information request with KPD and was told after a few days that they had returned their copy to the sheriff. I then filed the same request with the sheriff and after a few days was told they had destroyed the copy. This morning I called the sheriff’s office and spoke with Arlene Crowell, the communications director, and she informed me that their security system only retains archives for seven days before writing over it. KPD’s James McLaughlin claims they did not copy the footage.
So, if they are all to be believed, no footage exists of Thomas James Ball immolating himself. If I am wrong and you do have footage, please email me at ian at freekeene.com
I suppose I should have filed the request at the sheriff’s office the following day instead of just asking them for it. I’ve never filed these requests before, so I’m sorry for failing. Of course, I probably would have just gotten the runaround anyway.
So much for Article 8 of the NH Constitution:
[Art.] 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted.
You’ve seen him ignore independent video journalist Dave Ridley multiple times, but when confronted with someone he doesn’t know, Derrick Horton, “mayor” Dale Pregent first acts nice as though he will answer a question. However, when he discovers the subject matter, he abruptly turns and walks off. An unidentified city councilor also ignores Derrick. These people don’t care about even trying to look good…
This is not the same piece we posted before, which was only a couple of minutes. This is a 25-minute in-depth look at the Porcupine Freedom Festival 2011 by NPR’s Planet Money.
As you probably know, about two weeks ago a man 
