The morning show host of News Talk AM 1440 KMED in Medford, OR, Bill Meyer, had Free Keene’s Ian on to discuss Sam being in jail. Thanks to Bill for the attention! Unfortunately the bad news is that Bill was the only one to respond out of an email list of over 500 media contacts. Please visit FreeSamDodson.com to get a list of ways you can help Sam get more media attention.
Here’s the “ORDER ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS” regarding Sam.
Basically, superior court judge Brian T. Tucker says since there has not yet been a trial (that they refuse to hold unless Sam gives them his legal name, which they already have), the writs are “dismissed”.
Translation:
“Sam, you naughty slave. Just bow down and give us your name so we can provide you with your “remedy”, otherwise you’ll just have to sit there in that cell forever. Sure, you have the right to remain silent, and we have the right to hold you in captivity until you die if you continue exercising it. Not only that, but the rest of you suckers reading this will have to continue paying $80 a day to keep Sam in his cell, because if you stop paying my friends calling themselves the Sheriffs will come to throw you and your family from your home.”
So Sam sits, now in his fourth week of a hunger strike. If you refuse the government’s “services”, they put you in a jail cell. Can you imagine the outrage if Walmart or Pizza Hut would behave in this way? Yet the government people get away with it every day, and people cheer them on.
It may be wise to call the jail before your visit to confirm the hours. They are saying it’s 7-9p Thu and 10-11a Sun, whereas Sam told me it was 8-9a Sun. Also, Sam is now listed as “Sam A. Miller” instead of “John Sam Doe”. Those sending mail should take note of the change.
Longtime readers of this blog may recall that springtime of last year my car was ticketed for an expired parking meter. I wrote a letter to the Keene PD expressing my willingness to pay the fine if they could show me the proof of the obligation they were alleging I have to follow their statutes and ordinances. Weeks later, Captain Kenneth Meola wrote me back this letter, claiming the ticket had been paid and citing a bunch of their laws, then claiming I have an obligation to obey without providing evidence as I requested. I let that letter go unanswered, as he claimed the matter had been paid, which I certainly did not do, and I’m not sure who did. Perhaps they just marked it paid, or perhaps some anonymous observer of this blog went and paid it for me. I did post the ticket number last time, so that’s a possibility.
Flash forward to April 14th when my lady Julia parked the car in the road out front of my house because our tenants were blocking her side of the garage. She forgot to move the car and left it overnight. In the morning she found a $15 parking citation had been left on the car for “NIGHT TIME PARKING”. Here in Keene, there is some ordinance that says no street parking after 1am between November 1st and May 1st. The reason for the ordinance is so plows can get down a street during snow nights. The dates are arbitrary, of course, and so even though there was no way accumulating snow was going to happen in the middle of April, the cops were out ticketing people. (more…)
Sam is now available for visitation Thursdays 7-9pm and Sundays 10a-11a (new time, see update below). He is being held in the gym now (where 26 other prisoners are living on cots and sharing one bathroom), which means he can walk outside into the fenced in yard at virtually anytime, though they will probably try to prevent that by locking the outer door if activists show up at the jail.
He asks people to contact state reps and senators to ask how they feel about him being locked up indefinitely as well as the NH supreme court justices and ask them what reason they have to delay a writ of habeas corpus? Do they not care about basic civil rights? He also requests that people around the country write letters to the editor about what is happening. One easy way to accomplish this might be to write a letter up and post in on the Free Keene Forum so others can copy it and put their names on them, then send them to their local papers.
Speaking of papers, I just got off the phone with a nice reporter from the Boston Globe. If they manage to not go out of business this week, this could be the story that breaks Sam’s situation into the mainstream media! Thanks to everyone who is contacting their favorite media and blogs about this outrageous story!
UPDATE: The jailers claim his hours are 10-11a on Sun, not 8-9a as Sam had told me today. Make of this what you will.
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