Keene Cops Attempt Crackdown on Peaceful Festival Attendees!

by Ian | Oct 30, 2008 | 12 comments

If you’ve been watching the blog here at FreeKeene.com, you’ve no doubt already seen the multiple Ridley Report entries covering the Keene Police’s attempted crackdown on the Fall 2008 Keene Freedom Festival. Liberty activists and other members of the public were enjoying themselves at Railroad Square this past Sunday. Several organizations were doing outreach, there was a gambling table, live music by the Josh Noone Band (Here’s a live recording of “hypocrisy” from Freedom Fest.) and others, and lots of socializing and networking going on. Then, about an hour into the event, “city prosecutor” Elizer Rivera, showed up in a police uniform with three of his associates, “detective” William Sargent, “lieutenant” Jay Dugay, and “officer” Matt Griffin. Griffin was observing from across the street, while Sargent acted as the silent heavy. Dugay at least had a friendly demeanor even though he was threatening all of the attendees with arrest allegedly for illegally assembling without a permit. In the video footage, you can see I got him to laugh when I caught him saying something particularly silly. Dugay clearly would rather have been doing something else, but is not willing to refuse to follow bad orders.

Moments after their arrival, the police were surrounded by activists, many of whom were armed with video cameras or audio recorders. Even though Dugay claimed that they were responding to an alleged complaint and were investigating whether the Freedom Fest attendees had a permit or not, Rivera’s actions contradicted Dugay’s statements. (more…)