by Ian | Dec 14, 2015 |
NH Jury Activists Outside Cheshire Superior Court
James is facing two “Class A” misdemeanor charges with a possibility of up to two years in prison for being arrested while recording video of police at the scene of a suicidal man in the summer of 2014. The charges are “disorderly conduct” (the state’s favorite catch-all charge) and “resisting arrest”.
James has already had a bench trial at Keene district court, the video of which can be seen here, and was found guilty. District court judge Edward J Burke sentenced him to 1.5 years in jail, suspended, plus a $625 fine. After sentencing, James opted for his right to a jury trial “de novo”, which means, “from the beginning”. So now, not quite a year later, he is being given that trial.
This morning was jury selection. Nearly all of the jury pool of about 58 people had received the NH Jury trifold last month. (In Cheshire county, petit juries are empaneled for two months.) Usually the jury outreach process involves handing out flyers and opening the door for folks, but in addition today it included activists holding signs featuring phrases like, “2 Years 4 Filming?”, and “Filming the police is not a crime!”
More activists are expected to be on-the-scene tomorrow morning at 8am for further sign-holding, with the trial starting at 9am and expected to last two days. If you can’t make it in person, live tweets will be available here at FreeKeene.com and later the full trial video will be posted.
by Christopher David | Dec 11, 2015 |
Free Staters Christopher David and Randy Clemens
Fascist presidential candidate Donald Trump visited Portsmouth, NH last night to accept the endorsement of a police union, the New England Police Benevolent Association.
Hundreds of protestors including a handful of Free Staters turned out to oppose him. Free Staters were photographed or interviewed by the New York Times, The Guardian, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Portsmouth Herald, and various independent media.
Free Stater ally and NH native Harrison De Bree was interviewed by The Guardian, and got three paragraphs in their article about the event.
Some of the anti-Trump protesters were paradoxically Republicans. One of them, Harrison Debree, 28, held up a placard that said “Trump: America’s Hitler” with a photograph of the candidate with a Hitler moustache etched on it.
Debree normally votes Republican but said he was so unhappy about the messages being put out by Trump that he was seriously now considering voting for the leading Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
“I don’t like the way that Trump is assaulting the Bill of Rights, like this week’s statement on closing the US to Muslims – that’s an attack on the First Amendment religious test. He’s more of a threat to the Constitution than even the Democrats are.”
Security was tightly run by the Secret Service with support from the Portsmouth police department — you know, the fine folks who have been chasing Uber drivers around town at the behest of our statist city council — including four citations amounting to $3,500 of fines for the #UberGrandma — and who recently saw fit to charge yours truly with felony wiretapping for a YouTube video.
Harrison De Bree’s sign
Though Secret Service guarded every entrance to the hotel, we were able to do a bit of trolling. We realized that the back of the Sheraton had an unguarded hill you could climb up to access a window that looked into the hotel bar where a number of fascist Trump sympathizers gathered.
During the event we put the above TRUMP IS A FASCIST sign on the window sill looking in, to the frowns of some sympathizers inside. Later it had been removed, so I replaced it with a leftover NO TRUMP sign.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcxV_S5rJII
And before the event, we distributed about 15 flyers on lightpoles around the venue: (more…)
by James Cleaveland | Dec 10, 2015 |
![35e6df80-e0cc-11e3-8847-391b35944c9b_robin-hood[1]](https://i0.wp.com/freekeene.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/35e6df80-e0cc-11e3-8847-391b35944c9b_robin-hood1-300x190.jpg?resize=300%2C190)
Come one come all you’re invited to a fantastic show. We’ve finally captured that evil fellow Robin Hood and am going to punish him for his devious acts.
Last June he was filming the police and was arrested by our heroic kingsmen.
We will surely get him this time!
Trial shalf be 12/15/2015 at 9 AM.
The scoundrel has this to say for himself:
“This court experience will likely prove very entertaining so I invite all who wish so to attend.
(more…)
by Ian | Dec 8, 2015 |
UBER Grandma Stephanie Franz, courtesy CBS Boston
FOX 25 Boston’s Kathryn Burcham filed this excellent report on the continuing assault on peaceful Seacoast UBER driver Stephanie Franz, the 63-year-old grandmother who has now been ticketed several times for driving people places without a government permission slip.
She, despite facing $3,500 in fines from the city for her peaceful civil disobedience, is remaining steadfast, and is demanding her trial. Kudos to UBER for providing Stephanie with legal representation, gratis. Here’s the FOX report, which is very positive and fair towards her:
Here’s the full interview FOX 25 conducted with Stephanie, as recorded by Free Keene blogger Darryl W. Perry, who attended last night’s activities: (more…)
by Darryl W. Perry | Dec 8, 2015 |
In the continuing saga of Portsmouth v Uber, the Portsmouth City Council was slated to do a First Reading of a proposed ordinance that was requested by Uber, that would make it easier for Uber to operate in the city. The Council hearing (from opening until the vote on the Uber ordinance) can be seen here, here, here & here. The City Council will meet on December 21 for Second Reading, and a possible Third Reading and vote on the proposal.
Free Uber founder Christopher David was kind enough to speak to me, about some of the history of the saga, before the meeting.
And after the meeting, he had this to say: (more…)
by Ian | Nov 17, 2015 |
With the protest at the council meeting last night in Portsmouth and the second ticket issued to the Grandma UBER driver, mainstream media continues to report on the situation. Here’s a recent rundown:
First up, FOX 25 in Boston filed this report covering the protest and interviewing new Free State Project mover from Arkansas, Jessica Paxton, last night:
Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston
Here’s “>NH1’s package, filed prior to the protests: (more…)
![35e6df80-e0cc-11e3-8847-391b35944c9b_robin-hood[1]](https://i0.wp.com/freekeene.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/35e6df80-e0cc-11e3-8847-391b35944c9b_robin-hood1.jpg)
