The Manchester Police Department has announced its first sobriety checkpoint of the 2016 year (4/22), continuing its tradition of revenue collection via suspicionless vehicle stops. These ordeals have prevented nearly zero drunk drivers. Instead, the MPD continues to harass Manchester drivers for victimless crimes, such as cannabis possession, illegal immigration or driving with a suspended license.
Numerous activists have vowed to divert traffic from the upcoming checkpoints. This activism traditionally has a fantastic turnout, and it garners widespread support in New Hampshire’s largest city. Cheers and expressions of gratitude are heard from passing vehicles throughout the evening. Folks walking near the activists often stop to discuss the uselessness of the checkpoints, and activists have even been handed cash tips on several occasions.
I’ll be present at this first checkpoint, livestreaming, so you can watch the event as it happens. Bookmark this link, and it will be easy for you to tune in. Oh, and don’t forget to grab your copblocking gear.
Brandon Pinney Awaits Trial in a “Fuck Cops” Handmade Shirt
Brandon Pinney is a NH native who is now facing a year in jail for telling state police to fuck off. His is a classic case of being oppressed for freedom of speech. Historically, people arrested for flipping off or telling off police have been vindicated on appeal. It may not be nice to say mean things to cops, but freedom of speech is meant to protect unpopular speech.
Brandon was arrested at Surry Dam when after doing five-miles over the speed limit he was confronted by a forest ranger. We don’t know exactly how their interaction went, because Brandon did not record video. According to Brandon, the ranger berated him about the speeding and Brandon blew him off in an unkind manner. The ranger then said he would be calling the police and Brandon followed him back to his office. The ranger claims Brandon was pounding on the office door yelling at him, while Brandon says he was not pounding on the door and was in no way threatening the man.
However, the ranger’s testimony was that he was frightened and when state police arrived, Brandon told them to fuck off, and when he repeated it at the request of one of the staties, Brandon was arrested.
One note – during trial, Burke said nothing about his shirt, but at sentencing, wearing the same shirt, Brandon was told if he did it again it would be contempt of court. Not only can you not express yourself to police, you can’t express yourself via your wardrobe. Whatever happened to freedom? You generally don’t find it at the district court level.
Last November at the Third Annual Keenevention five Copblockers had a lively panel discussion. Video of that talk has been up for a while, but in case you didn’t yet catch it or you balked at its length, this video includes some excerpts.
Props to those involved: JP Freeman, Jessica Phillips, and Steve Daves, all of Keene Cop Block, and Rob Mathias and Ann Leverette, who are based in Manchester, where they create weekly the Rebel Love Show.
And of course, much love to Ian Freeman and other Keenevention organizers for spearheading the event and capturing and sharing the footage. You can find out more about the upcoming Fourth Annual Keenevention, which is happening November 4-6, at http://Keenevention.info
Don’t call 911 during emergencies, call your trusted friends instead, using Cell 411, the decentralized emergency alerting and response platform. Cell 411 is a powerful smartphone app that allows you to stream content and notify people in your cell(s) during police interactions and things like medical emergencies, car troubles and fire.
Mark Edge is a host of nationally syndicated talk radio show, “Free Talk Live” and moved to New Hampshire in 2006 as an early mover for the Free State Project. This week, while traveling, he and his family stood up for their rights at a Border Patrol checkpoint East of El Paso on I-10. Mark is under no obligation to give the federal agents any information absent “reasonable articulable suspicion” that he’s committed a crime, and informs the agents that he knows his rights. Here’s the video:
He also correctly points out that no one is a citizen, which is proven by various Supreme Court decisions, such as Warren v District of Columbia, where it’s made clear that government has no obligation to protect you. With no obligation to protect, the citizenship “deal” is null.
It’s a nitpick, but something he could have tried, that he did not, was to clarify the first’s officer’s statement of, “do me a favor and (something unintelligible about pulling over here)”. Was the officer asking him for a favor? If so, Mark can politely refuse his request. Or, was the officer ordering him over there? Questions would have revealed more about whether the officer is willing to use force to achieve compliance, or was just asking for a favor.
Further, Mark could have asked the agents to identify themselves, for the record, though his wife’s capable camerawork under pressure was able to ID two of them.
Overall, Mark and family do an excellent job of asserting their rights, with multiple officers attempting (and failing) to intimidate them with their own cameras, and a dog sniff of the car.
Amusingly, the main officer claims that by Mark knowing and asserting his rights, he has proven to the officer’s satisfaction that he is a “US Citizen”, though Mark just explained to the agent how no such thing actually exists. At the end of the encounter, the agent even claims Mark is an “outstanding citizen” and thanks him for “helping law enforcement”.
Here are the citations to prove Mark’s claims about the falsity of citizenship: (more…)
Chris told the Portsmouth Herald, “it’s still ludicrous that recording a conversation on a public sidewalk could land me in jail at all… Under that same logic, thousands if not millions of videos on YouTube represent potential misdemeanors. Why single me out? I think we all know why.”
The wiretapping statutes in New Hampshire are one of the worst parts of the state. NH is one of only a few states where all parties must consent to the recording, which prevents people from being held accountable for their actions. In many other states, people with undercover cameras can record their conversations in businesses or with government. Here, doing that will get you a possible jail sentence.
victimless crimes, such as cannabis possession, illegal immigration or driving with a suspended license.
