Manchester Police’s Robert Harrington Threatens, Arrests Think Penguin’s Chris Waid
National talk show host, Linux entrepreneur, and Cop Block activist Christopher Waid knew there was a chance he could be arrested for holding the police accountable at a DUI checkpoint in Manchester, but he probably didn’t expect it to be as ridiculous as it was. Moments after he and I had arrived on the scene in April of 2017, Waid walked across one half of Bridge St in order to reach the median to get a closer shot with his video camera. Immediately, Manchester’s own badge #1, Robert Harrington charged over and yelled at Waid, “Get over on the sidewalk where you belong, NOW!”
Harrington then got up in Waid’s face and demanded ID to which Waid declined, correctly stating he has no obligation to provide the angry cop with ID. Harrington then arrested Waid, and charged him with the police’s favorite catch-all of “disorderly conduct”. I caught the entire thing on video, which you can see here. The “disorderly conduct” charge was a “Class A”, which carries up to a year of jail time. Later in the mail, the police sent an additional “violation” for crossing the street outside of a crosswalk.
Now, two years later, the people calling themselves the “City of Manchester” have cut a check to Waid for $15,000 of taxpayers’ money for Harrington’s obviously illegal arrest. For the first time since his arrest, the video from Chris’ camera that was confiscated is now available for you to see. I’ve augmented it with a little of my camera’s view for perspective:
After hiring attorney Seth Hipple, both charges against Waid were dropped – further proof the police knew they had no case and the charges were brought as an excuse to harass a police accountability activist and get him away from the DUI checkpoint on the night in question. Waid, through attorney Hipple, sent the City of Manchester a letter with his intention to file a lawsuit against them and Harrington in Federal court. In the letter, Hipple included his proposed lawsuit where he cited federal code title 42 section 1983, deprivation of rights.
There are tons of services that police provide: Elderly check-ins, noise complaints, damaged property, stolen purses, runaway children, etc. They all cost money, and for the most part, communities are happy to pay. Justice is something most people want, and so we pay a group of people to provide it.
But what happens when the cost is astronomical? Like, crazy. Like, incalculably high? So high, no one even knows the number? Is there anyone putting downward pressure on costs when it comes to service from the police, or do they have a blank check on the community bank account?
RT America contacted me Friday and asked for a quick comment on behalf of Cop Block regarding this week’s mass page takedown by Facebook. The takedown affected the facebook pages of major police accountability and pro-liberty sites including the Free Thought Project, the Anti-Media, Cop Block and others. I explained that Facebook is their property and they can do as they wish with it. Police accountability activists and other libertarians should be building alternative platforms rather than relying on those provided by political corporate behemoths like Facebook and Twitter. Here’s the segment that aired on RT America yesterday:
The good news is, such a platform already exists in the form of Mastodon, which is a decentralized, federated competitor to Twitter. Unlike Facebook and Twitter which are centralized platforms controlled by corporations, a Mastodon server can be run by anyone and worldwide there are thousands of Mastodon servers. Each server admin decides the rules for their server, including which other Mastodon servers to connect to – this is what it means when Mastodon is described as “federated”. Its decentralized, federated structure is why Mastodon is much more censorship resistant than the centralized, corporate platforms.
Cop Block’s new Mastodon!
I recommend you create an account on your preferred Mastodon instance. If you’re pro-liberty, then you should try out Liberdon, which launched this summer and houses various libertarians and voluntarists. I just made a CopBlock account there today, which you can follow here.
Facebook’s blog post explaining their takedowns basically admitted they were upset that pages like Cop Block were getting people to leave Facebook and visit their respective websites, meaning potential revenue for the sites in question and potentially less revenue for Facebook. Facebook doesn’t want you to leave Facebook. Whether there were political motivations behind the takedowns is more speculative, but it certainly reeks of it. Regardless of their reasons, perhaps you should consider leaving Facebook entirely and helping build the decentralized alternatives. It’s up to you.
Mike Sylvia takes a photo with supporters outside court.
State Representative Mike Sylvia is the liberty “Legislator of the Year” for 2018 according to the NH Liberty Alliance. Of course, because he’s a peaceful threat to the legitimacy of the state, he will inevitably be targeted by state violence. Hence, the people calling themselves the “Town of Belmont” have forced Sylvia into court and are threatening to hit him with $275 a day in fines for allegedly violating the town gang’s arbitrary “zoning” rules.
The town gang’s zoning thug, Steve Paquin, testified under oath that the town selectmen had sent him to target Sylvia and even admitted there had not been a single complaint against Sylvia or his property by any neighbors. The only complaints came from within the town gang’s “selectmen”.
What’s all this about? The gang is alleging Sylvia is living on his property in an RV or the garage. Yes, that’s right. They are threatening him with violence because he’s allegedly living… on his property.
Apparently the main house burned down in 2009 before Sylvia bought it in 2011. The zoning goon claims that because he’s seen Sylvia exiting the door of the RV, observed shoveled walkways during winter, and smoke coming from a chimney on the garage, that he believes Sylvia is living on the property. Apparently living on one’s own property is not allowed within the gang’s territory, unless one has begged for permission from said gang first.
It’s an outrageous case and another example of how zoning is used to target people the town gang doesn’t like and further proof that one doesn’t actually own their property. If another group of strangers can come along with armed men and tell one what one can and can’t do with it, it’s clearly the property of the gang.
Below is the full court hearing on the town gang’s request for a preliminary injunction against Sylvia. Judge James D. O’Neill III took the evidence and testimony under advisement and will issue a ruling on whether or not to grant the town their preliminary injunction before the full trial in civil court. Thanks to Bill D. for the video:
At one point the town attorney tries to call Sylvia to testify and he smartly objected based on the NH Constitution’s Bill of Rights Article Fifteen, which says “no subject shall… be compelled to accuse or furnish evidence against himself”. The judge sustained his objection and he did not have to take the stand, though the robed man didn’t sustain any of Sylvia’s other objections while sustaining nearly all of the town’s attorney, in a typical hearing that favored the state.
All men have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting, property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happiness.
Zoning is not only unconstitutional, it’s also immoral and should be abolished statewide. Property owners should be free to do what they want, so long as they don’t infringe on their neighbors’ similar rights to do as they please. That would be live free or die. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on this outrageous property rights violation.
MPD patrolman Ryan Olsen prepares to assault software programmer and father Jeremy Kauffman.
Originally streamed to his social media profile live, Jeremy Kauffman of LBRY.io has been arrested for “Disorderly Conduct” by a Manchester police officer for simply trying to leave his home. The Manchester police state descended on Kauffman’s neighborhood to conduct a homicide investigation in a home at 332 Hanover St., which is apparently near where Kauffman lives. Apparently this included preventing all the neighbors from simply leaving their own properties, a lot like being locked down in a prison by the guards.
Kauffman, a respected software engineer and entrepreneur currently CEO and founder of the decentralized blockchain-based media protocol called LBRY.io recorded the threats and eventual attack by Manchester Police’s patrolman Ryan Olsen on his smartphone. In the approx two minute video, Kauffman is in his driveway and explains to the viewer that he is being kept in his property against his will by the arbitrary detention by MPD. He is not told he’s a suspect in the homicide investigation but is being prevented from leaving to pick up his son.
When he merely walks down his driveway to investigate what is happening near his own home, Kauffman is threatened by officer Olsen who tells him to “go back that way” and when Kauffman asks on what law he’s basing his orders, Olsen says “I’m not gonna tell you again.” When pressed to cite the statute, Olsen pulls out the old police catch-all, “Disorderly Conduct“. Seconds later, Olsen leaves his post across the street, shouting at Kauffman, then manhandles him after telling him repeatedly to “walk back please”. Please? Is this a request or an order?
Olsen arrests Kauffman, charging him with a “Class A” misdemeanor version of “Disorderly Conduct”, which means Kauffman will be facing down up to a year in jail for his heroic non-cooperation with the oppressive Manchester police state. He was released on PR bail pending arraignment in Manchester District Court.
Despite the awful arrest by the terrible Manchester cops – the worst gang in the state – it was refreshing to see some courageous activist video by a Manchester area activist. Kudos to Jeremy for doing a great job standing up for his freedom to travel and proving that when the police state comes down, we’re all just in a big open air general population prison cell. If only we had more activists like him. May his example inspire others to stand up to the police state. Freedom was never won by begging.
Related news: Keene Cop Block has just released our new updated-for-2018 know-your-rights flyer! It’s a simple rundown of individual rights when dealing with the police. It is intended for distribution across New Hampshire, but may also be useful to other areas. It’s informative and keeps-it-simple. 2018 Edition: Front Side / Back Side. I’ve handed out several hundred of these in just the last two weeks around Keene State College and the students really appreciate the information.
Stay tuned here to Free Keene for developments in this case.
Gilles Bissonnette, the head attorney for the New Hampshire ACLU gave an excellent presentation to a packed room in Concord, NH this week. He talked about what CPB (Customs and Border Patrol) internal checkpoints are legally allowed to do, how far out of bounds they’ve been going, and what you can do when you’re there to non-cooperate. He fielded many questions from an engaged and interested audience. Here’s full video of the presentation:
