As part of a growing trend around the country, Keene city councilor Philip Jones made a recommendation to the Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday to paint a blue line down the center of Marlboro St in downtown Keene. This effort “would serve as a reminder that they (Keene Police Department) always have the support of the local community.”
Most attending the hearing spoke favorably of the service provided by KPD but there were some concerns over the precedent this request would create; what over city departments and organizations would want their own personalized line painted in the street next?
As the only dissenting voice at the hearing, I explained my concerns over this “every cop gets a trophy mentality.” Recognition should only be given to those who have gone above and beyond and never handed out simply because you wear a special uniform. This blue line creates a statement that “all” police should be recognized as heroes regardless of their performance.
The request was ultimately postponed until next hearing in order to gather more information regarding the final cost and equipment needed.
A City Council committee postponed making a decision on a proposal to paint a blue traffic line down Marlboro Street to show appreciation for Keene’s police officers.
At a meeting of the municipal services, facilities and infrastructure committee Wednesday night, Vice Chairman Randy L. Filiault said city staff need more time to answer questions about the proposal’s cost and research how similar projects have gone over in other communities.
The proposal came before the council last week after Ward 5 Councilor Philip M. Jones filed a memo asking that city staff paint a blue line down the middle of Marlboro Street to show support and respect for the services provided by members of the city’s police department. (more…)
On June 7th, 2016 residents of the west side of Manchester NH in the neighborhood of Rimmon Heights joined in a protest at the Manchester City Hall. They were protesting the police militarization tactics and shelter in place order that was issued on May 13th after a suspect was caught in a shooting and lasted for nearly five hours. For one day martial law was in place where police were seen throughout Rimmon Heights patrolling with automatic weapons, road blocks at almost every intersection, and helicopters overhead. Carla Gericke current candidate for NH State Senate and president of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence did a speech outside of City Hall during the protest about de-escalation and community policing instead of daily lockdowns and heavily armed law enforcement officers lurking everywhere. Multiple west side residents also spoke during the city council meeting to voice their concerns at the actions of the Manchester Police department.
According to new Keene Police Chief Brian Costa, the holiday weekend saw multiple heroin overdoses in Keene and Western Massachusetts from a batch of heroin allegedly branded “Hollywood”. Please get the word out to anyone you know that may be a user to beware of the Hollywood brand.
Kudos to Brian for taking the time to reach out with the news this afternoon. I support harm reduction, and getting the word out about bad drugs can accomplish that, while arresting users can increase the harm to their lives. Hopefully we’ll see Keene police doing more informing rather than arresting and prosecuting in the future.
Inconsistency in heroin quality batch-to-batch is a consequence of the black market created by the war on drugs, which leads to accidental overdose. If heroin were legal, as it was a few generations ago, then the purity would be lab-controlled. No one has to worry about overdosing on aspirin, unless that’s their intention.
I look forward to the day when heroin, a useful medical drug in many ways, can be sold legally through people who care about quality and their customers. A day when people who are addicted to drugs aren’t afraid to seek help for fear of being prosecuted and imprisoned by the state.
Until that day, I’m happy to assist Keene police when they are doing something helpful. Further, thanks to Brian for treating me like a human being, unlike his predecessor.
On December 23, 2015 The Rebel Love Studio was visited twice by agents of the state, specifically the Merrimack County Sheriffs department. They had a warrant for the arrest of a porcupine that they assumed lived at the location. The first visit I was not present at the location, I was for the second. I arrived at the location while on my lunch break from my day job. The purpose of my visit was to bring coffee to Ann Leverette, my fiance and cohost of the Rebel Love Show and Flaming Freedom. She was there for the first visit and I wanted to check in to see if she was doing alright. Now being the voluntaryist that I am, I do not consent to give such men authority over me, regardless of what shiny badge they are representing. I will not help them kidnap anyone. I decided to no cooperate in their hunt when they informed me of why they were there. As punishment for not complying with the sheriffs, I was threatened with arrest(kidnapping) and given a summons(letter of extortion) for my car that I wasn’t even driving at the time I was confronted.
Within a few minutes of being approached by the sheriffs, multiple other porcupines including one of the cohost of the Anarchics, Renee Kate came to my aid. Now to be perfectly honest, I feel as if we did not handle this interaction with agents of the state well. There were positives and negatives from my perspective. The negative being we simply spoke too much. The more and more interactions I have with the police, which seems to never end, the more I am leaning to only saying what needs to be said without being arrested. The positive being that we did have plenty of people recording and had back up within minutes. That is something I would wager a bet on is not something that most people can say when interacting with police officers.
It has been one year since the 2014 Keene Pumpkin Festival and subsequent riot which spilled into the streets through the following morning. While snipers perched above the festivities for the second year in a row, no one was aware at the time that the riots would spell the end of PumpkinFest as a downtown Keene tradition. This saturday, the Cheshire Fairgrounds in Swanzey as well as the city of Laconia will be hosting their own independent Pumpkinfests. With few places to position snipers at the fairgrounds, unless special towers are brought in, there will likely not be such a militarized presence there. The situation in Laconia is more likely to host police with rifles, as also the organizer of previous Keene Pumpkinfests, ‘Let It Shine’ is also coordinating this year’s Laconia event.
In the time since last year’s chaos, I had since discovered two different articles hosted by the Blaze and Vocativ which feature content from facebook posts I had made that day. While I was unsure whether or not I had in fact captured an image of someone pointing a firearm in my direction, upon seeing the image as presented in the Vocativ piece, it appears to very clearly be a rifle aimed at the are where I was filming from (which was a heavily populated area at the time).
Laconia police are likely stocked up on riot gear as part of their preparation for the motorcycle weekend sponsored there each year. With luck, the relocated festival won’t deteriorate into a glass bottle war, and riot squads will not make an appearance.
Robin Hood gets thrifty, for the people • Sign ordinance 101. Like getting punched in the d**k • Derrick J “unsuitable” to conceal carry • James goes on trial for recording the police • Messages from the folks • Rapsher, Shaunna, and James join • Show notes at: BlackSheepRising.org
