Rather than only arresting people who were causing violence and destruction, the police were targeting people crossing arbitrary lines and partying on private property. In this excellent ten-minute video, Alex is right there when cops create all kinds of unnecessary mayhem: (click links below to jump to that part if you are short on time)
They shoot pepperballs at party houses on Winchester St – completely unnecessary – those people were on private property and not in the road. It’s arguable that pepperballs are useful to clear a crowd who won’t leave a street and indeed, blocking streets is one of the reasons the “disorderly conduct” statute exists, but the people at these houses were just enjoying themselves. The use of pepperballs in this situation is just aggressive.
Guy walking down sidewalk is violently arrested by a throng of cops – This guy is literally just walking down the sidewalk. He’s hasn’t threatened anyone and is not blocking the street. The reason he can’t walk down the sidewalk is, well, because the men with guns say so. The reason the cops decide to jump him like he’s strapped with a bomb is, because they can.
It’s behavior like this from police that alienates them from average people. This is why Cop Block is so popular on campus. Here are the students’ sensible responses to the violence that was visited upon them by the police:
“We’re not terrorists. We love America. We just like to drink! Don’t shoot us!”
There’s a reason why the young ladies in the video think that the police are “pieces of shit” (more…)
Some of the best independent video of the Pumpkin Fest 2014 riots that I’ve seen thus far is on the newly created “Pumpkin Fest” channel, which shows the scale of the mobs of partiers on various streets around the college during the day. Late in the footage night has fallen as the cameraman appears to be on the second story of a home on Winchester St. as he records a throng of police tromping in formation eastbound. I’ll have more from that scene from my vantage point at the traffic circle in a later post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIu8FNXx5aI
The Keene Sentinel’s Kaitlyn Coogan captures a mob of people on Winchester Street taking down signs. A line of armored police with pepperball guns light up the crowd and send them running down the street:
Once again, the college kids are rioting at PumpkinFest. There is raw video and unedited images posted at http://ban.jo/News/US-Canada/20141018/Riots-Break-Out-At-Keene-State-College-Keene/ It appears that police in riot gear have been positioned on Winchester St between Main St and Ralston St. Eye witnesses reported seeing college students throwing beer bottles on Baker St, and dozens of police in riot gear.
Manchester Police have been granted permission by a Superior Court petition to conduct a DUI check point tonight. Such a check point violates the 4th Amendment of the Bill of Rights and also furthers the perception of living in a police state. If you are unable to make it to Manchester NH tonight on Sept 5th 2014 but wish to see dozens of Cop Block activists save motorists from being detained and searched by the police, never fear! Myself and Shire Dude will both be live steaming the activism that will take place. Both of us will be using Bambuser to stream the event. Shire Dude’s live stream will be available at bambuser.com/channel/Vermiglio. My live stream ill be available at bambuser.com/channel/VREBEL.
On the night of August 22, 2014, dozens of activists flooded downtown Manchester NH on the corner of Elm st and Bridge st in order to warn drivers of the unconstitutional check point that was ahead. Every time this takes place, there is always a strong local support with honking, hand shakes, and words of support. On this night, I decided to talk to random people enjoying the nightlife of Manchester to see what they thought of the cop blocking that was taking place. There were also two immigrants from Mexico that had no affiliation with the liberty community but joined with fellow cop blockers. They have had bad experiences with the police and were ecstatic to join and help people avoid interactions with the police. I also spoke with the captain that was supervising the check point around three hours into the operation. I questioned him if there were any courses of action that the Manchester PD could take that did not violate the 4th amendment of the Bill of Rights. Only one person was arrested, which was for a suspended license.
I encountered and filmed an arrest (purportedly for a license issue) in Manchester’s West Side, at the intersection of Granite and Main. Bystanders were initially hostile to our filming, but when we explained about Cop Block and that we were just trying to hold police accountable and make sure they didn’t perpetrate any abuse, they became very supportive. Score one for the good guys.
