Nobody tokes at the Concord state house 420 – AP Photo
“Nobody”, the New Hampshire candidate for governor challenging incumbent Chris Sununu in the republican primary has already gotten coverage in the Boston Globe for his announcement of an event to challenge Sununu’s outrageous ban on free assembly of over 50 people. Actually, as I am writing this article, Sununu just announced at a press conference that he’s now restricting gatherings to no more than TEN people. We’re still waiting on the written “order”, but it will likely be posted here to the governor’s website later.
Last week, Sununu announced multiple “executive orders” that destroyed significant freedoms in New Hampshire, like the freedom to run a restaurant or bar as he threatened business owners if they dare to allow customers to eat or drink in their establishments. The hospitality industry is severely damaged as a result, with all servers out of work, volume of orders significantly down, and many restaurants choosing to close down completely as a result. It is an attack on the right to serve our neighbors who wish to take whatever risk and go out to eat. People who wish to quarantine themselves are free to do so without a “order” from the governor but those who wish to continue living a normal life or run their business are being threatened by state agents if they do, all under the excuse of “public health”.
Now-Illegal Gathering of Over a Dozen in Keene, Yesterday
On his official campaign blog, ElectNobody.com, Nobody announced the civil disobedience event and reminded people where the state’s supposed motto came from: “Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils.” – General John Stark. Before last week, New Hampshire was not a free state, but now all illusions of freedom have been completely wiped away and it’s become all-out tyranny. Something must be done. It’s time to stand up for the freedom to assemble.
Here is an event to which you can RSVP at Liberty.menu – please do. Bring your friends, signs, and your video cameras. See you at the state house steps at 2pm, Wednesday April 1st. Maybe we’ll go up and pay a visit to Sununu’s office while we’re there too!
Last year, Bedford police targeted 2020 Republican candidate for governor of New Hampshire, “Nobody” for felon-in-possession of a weapon charges over a machete they found with other garden tools in the trunk of his car. This, despite the fact that a machete does not qualify as a weapon in New Hampshire unless used, intended, or threatened as such.
After charging him and dropping the charge, not once, but twice, Nobody, who at the time was called by his given name Rich Paul, was finally able to get the robed man at Hillsborough Superior Court North in Manchester to order the police to allow Nobody to pick up his machete.
This video includes the full hearing for the return of the machete and our visit to the police department in Bedford to retrieve it:
Along the way, whether as part of the libertarian migration to New Hampshire or later as part of a group of despicable NAZIs and other assorted white nationalist types, Cantwell has always been a polarizing figure and has caused schisms and drama withing whatever movement he put himself. This is one of the factors that leads people to believe that Cantwell himself is a federal agent. Having spent many hours with him over the years, I don’t believe he is a federal agent.
One thing’s for sure, Cantwell did do a lot of talking to federal agents in the last few years, and he allegedly even admitted to them having sent the messages he’s now been charged with sending via the Telegram chat app. The FBI raided his house last month on two felony charges, one of “Exortionate Interstate Communications” and one of “Threatening Interstate Communications”. Here’s the two-page indictment. In it, Cantwell is accused of sending the following message to someone over Telegram: “So if you don’t want me to come and fuck your wife in front of your kids, then you should make yourself scarce Give me Vic, it’s your only out.”
The feds are arguing that this is a rape threat. Beyond the fact that Cantwell didn’t say he would rape the woman, a little background and context is important to know. According to testimony at the detention hearing in federal court in Concord NH, the as-yet unrevealed “victim” in this case never complained to the feds about the message, but he did post it publicly online where a federal agent on the West Coast spotted it. The supposed victim is allegedly a member of an internet hate group called “Bowl Patrol”. The group is named as such because they worship the sicko church shooter Dylan Roof and he apparently had a bowl haircut. A Manchester police officer who works closely with the FBI testified that the “Bowl Patrol” was targeting Cantwell’s podcast phone lines with awful calls and allegedly hacked Cantwell’s website. That led Cantwell to attempt to discover their identities and to the chat where he threatened to have sex with the man’s wife if he didn’t give up the identity of the “Bowl Patrol” leader, “Vic”.
Chris in Simpler Times, Acting as Security for the Hallowkeene Dance Party in 2014.
Cantwell’s racist views are despicable, but the “Bowl Patrol” people may be worse, if that’s possible. Either way, it’s just white hate group members fighting with each other. If they are busy infighting, they can’t be out doing publicly awful things. Rather than just let the white supremacists have their internet spats, the FBI used the fact that Cantwell trash-talked someone on the internet – free speech – to charge him with felonies for which he faces up to 25 years in prison.
That’s twenty-five years for the level of trash-talking that goes on all across the internet, every day. Cantwell’s persecution here is an attack against freedom of speech and also served as an excuse to take his computers, flash drives, guns, and drugs. There’s no doubt that he has a ton of bad karma out there waiting for him for the things he’s said and done, but that doesn’t mean he belongs in prison. Yes, he’s a rude guy with a big mouth and terrible, disgusting ideas, and that’s why he’s a perfect target for a government attack on freedom of speech.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
In 2020, first they came for the “Crying NAZI”. I don’t agree with what he says, but I will defend his right to say it. Cantwell is a target because not only does he have views that good people will detest, he’s also detested by people who hold similar views to his. Not one single supporter was at his bail hearing. He may still have a small fan club on the internet, but according to the federal government, he doesn’t have much money in the bank.
However, Cantwell does know about cryptocurrency and internet privacy tools like Signal and Telegram. The agent who testified, Brett Fernald, explained that Cantwell used bitcoin and that bitcoin could be used to hide money and was anonymous. Though that’s not true – bitcoin is completely trackable. It’s Monero that’s a privacy coin. Anyway, according to the robed woman called a “magistrate judge”, Andrea K Johnstone, in a nine-page detention order, Cantwell’s computer knowledge is one reason he can’t be allowed out of a cage even with severe restrictions like gps tracking and even being disallowed from the internet, to which the defense was readily willing to agree.
The feds also argued at the hearing that Cantwell can’t be relied on to make it to court and cited the fact that he was drunk while on bail in Virginia, despite the fact that he never missed a single court appearance. When Cantwell was informed he was wanted on a warrant for his actions in Charlottesville in 2017 he took a week to turn himself in. Cantwell’s public defender pointed out that he wanted to acquire an attorney before turning himself in, which he did do. However because Cantwell didn’t IMMEDIATELY turn himself in, the prosecutors submitted that was a reason he wouldn’t show up to court.
Political Prisoner, Christopher Cantwell
Though Cantwell says he was acting in self-defense in the Charlottesville fights, he took a plea deal on assault and battery charges and that was brought up as evidence of why he’s a supposed danger to the community. That’s despite the fact that Chris has since kept to himself and his apartment in Keene since 2017 and that prior to that he was not known for any violent acts.
Further, they made him out to be meth-crazed lunatic. He may be a lunatic in his beliefs, and who knows what role his meth use several years ago had in forming his current racist mindset, but he’s been off the meth for a long time. A drug screening when he was arrested in January only showed cannabis use, according to the evidence in the case.
During the hearing, Johnstone, overruled every one of the defense’s objections and in her detention order agreed with the prosecution’s ridiculous assertions that Cantwell is somehow a danger to the community. In the order, She cited also his legal possession of over a dozen various guns, including one found inside an unlocked case magnetically attached underneath his car. Johnstone even parrots the prosecution’s point that somehow this was a danger to the school across the street from his apartment.
The guns, alleged threats, drugs, bail violation, plea deals to violent crimes, were all cited by Johnstone as factors, but most critically it seemed that it was Cantwell’s knowledge about internet secrecy techniques that is really keeping him behind bars. Johnstone wrote, citing another case on the matter, US v Savader:
given the defendant’s demonstrated facility with computer technology, it would be all but impossible to fashion terms and conditions that would eliminate defendant’s access to… certain electronic files that could be used to threaten victims
Now the case moves to trial, ostensibly set for April. The federal government has already spent likely tens of thousands of dollars on the court hearings alone, not to mention who knows how much more money on investigating Cantwell over years. After all that money and effort, some internet trash-talk between despicable people is all they have to go after him on. If Cantwell is convicted here, he’ll be a proverbial canary in the coal mine. The federal government would like to get a conviction here so there’s a precedent set for prosecuting people who say ugly things. Who will be targeted next? Maybe some trash-talking teens on an Xbox or Playstation online video game?
If you’d like an in-depth discussion of my experience attending the detention hearings, please listen to this episode of Free Talk Live. This link will start you where the topic comes up. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on Chris Cantwell, political prisoner. #FreeCantwell
Unidentified Conservation Commission Member Attacks Ridley – Can you ID this man?
An as-yet unidentified member of the “City of Keene” Conservation Commission has been recorded on video assaulting and battering Dave Ridley of RidleyReport.com. In a recent series of videos recorded in Keene, Ridley visits a meeting of the Conservation Committee in City Hall. As is his typical “ambush” style, Ridley waits outside the meeting location with his video camera and some completely legitimate questions at-the-ready for any member of the commission or any other government bureaucrat.
While one commission member, former Keene police chief Arthur Walker, is quite willing to converse with the “poor man’s TV station” newsman, a couple of others violate Ridley’s personal space and one grabs his camera – a clear case of assault and battery. Ridley forgives the first man who touches him after the man says he’s sorry, but the other guy who assaults and batters him is unrepentant and Ridley calls him a goon. The white-bearded commission member tells Ridley to look in a mirror, suggesting Ridley is the goon for simply asking basic questions of the attacker who is serving in a supposedly public position. See the crime here on video for yourself:
Here’s the full list of the members of the Keene Conservation Commission. Does anyone know who the man is? Based on internet photos, I believe the assailant is one of the first three on this list:
Kenneth Bergman
Thomas P. Haynes, Alternate
Steven Bill, Alternate
Alexander Von Plinsky, IV, Chair
Eloise Clark, Vice Chair
Mayor George Hansel
Brian Reilly
Art Walker
Andrew Madison
If you know which of these people is “goon guy”, please post in the comments. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on this developing situation.
One year later from their threats against a local Asian cuisine restaurant, I’ve got a Christmas gift for the City of Keene gang – the video they didn’t want you to see where multi-term mayor Kendall Lane reveals his racist view about New Hampshire’s low crime rate:
The clip is from a just-released documentary called “Young Guns“, from a Keene State College student, Reece Dunn who was visiting from the UK. Anonymous sources inside the college informed me that when this video premiered at the Monadnock Film Festival in 2018, there was immediate action from the people calling themselves “the City of Keene” to squash it inside the college. However, the college couldn’t do much as Dunn had already left and returned back to the UK. Dunn ultimately decided to release his student film publicly on YouTube this holiday season. The short documentary is about a young man from a total gun prohibition state exploring a place where there is very little restriction on gun ownership.
In the process, Dunn ended up talking to Lane about growing up with the New Hampshire gun culture and ultimately asks Lane why New Hampshire’s violent crime rate is so low. Lane says, “I have theories about why New Hampshire is particularly safe…” then pauses a while before stuttering and stumbling and then finally says, “part of the reason New Hampshire is so safe is because quite honestly it, the state is 98% white. The state is very homogeneous. There’s not a lot of diversity in New Hampshire.”
Only advocates of peace are allowed to blog at FreeKeene.com
It’s a shocking statement from the same mayor who gave a speech at an anti-racism candlelight vigil in late August of 2017 after Keene resident Christopher Cantwell made international news for being a leader of the Charlottesville, Virgina white nationalist “Unite the Right” protests.
Lane’s ridiculous statement in Dunn’s documentary can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. He could believe that white people are more peaceful than people of other skin colors or he could believe that people of different races living nearby each other and mixing together leads to more violence. Whatever the interpretation, the beliefs he expressed sound a lot like Chris Cantwell’s white nationalist views that Lane appeared to speak against just two years ago.
Lane is wrong for the same reasons Cantwell is wrong. The racists can drag up their statistics and studies all they want to prove their claims about various groups of people, but to libertarians it is the individual who matters. Individuals from different parts of the country and world come here regardless of skin color, perhaps because they value the freedom they can have here. In particular, the freedom to defend one’s self, family, and community with whatever weapons one chooses.
New Hampshire attracts people who value freedom and the freedom to self-defense without having to beg for a government permission slip first is the reason we have more peace and dramatically less violence than other places. Even though New Hampshire has a state gang, they are less oppressive than other states in the area of gun ownership, and so we have less violent crime as a result.
Lane chose to not run for re-election this year and will end his term in January when he’ll be replaced by mayor-elect George Hansel. Hopefully this video will end any chances of Lane trying to run for other political offices. Meanwhile, Lane should stop listening to Chris Cantwell’s radio show and reconsider his dated, collectivist, racist views.
State Rep. Mike Sylvia is no stranger to civil disobedience.
In a slap in the face to the idea of property rights a robed man from Belknap’s “superior court” has ruled against A+ rated liberty state rep Mike Sylvia for living on “his” property. This week, nearly two months after a civil trial, James D O’Neill III issued a 15-page order, ruling in favor of the Belmont town gang, awarding them legal fees and further ordering Sylvia to no longer stay at “his” property.
I previously reported on this case here at Free Keene in 2018, but here’s a quick rundown on the case history: Sylvia purchased the property in question after the home burned down in 2009. The only standing building left was a garage. Sylvia parked an RV on the property as he worked on the property but soon found himself being stalked by a “zoning enforcer”, Steve Paquin. Paquin, apparently on orders from the city council to target Sylvia, would regularly drive by and creep on Sylvia, observing smoke coming from a chimney on the garage and footprints in the snow going from the RV to the garage. Paquin even speculated about Sylvia’s bathroom habits, his reports ultimately leading to the town gang issuing Sylvia threats demanding hundreds of dollars per day in fines for violating their precious zoning rules.
According to the “Town of Belmont” criminal enterprise, they have a right to destroy people’s lives and steal their wealth because some strangers wrote some words on paper and called it “zoning”. According to these arbitrary rules that none of us agreed to, the town gang says you must ask their permission before laying down to sleep in what you thought was your property, since you know, you paid for it with your hard-earned money.
Zoning thug Steve “Creeper” Paquin wants to watch you on your property.
But no, you don’t actually own your property. Ownership is proven by control. If you don’t control a thing, you don’t own it. Sylvia’s case proves clearly again that the group of strangers called “the state” actually owns all the property. You can’t do what you want without asking their permission, including simply existing on it. Asking permission is evidence that you are not exercising a right, but begging for a privilege. Begging is not the way of free people, nor the actions of an owner.
Sylvia acted like he owned the land. He, correctly, doesn’t believe he should have to ask permission to live a place he should have a right to be. Sadly, there are men with guns calling themselves “the Town of Belmont” and “State of New Hampshire” that have decided to force their beliefs down on Sylvia and all the rest of us who believe in property rights.
Judge O’Neill’s order prohibits Sylvia from “occupying the garage and/or recreational vehicle” unless he is given a permission slip from the town. He’s further prohibited from using a “water appliance or fixture” on the property until a “compliant septic system” is installed. The hundreds of dollars a day in fines the town has assessed against Sylvia and the property were ordered held in abeyance and will only be imposed if Sylvia disobeys the robed man. Sylvia has however been ordered to pay the town gang’s legal fees, for which they’ll present an invoice for some likely ridiculous amount.
What is the state gang’s excuse for their violence? Besides their obvious thirst for obedience, compliance, and control, they would argue that there’s some kind of danger to public health because the garage doesn’t have a septic system. Ignoring the fact that RVs have their own waste tanks that can be safely disposed of, the property is wooded. Sylvia even asked the creeping zoning thug during trial if he was aware of an old outhouse that was in the woods. Even if there isn’t an outhouse and Sylvia was pooping directly in the woods, so what? Are we supposed to believe that human feces is somehow more dangerous to the neighbors’ property than all the bear, moose, dog, and other animal dung that’s left throughout the woods?
Robed man James D O’Neill III says the state owns your property.
Sylvia believes that he was targeted by the town gang specifically because of his actions as a state representative. One less-discussed responsibility of New Hampshire’s state reps is they also make up the “County Convention” which controls the county taxes. Given he’s an award-winning state rep, rated A+ for liberty votes, Sylvia is a threat to the county’s budget as he will not vote to raise taxes. Therefore he was targeted by the town gang for retaliation.
Arguing this in court didn’t help, of course, because the man in the robe is paid by the same state gang that targeted Sylvia in the first place. But no, that’s not a conflict of interest. Sylvia also argued that Paquin couldn’t prove he was actually sleeping or pooping on the property, but that doesn’t matter in civil court, where the court decides based on the “preponderance of the evidence”, not the criminal court standard of reasonable doubt. Therefore, the testimony of the sole creepy witness was sufficient for the court to rule against Sylvia.
Zoning is a nightmare for anyone who believes in property rights and the only solution is to abolish it entirely statewide. We’re going to need a lot more libertarian activists in New Hampshire before that can be done. Meanwhile, Sylvia has literally been kicked off what he believed was his own property by the people calling themselves “the state”, and thrown out into the cold.
Sylvia told me in an exclusive interview, “Property rights, according to the judge don’t really exist”. He says he was unable to find any cases where property rights have been looked at by the NH Supreme Court and is not sure whether or not he will be appealing the decision. He’ll be considering future action legislatively to address the corruption in town governments. You can read his response to the ruling here on his blog. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for any further developments in this case.
