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.
Liberdon is the Libertarian/Voluntarist Server running Mastodon
There has been a lot of controversy recently over social media websites like Twitter swinging their ban hammer on personalities with opinions they don’t like. As a libertarian, I believe in property rights and so Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the like should certainly be free to ban people for whatever reason they want. I also believe in the free market’s potential reactions to bad decisions by business owners, which include boycott and competition.
Thankfully, the competition has arrived! Mastodon is a decentralized social media replacement for Twitter and it does an excellent job. I recently joined the “Liberdon” server intended for libertarians and voluntarists. Not only is Mastodon decentralized, in that anyone who wants to can run a server, but it’s also “federated”. Federated means your server can be connected to all the other Mastodon servers, that is so long as the other servers want to be connected to you. Each server sets its own rules for which other servers they’ll federate with. So if the NAZIs or Communists start a server, no one has to link up to them – the market decides instead of a centralized corporation like Twitter. However, even if no other servers federate with, say Chris Cantwell‘s server (I don’t think he has one – just as an example), he can still run his server and hate-filled bigots and racists can join it and talk to each other. Of course, each server can be controlled and its policy set by its administrator, so intra-server censorship is still possible (most servers prohibit spam, for instance), but given you are free to start your own server and set your own policy, you can’t be censored if you start your own platform.
If you are a liberty-minded person, protect yourself from censorship and join Liberdon and the “fediverse” today! If If you aren’t liberty-minded, but want to get a Mastodon account, you can start by picking a server and signing up wherever you feel most welcome. Visit Mastodon.social for their offical site.
Regarding the AFL-CIO’s survey, (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) a pro-union group, I am pro-union, but I’m against coercion. Unions have for too long looked to government to force their way on individuals who do not wish to participate. Neither unions nor businesses should be using government coercion to get their way. I support market-based mechanisms for workers to ensure better conditions, like unionizing and collective bargaining, boycott, protest, and word-of-mouth. I am opposed to the use of the state to target opponents, however, and union groups like the AFL-CIO have embraced state coercion, so while they have good intentions, their means are corrupt. Coercion has unintended consequences.
The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy questionnaire appears to want to use government coercion to force businesses to give certain benefits to workers. Individuals should be free to organize for better employment terms, but not use the aggressive coercion of the state, so I couldn’t agree with much of what they were asking. Using violent monopolies to get your way is morally bankrupt and will only make our society worse off. If you want change, find a way to get it by persuasion or peaceful market pressure. Don’t use the violence of “the state”.
Here’s my campaign website where you can learn more about my near-zero budget campaign.
Vehicle inspection is nothing more than a racket for auto shops being operated by the people calling themselves the “State of New Hampshire”. As Free Keene blogger Conan Salada points out during his testimony at trial this week, the auto repair shop he went to gave him quotes for what Conan determined were unnecessary repairs in order to pass the vehicle inspection. This happens to people all the time and allows unscrupulous auto repair shops to take advantage of ignorant drivers.
But wait, don’t we need mandatory yearly inspections to keep cars as safe as possible on the roads? Actually, no. Not all really cold states have mandatory vehicle inspections and there’s no evidence those states’ roads are any more dangerous. Turns out, the market handles safety just fine.
Meanwhile, the crime gang known as the State of New Hampshire continues to prosecute and convict people for taking care of their cars how they want. Here’s the full trial video from this week in Keene District Court. Conan is ultimately found guilty and sentenced to a little community service:
Border Patrol Agent Salutes Camera at NH Internal Oppressive Checkpoint
On Friday, several Forkfest 2018 attendees drove an hour South of Roger’s Campground to I-93 around Woodstock, NH – the site of the repeating temporary internal Border Patrol immigration checkpoints. Based on activist reports, the checkpoint appeared to have been operating that day from noon until 7pm. As is typical of these checkpoints, they were stopping every car to ask occupants if they are “US Citizens“. They also had a dog they were walking up and down the line of waiting cars.
As it turns out, a car full of people with video cameras wasn’t welcome in their secondary screening area. After one agent orders me to pull into their secondary screening for refusing to answer questions, his commanding officer intervenes before I can even cross over a single lane of traffic, and even apologizes for not wasting more of our time with their invasive screening! In hindsight, I should have told him to apologize to all the cars without camera-toting occupants for wasting everyone’s time with their oppressive police state checkpoint. Here’s the ridiculous video:
No one in the car was planning to answer the agents’ questions, given one has a right to remain silent (that the US Supreme Court has now required be invoked in police encounters). Obedience to tyrants only encourages them. Besides, as someone who believes in liberty, I don’t believe in government borders. Peaceful people should be allowed to enter a free country. Of course, we all know by now the United States is not a free country, and in fact has been dropping on the various international freedom rankings.
Also this weekend, NH Libertarian Party candidate for US Congress NH-2, Justin O’Donnell also traversed the checkpoint while live streaming to facebook. His friend in the passenger seat obediently answered the agent’s inquiry while O’Donnell debated with the agents, ultimately admitting to having been born in Boston, MA. Prior to this, the agent threatened to detain O’Donnell until he answered the question. (more…)
Great news! As of 2016’s election, the Libertarian Party of NH regained ballot status equal to the Rs and Ds for the first time in two decades! I’d previously been registered as a Democrat for the purposes of running for office but this year I made the switch to Libertarian, since it was the first time I’ve been able to do that since moving here in 2006.
That’s the short version of the story. There’s more, however. In addition to re-registering to vote as a Libertarian, I also modified the voter registration form to reflect my “state citizen” status and put the Keene City Clerk and Secretary of State of NH offices on notice of that.
What is a “state citizen”, you ask? Good question. Here’s my understanding, which the clerk and S.O.S. didn’t contradict. I present to you the notice I sent to the clerk and S.O.S. and the video of my visit to the clerk’s office to change my voter registration and notice them of my state citizen status, under duress. Below the video, I’ll discuss in more detail.
First, beware that there are a lot of “paytriots” out there who will sell you information purported to get you out of the state system if you just file the right papers in the right order in the right places. It’s all a bunch of crap, from what I can tell. If you try their methods and they don’t work, they’ll just claim you did something wrong. You didn’t study enough, didn’t buy the advanced course, etc. (more…)
